Local clinic hears call of the wild, rehabs animals
Oct. 31—ASHLAND — It's not enough to treat pets at Guardian Animal Medical Center; the vet treats wild animals, too.
M.J. Wixsom got interested in wildlife rehabilitation while studying veterinary medicine at the University of Missouri and working with the Raptor Rehab Unit.
"I raised mice for the hawks and owls. I also met my falconry sponsor and got my falconry license," Wixsom said, noting she interned at Treehouse Wildlife Center in Dow, Illinois, as an onsite caretaker.
At her clinic, she said the kinds of animals she gets varies with the time of year, but she gets the most in the spring and summer. She said she doesn't know how many animals she has rehabbed, but she said she takes all kinds of birds of prey.
"We transfer bald eagles to Louisville. They have better facilities for eagles than we do," she said. "We also take various mammals. We take bats, even baby bats. We do not have the resources to rehabilitate baby rabbits, squirrels and birds on a regular basis. If needed, we will teach people how to rehabilitate them or humanely put them to sleep. There are some that just need a safe place to be released and we do that."
Different factors affect what the clinic can take in. She said there is a rabies lockdown statewide, which keeps the clinic from taking foxes, coyotes and other animals that can carry rabies. She also cannot take in adult deer or dangerous adult mammals, but can take in fawns, baby groundhogs and other juvenile animals.
In fact, the clinic took in 11 fawns in June.
"Some were in need of care; others would have been better off left where they were," she said. "There is no day care in the wild. Mom has to eat to make milk for the kid(s). She will park a fawn under a bush, in weeds or under a tree. The fawn knows not to move or make a sound. People find the fawn and assume that it has been abandoned."
For example, someone brought in a fawn that had been alone for 24 hours, but later found the mother, who was looking for her baby.
"The fawn was released and the mother took it to a safer place," Wixsom said. "Unless the mother is known to be dead or the fawn is crying, it should be left alone. If it is in an unsafe place, it can be moved."
Turtles are often brought to the clinic for shell repair, but few bring snakes into the clinic.
Wixsom said raccoons aren't accepted because they can carry rabies and a dangerous roundworm that can be deadly to humans, especially children.
"Raccoons are also very smart and once they learn to manipulate humans for food, they will enter houses and attack humans and pets," she said. "They can return a long way if trapped and released. Maybe up to 25 miles. Raccoon rehabilitation should only be done by experienced facilities that are dedicated to keeping them wild."
For the sake of wildlife, Wixsom encourages people not to litter and not to release pets into the environment.
"I rehabbed a water turtle with over a dozen hooks and plastic around her foot," she said. "Pets released into the back yard can carry disease and parasites that weren't a problem before. Rabbits, guinea pigs, and turtles should not be released in the wild."
Wixsom obviously has deep feelings for all animals, but in her years of rehabbing, a female hawk named Jim who had a wing ligament injury created a special connection.
"It took a lot of training to get Jim to be able to be released," she said. "I think of Jim and look for her when I drive by that area where she was released."
She said she treated an otter that learned the leash meant a swim and it learned not to bite Wixsom.
"I worked with a baby bat for five weeks and went out and sat in the driveway and cried until well in the night when he died," she recalled.
Not all animals recover.
"It is sad, but sometimes it is kinder to euthanize," she said. "Release is the goal, but animals that cannot be released almost always have to be euthanized."
Rehabbing wild animals is a costly endeavor, and the clinic gets no state or federal funding.
"We get some donations, but we spend far more than the donations we get," Wixsom said. "It is my way of giving back to the community, but we estimate that we spend over $30,000 a year in wildlife rehab."
She said where a protected species is involved, she might get help from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, but moneywise, she sometimes gets $5 and $10 donations, which she said are appreciated.
"Marathon matched a client's donation for a few hundred dollars. That was a nice surprise," she said.
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