Wildlife Care Clinic

The Wildlife Care Clinic (or WCC) is a non-profit organization here at Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. It was established in 1984 to provide current students experience in wildlife medicine, and a place for members of the community to bring injured wildlife. Education is also an important aspect of the clinic. While there are 1-2 veterinarians who oversee it, the majority of the clinic's function is overseen by undergraduate staff members and volunteers. It is currently housed in 2 adjacent rooms in the lower level of the building, next to canine rehab and the student parking lot, and there are no plans to move it despite the renovations to the small animal hospital.

A bit on volunteering. Weekday shifts are split into 2-hour blocks: 7am-9am, 9am-11am, and so on until the last shift ends at 7pm. There are 2 volunteers to a shift. Weekend shifts are from 9am-12pm, and up to 3 people may volunteer. New volunteers are required to attend a raptor-oriented wetlab within a year of starting; one is held each semester. In them the staff guide volunteers through bandaging techniques, where to give fluids, where to give injections, how to evaluate health, and so on using the cadavers of deceased patients.

Mornings and weekends are devoted to cleaning** as well as moving, medicating, and feeding animals. On weekday mornings some of these may be left for later shifts. Afternoons are quieter and are more geared toward the veterinary side of things--physical exams, radiographs, surgery, etc. New patients may be admitted any time throughout the day.

**The cleaning process (for the main room) has several stages: First, new cages are set up (the usual setup is a mat, perch, and water bowl) and current patients and residents are rotated into them. Food intake is also recorded on the animals' charts. Second, dirty cages are dismantled and everything (cage, perch, mat) is scrubbed down with a disinfectant and rinsed off. Dirty dishes are placed in the sink. Third, the remaining disinfectant is dumped over the floors so that they can be scrubbed and squeegeed.

My experience. I was a junior in undergrad the first time I volunteered at the WCC (spring of 2007). I was able to get in maybe 5 weeks before summer began; this did not amount to much experience hour-wise, but served as a good orientation to the workings of the clinic. When I returned to Ames in the fall I signed up for Saturdays (or maybe it was Sundays) so that I could get more experience. This was a success, so when spring rolled around I was volunteering both Saturday and Sunday.

The staff were good about showing us how to do things, and letting us try things we were comfortable with. Bandaging, fluids, moving/handling residents, handling patients, etc. In any case, some of the more memorable patients were 2 or so bald eagles (not a common site in the clinic), a saw-whet owl (rare in Iowa), a goose that had projectile diarrhea over one of the staff but managed to miss me, and a coyote that fell down an elevator shaft at a construction site in Des Moines (she lived, had surgery to repair her broken legs and pelvis, and was released in an undisclosed location).

I started volunteering again when I moved back to Ames last July.

Now on the internship. Last summer was the first time that the WCC had hired interns (yes, that's right - hiring. It's paid!), one undergrad and one vet student. The duration of the internship and hours available to interns have varied each year--and will likely change again next year. Summer is usually the lean time in terms of volunteers (this is a not-so-subtle hint to anyone in/around Ames interested in the WCC) so we're encouraged to come in outside of our paid shifts.

Interns have basically the same duties as the regular staff; the biggest differences are fewer hours and not being on call. Interns clean (there are some parts of animal husbandry even the staff can't escape), feed animals, check in patients, help with treatments, and so on. We are expected to learn the same skills that the regular staff are trained in--performing physical exams, administering fluids, entering information into the computer, and so on. If you have any clinical veterinary experience then you will have seen or done similar procedures; it just takes a bit of imagination and extrapolation to transfer the skills to wildlife.

There's a lot of stuff I haven't included in this, but this novella should suffice for now. I'm sure this won't be the last time I post about the clinic.