Emergency Road Kits

Emergency Road Kits For Wildlife Rehabilitators

Introduction
Many rehabilitators who do capture and transport-type work cover a large geographic area, and there can often be a significant time gap between picking up an animal and getting it to a veterinarian or a wildlife care center for emergency care. The author, who covers a county that is almost the size of the state of Connecticut, has found that an emergency road kit facilitates capture, transport, and field-treatment of the most pressing conditions (i.e., shock, concussion, bleeding, fractures, and eye injuries).
This article presupposes that the rehabilitator or volunteer doing the transport is at least trained in the basic skills and has sufficient experience with local species to be able to estimate weights in order to calculate dosages. Further, it is presupposed that the rehabilitator has an on-going professional relationship with a licensed veterinarian who is the source of the medical supplies listed and who would develop the policies that direct the rehabilitator in medical emergencies.

Providing On-Scene First Aid
It is not the intention of this article to address capture and restraint techniques; however, the equipment listed has proven to be helpful. Nets, with varying lengths of poles, can be purchased. Small-meshed nets, or a pillowcase on a hoop, is preferable for birds in order to minimize feather damage.

Simply treating shock (warmth, steroids/fluids with B vitamins) at the capture site, rather than 45 minutes to an hour later at a facility, can mean the difference between life and death in a critical case. Since steroids take approximately 15 minutes to reach effective blood levels (and this time frame varies with the type of steroid, its formulation, and route of administration), administering them to a head-trauma patient at the pick-up site can limit swelling and resultant damage to the central nervous system. It is important to note that fluids are given concurrently with steroids in order to help maintain reasonable blood pressure as vasodilation occurs with their use, as well as with the warmth provided to the animal in transport.

Immediate immobilization of fractures can keep a closed break from becoming open and help prevent sharp bone ends from further disrupting muscle tissue, tendons, or blood vessels. A quick flushing and cleaning of an open fracture or wound, followed by an ointment dressing, can help keep exposed bone, tendons, or tissue from drying out. Flushing debris from an eye can help limit corneal damage and reduce the on-going pain of having debris in an eye.

Capture and Restraint Equipment:
1 pr welders gloves
1 pr lightweight leather gloves
1 salmon net or equivalent for mammals
1 herring or other small-mesh net (even a pillow case) for birds
1 large towel or blanket
1 small towel
Nested cardboard boxes/pet-carriers of various sizes, with newspapers or toweling for the bottom, and towels to cover

Medical supples:
1 hot-water bottle (or an empty gallon jug)
2" Vet Wrap2" Vet Wrap
2" x 2" gauze pads
3" x 3" Telfa3" x 3" Telfa pads
Fluids (e.g., 2½% Dextrose in Lactated Ringers or equivalent)
Gavage tubes (sizes 8, 12, 14, 16)
Dexemethasone Sodium Phosphate or Azium
Injectible Vitamin B-complex
Sterile saline (for lavage of wounds)
Antibiotic eye ointment (without steroids) such as Chloramphenicol
Water-soluble antibiotic ointment (such as Betadyne, Furacin, or Nolvasan)
1cc syringes with 25 gauge by 5/8" needles for medications (.3, .5, 1cc insulin syringes with 2rom WIldlife Journal, Vol. 15, N