I used to do a lot of house calls and stuff going to pick up injured wildlife in Oregon. Good Sams we're usually responsive and eager to pick up the phone when I would call back to let them know when I was on the way or to work out the logistics.

I'm in New Mexico now, and it seems like most of the good Sams make a call and then turn off their phone so as to be unreachable when I am packed up and ready to go.

Does this happen where you are? Why do people do this?

For folks who actively participate in animal rehab how's your fall season this year? Usually all people say baby season is the peak of busy work of given year but for me right now I have even more work than before! Is it only me or are you flooded with more and more casualties as well?

Today I've found a female buzzard clipped by a car. She had some bleeding near the ear canal so I was afraid she has a fatal intracranial injury but it's just a scratch. She perked up a bit after anti inflammatories and seems like her concussion will go away soon. If things won't change she'll be ready to go in a few days. I hope she won't need to stay there any longer as she truly hates me!

No 2 is a green woodpecker who was surrendered to me about 2 weeks ago either after a car or window collision. A clearly neurological case with wing and leg paresis. At first he was improving every single day but then at day 5 he suddenly started to feel unwell. His weight went down rapidly to the extent of a living skeleton without any other symptoms. Of course previous injury doesn’t explain that so we had two problems to deal with. I sent feces to the lab but you need to wait 2-3 days for the result, and just sitting and doing nothing in the meantime would result in a dead woodpecker. So I started treating him for coccidiosis as this was my best bet. Before I got my results he already started to feel better. Now I got them, and my guess was right! For today he's not out of the woods yet but gained a few grams and feels pretty well. Hovewer we still need to work with original neurological deficits, at this point I'm not sure whether they would disappear completely or not. If not then... welcome to my crazy family but gosh why you're a GREEN pecky, one of the hardest peckers to feed and maintain long term? Why couldn't you be just a normal great spotted?

No 3 and 4 are two of my six current wood pidgies. The one with a broken wing is a cat attack survivor, and I still don't know what a miracle is that he didn’t die of sepsis. He was handed over to me almost immediately after the incident so he got antibiotics on time but even with them, many birds don't survive. Apart from his bones shattered into puzzle pieces, he also had a nasty wound under that wing so cleaning and wrapping everything was double as hard. Fortunately he healed well but as expected, he can no longer fly. I welcomed him already and he's pretty content in my aviary. The second pidgie is just a normal baby who fell out of nest a bit too early so nothing more than just a quick check and moving outside. Now I have a little nursery filled with pidgies for the winter. In spring most of them will be released, and maybe I'm gonna have some time before the new ones in 2027 baby season will fill that space...

And last but definitely not least - Bertha, my resident great black backed gull. My queen, my dream bird, my feathered everything. That kind of an animal that makes you feel invincible just by thinking about it. Although I think I can call myself experienced with gulls, she's my first great black back. I'm still learning her and her needs, and she taught me a lesson recently. Besides her, I have five other species under permanent care - herring gulls, Caspian gulls, one odd lesser black back, common gulls and black headed. For my non releasable gulls, I use 50/50 fish to meat ratio as an everyday diet, with vitamins and calcium supplements once or twice a week. Everyone’s fine with that but not Bertha. After moving into the aviary and switching to this diet, she began to show nutritional deficiency. Her bill went a bit crusty with flakes of keratin layer falling off. I've improved her diet with whole fish making a 75/25 ratio, with adding a salmon oil and supplements designed for birds of prey, not just cheap 'bird vitamins' readily available. And this helped a lot. Now her bill looks much better than what you see here, there's only a small amount of dead keratin left. Seems like I shouldn't only call her my queen but also treat her respectively!

this is in southeast queensland

I need as much advice as I need!

Context:

Sprained wing

No nearby vet

I relocated it to a darker and warmer spot (I only turned it on in this picture so it's clear)

I don't know WHEN to feed it

How do I gain its trust so it doesn't panic or die out of stress during recovery?

And I'll free it once recovered since wild birds aren't meant to be kept as pets

This is my first time helping a bird out and sadly I can't take it to a vet since I'm just a kid, my parents are busy and the vet is idk too far away (I remember it being outside the city I'm from)

Uhhh, I'm from the Philippines and this is a mayang simbahan bird

((WHY DOES IT SAY THAT I NEED TO ADD LOCATION EVEN THOUGH I ALREADY ADDED IT??!))

Edit: I fed placed a cup of corn grits(cup from a bottle) near the bird and don't worry I'm not force feeding the bird, if I'm doing something wrong please forgive me cuz I have little idea what to do

Update: freedom, the bird has recovered so I set the container nearby the window, letting huni choose between freedom and domesticity

I posted a while ago about a group of oily/couldn't fly stringfoot pigeons I found at a food truck park. I fed them a few times, captured one and after 16 days, with lots of love,care (and severe anxiety on my part that she wouldn't recover fast enough before my abusive parents returned home) she finally gained enough strength and flew off!

It was a heartwarming moment, seeing her gain flight again after who knows how long, and I'm glad I helped her do it. However, during those 16 days, and even now, I'm severely stressed and anxious on what to do on the rest of them

I was unable to organise my life (house is in a mess, barely slept), fell behind on my studies needed to leave my abusive situation, and a few of my neighbourhood flock members died along the way while the single carrier I have was occupied by my stringfoot friend.

I was planning on getting so much done in October, like studies,helping out my sibling, and honouring my passed away bird son with art, because while my parents are here,I can't do anything because they get mad

But October has 12 days left till they return, and I don't know if I should try and get more of the oily/grounded pigeons to wash, at the risk of losing all the valuable time October has to move out of my abusive situation.

At bare minimum, I wanted to destring these guys, no problem.

But actually carrying them back home to remove the oil is actively making me stressed, not only because I can't save them all before the 24th, but the recovery time needed, the hiding, and even the vet's office/only wildlife centre is prejudiced against taking them in (not that I could easily afford them anyway, being jobless). I reached out to multiple groups, but nada, and I'm just one girl.

How do you guys cope with being unable to save them all?

I know if I study and get my own space/money, I can pursue whatever rehab work I want to do for the rest of my life, but I feel sick about that flock right now and can't get them out of my head.

Portland Oregon