NEW ARC

North East Wildlife Animal Rehabilitation Coalition is a 501(c)3, non-profit organization. We are a group of licensed wildlife rehabilitators, and these are the tales of the injured and orphaned animals we care for until they are able to be released back into the wild.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Tash gets xrays

Tash is being as good a patient as Vin was thank goodness! He knew he was in for an unpleasant ride when he got put in the carrier again! LOLBut he was great for the shot of anesthesia and quickly and quietly went to sleep so we could check him out. He's almost there........

....and down for the count!
As you can see the injured foot is very swollen......and painful as well.

After examining him he gets his x-rays then back into his carrier to wake up.

It appears all the little bones in his foot between the toes and the ankle were crunched up somehow. There is an old bite wound there so most likely someone bit him hard enough to crunch it.....coonies have a pit bull kind of power to their jaws so it's very possible. The injury itself on top of the fact that it is a month old is not a canditate for surgery. Right now all we can do is start him on antibiotics good for bone infections and give him time to rest and heal. The bones will most likely heal fused in some fashion, and although it won't be normal, I hope it will be good enough to use and function normally for the most part. He's not using it now because it's too painful so hopefully once the swelling is down and the antibiotics take effect he will start putting weight on it and progress from there.
He is pretty unfazed by the whole thing! Once I got him back to the pen he wasn't even out of the carrier and he was grabbing chow off the ground and inhaling it......priorities ya know.....LOL!
He and Vin are best buds now, enjoying each others company and sharing the same den box! Both are very good natured boys and it will probably be no problem mixing them in with the rest of the gang soon.....the 5 I kept for the winter were his step-siblings anyway until I took him away with the others to be released. It should be a happy reunion for them!

Tash and I finally reach an understanding about him taking his meds!
The antibiotic used is very bitter.... but luckily Laurie had a compounding pharmacy whip some up in tutti fruity flavor and he has since been quite agreeable about the twice daily dose he has to take. (Thank god for my sake! He would have won every battle I'm sure, because he definitely won the first 2 with the original bitter version!)



3 comments:

  1. Oooh, poor little Tash. I hope the tutti fruity flavored meds work quickly.
    Glad he and Vin are getting along great now.

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  2. Heal well Tash! The anesthetic must have sapped a lot of his energy away. At least he has company Vin (companies to come) and has a lot of food and space and toys and ....... MOM!

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  3. oh that hand :( I hope he heals well too- Tash and Vin are so darn cute together. I must share a little of the raccoon spirit because even when I'm deathly ill the first thing I think of is food too :) Such a cutie pie!!

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