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Jun. 17th, 2008 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pacificpikachuIt gets really hard not get discouraged sometimes as a rehabber. :(
I got four calls this morning--on one the person hasn't called me back, two the bird died before/when they brought it to me, and the fourth...
I got in this TINY TINY TINY little baby bird. It was so small I thought it was a hummingbird at first, but I think it was probably a bushtit. The lady's cat brought it in, but it really didn't seem injured at all. I don't think it was injured. I got it warm, gave it some antibiotics, it was eating and looking perky and great... And then I think I aspirated it because it was having trouble breathing after I fed it. Aspirating a bird is really easy to do, especially with a bird that's smaller than my thumb. Well, I checked on it again and it seemed to have recovered. I fed it really gently and left it alone for another fifteen minutes. I put it in a sunny area of the sunroom because I was concerned it would get too cold, but I covered it up with a towel so it wasn't in direct sunlight.
Well, I just went out there and discovered it crawled out from under the towel and--within the fifteen minutes I was gone--clearly overheated and died.
I feel like it's completely my fault. It is my fault. I mean, maybe it would have died anyway, but it was looking perfect and like it had a great chance of surviving.
I'll be fine--I've dealt with this sort of thing before--but I still feel so awful about it. We all make mistakes, even when I've been rehabbing for as long as I have, but I feel like I was just so careless about this little guy. It can be hard making mistakes when your mistakes cost a life.
I'm so sorry. I'll do better next time. That's all I can do, because regretting it isn't going to get me anywhere. Still, it's hard not to feel upset. Losing the turkeys, then the towhee, then this little guy... It's difficult sometimes. I just have to keep going. That's all I can do.
I got four calls this morning--on one the person hasn't called me back, two the bird died before/when they brought it to me, and the fourth...
I got in this TINY TINY TINY little baby bird. It was so small I thought it was a hummingbird at first, but I think it was probably a bushtit. The lady's cat brought it in, but it really didn't seem injured at all. I don't think it was injured. I got it warm, gave it some antibiotics, it was eating and looking perky and great... And then I think I aspirated it because it was having trouble breathing after I fed it. Aspirating a bird is really easy to do, especially with a bird that's smaller than my thumb. Well, I checked on it again and it seemed to have recovered. I fed it really gently and left it alone for another fifteen minutes. I put it in a sunny area of the sunroom because I was concerned it would get too cold, but I covered it up with a towel so it wasn't in direct sunlight.
Well, I just went out there and discovered it crawled out from under the towel and--within the fifteen minutes I was gone--clearly overheated and died.
I feel like it's completely my fault. It is my fault. I mean, maybe it would have died anyway, but it was looking perfect and like it had a great chance of surviving.
I'll be fine--I've dealt with this sort of thing before--but I still feel so awful about it. We all make mistakes, even when I've been rehabbing for as long as I have, but I feel like I was just so careless about this little guy. It can be hard making mistakes when your mistakes cost a life.
I'm so sorry. I'll do better next time. That's all I can do, because regretting it isn't going to get me anywhere. Still, it's hard not to feel upset. Losing the turkeys, then the towhee, then this little guy... It's difficult sometimes. I just have to keep going. That's all I can do.
