Help Rescue Rufus the Bobcat

by Contributing to His Medical Fund

The baby bobcat came in to the SC Wildlife Rehabber, JoAnne on Dec 4 weighing 4.2 lbs, with a broken jaw, split canine and comatose.   They figured he had been hit by a car, but couldn’t believe that he survived.

After he woke up from the coma he was pretty loopy, but they figured the impact had done brain damage.   They had to wire the jaw shut, tube feed him and removed the broken canine.

He now weighs 10 lbs, is eating solids on his own and doing much better despite walking into walls and getting stuck in corners. If he comes to a corner, he just sits down and waits, and waits, and waits, as if he cannot figure out that he is not trapped.

He was having bad and frequent seizures, and those subsided for a while, but on March 21 he had the worst one yet. Thanks to the SkipAHolics on UStream who watch him day and night online for us, we were alerted within moments of the seizure. Five callers contacted our Operations manger in a 1 minute time frame!

He was rushed to Ehrlich Animal Hospital and then Blue Pearl and now is scheduled for an MRI.

Our vet donates all of her time, but the specialists he needs and the MRI are estimated to be as much as $3,500 and that is before they will even be able to prescribe treatment, so we have set up a fund for him here:

http://www.bigcatrescue.biz/ Thanks for your help! Anything we raise over and above the estimate will be used for funding the medical expenses for Tommie the female, blind bobcat kitten below and our rehab program.

We have set up a UStream web cam at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bigcathospitalwhere you can watch both Rufus and Tommie as we rotate the camera between them.

Tommie the Bobcat Has More Tests Done

Tommie’s eyes are looking worse so more blood and fecal samples were take today to see if there is anything we can learn from them to help her.   Jamie pointed out that just the daily care for two blind bobcats is more difficult than anything we have had to do because none of our tricks work on them.

Their cages have to be cleaned daily and the way you usually get a bobcat to shift from the dirty side to the clean side is to cover the clean side so it is a place that looks safe and dark. They move over and we can shut the door to get out the dirty linens. Blind bobcats can’t tell which side is safe and dark.

New welding gloves come in handy dealing with feisty Tommie girl !

Tommie the bobcat's eyes are looking worse and more tests needed

Home made cushioning to keep the gas in the mask for the bobcat

Recently donated pulse oximeter helps us monitor their heartbeat

Tommie the bobcat needs more blood work done to assess her issues

Interns create a platter of omnivore food fit for a vegan

Intern Amber feeding the Bearcats

Attack of the Killer Bees

Q. How do you tell Africanized “killer bees” from our ordinary European honey bees?

A. You cannot tell them apart from their appearance, but beekeepers recognize Africanized bees quickly by their behavior. For example, if you disturbed a colony of European honey bees, the bees would tend to stay close to the hive to defend their colony. If you disturbed a colony of Africanized bees, however, the bees would explode from the hive to defend it from the outside by flying all around you, like a cloud, persistently trying to intimidate you.

At first Jonathan did not think that these were killer bees, but once he got a little closer he found that they were VERY aggressive and he was stung several times though all of his protective gear.  Carole was filming at a distance and got chased to her truck by the angry bees.

The nest was approximately 30,000 killer bees and they were about to swarm, so it was great timing that our regular exterminator, Jim Williamson of Bug Smashers noticed the colony yesterday.

Jonathan B. Simkins B.S.c Entomologist AllFloridaBeeRemoval.com

Call 813-930-BUGS if you have a stinging insect problem