13 May 2009
We had a call about a roe deer wandering around in the middle of a road near Handcross last week.
The young adult female was concussed, disorientated and underweight. The motorist who stopped was able to carry the deer back to his car. After driving to several animal centres that were unable to take the deer in they decided to call Oathall Veterinary Practice in Haywards Heath. WRAS was called and collected the deer from the veterinary practice.
The deer was certainly not in a condition that could be transported to the deer hospital at St Tiggywinkles safely so she was bedded down in the isolation stable at the Sussex Horse Rescue Trust at Uckfield.
The following day veterinary surgeon Chris Hall from Henley House Vets in Uckfield visited to help assess her. As she was underweight we were worried that she might have been suffering for several days concussed so we decided to give her 24 hours to see if she would show any signs of improvement.
Over the next day and a half Kathy and I spent time helping to medicate the deer and initially we encouraged her to drink by getting her to lap vital fluids from a large syringe.
Kathy was also able to encourage her to eat by placing bramble leaves in her mouth which she started to chew and swallow on her own. We were pleased with her improvements and decided to give her more time assessing her every 12 hours.
The following day she was taking fluids and chewing bramble leaves for herself.
However, Kathy and I were saddened on the fourth day to find her dead in the stable. Roe deer are very unpredictable deer. Underweight animals that have not eaten for a while find it difficult to restart and sometimes their systems shut down, unable to cope.
Losing casualties which you put so much hard work into is difficult and heartbreaking at times for our volunteers, but you have to take the rough with the smooth. WRAS has a policy of treating all casualties as individuals and making decisions based on the needs of the individual animals regardless of species and conservation status.
When a casualty dies we want to know we have done our best by it and we encourage all our carers to always review the treatment and whether it was fair to treat the casualty and whether it was treated right.
If there are any problems or concerns raised, they are talked over with experts in that particular field, be that a veterinary surgeon or specialist rehabilitation centre or organisation.
ON A more positive note the black-backed gull from Pevensey Bay has been released, along with numerous other gulls that have been found injured around the Eastbourne and Hastings area, including a couple of the shot victims.
I would like to thank everyone who donated at Asda Crumbles, Eastbourne, at the weekend and a big thank-you to all the WRAS volunteer fundraisers who came along to help.
This is so different from when I used to stand outside supermarkets for eight to ten hours at a time frequently on my own! I really appreciate everyone's help and support. I'll let you know how much was raised in next week's column.
Do you shop online at all? I do occasionally and I've started raising funds for WRAS using www.easyfundraising.org.uk to do so.
It's a great site and once logged in and you have chosen East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service as your chosen charity you can click on the links to hundreds of stores, such as Tesco, Next, Amazon and PC World, etc, and a percentage will go to WRAS.
While you're online, why not check out www.twitter.com/eastsussexwras or www.myspace.com/wildlifeambulance or even our YouTube channel www.youtube.
com/user/eastsussexwras where you can see video footage of some of our rescues and rehabilitation work.
You can also check out our main website www.wildlifeambulance.org which has plenty of advice and information plus you can make a donation online too.
Last week we were called to a massive noctule bat grounded with an injured wing on a drive at Herstmonceux.
This was rushed across to the Sussex Bat Group, which is now treating and looking after it.
These bats are amazing creatures and WRAS would like to thank the Sussex Bat Group and Jenny Clark at the Sussex Bat Hospital for all their help and support.
Don't forget that I undertake talks for all sorts of groups, from schools and youth groups to Cubs and Scouts, plus groups such as the WI, U3A, women's fellowships, gardening and dog groups and much more.
I have various talks from a general WRAS presentation to more educational talks varying from 30 minutes to three hours.
To make a booking e-mail me at trevor@wildlifeambulance.org or ring me via the rescue line.
East Sussex WRAS is a voluntary organisation which relies on donations. We do not receive funding from government nor the RSPCA. Anyone wishing to make a donation should contact The Treasurer at PO Box 2148, Seaford, East Sussex, BN25 9DE. www.wildlifeambulance.org 24-hour rescue line: 07815 078 234
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Weather for Eastbourne
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 13 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: West
