Hello and thanks once again for your help. I am a bird carer for Wires , however I was wanting to know is there anywhere in NSW that has bird work shops on specific birds. I find our general vets and please dont be insulted if you are a vet, are not quite confident with wild birds and I have a ton of questions to ask. Wires bless them dont offer too indepth courses and they cant as they have so much to cover.
For example I am noticing with gaping chicks only, that I get them , they are fine, then after 24/36hours they develop what I call the death smell. Its very rank and smells like a decaying corpse. and its comes from inside through their skin.
As soon as I get a whiff I know the bird will die within 24hours and its a slow death. Today I took my first one to be Euthenaised as I couldnt see how proloning the enevitable will be any good for the chick. I have lost a baby magpie, 2 noisy minahs, a satin bower bird like this. I am an retired nurse so I have a good grasp of human medicine which interestingly has a lot of basic similiarities to fauna. Some have had puncture marks but they are healed and the vet I deal with assures me it wouldnt be a cat as they would be dead within hours.
Any suggestions on a workshops and b medical workshops or contacts with a mentor who can answer all my questions would be great.
Google Dr Anne Fowler, she does some fantastic workshops around the country (meaning Australia) for different wildlife groups (I have done one on Bird rehab but she also does one on baby birds and also sells the notes for the workshops). If you contact her she may even have an idea of someone else in your area - I know she was moving to South Australia but will still be doing some W/S in Victoria - I don't remember where you are located.
Alison
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"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
Here is a link for you - Dr Anne Fowler
Alison
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"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
Dr. Mike Cannon is a wealth of knowledge (and he is my vet too). I don't know if he does courses on bird rehab/care but he may. He is at Cannon and Ball vets in Wollongong.
I run workshops but on the ecology/habitat side of things rather than care.
Wires training courses - In NSW no person is allowed to care for native animals without an annual authority to act issued under the licence held by WIRES or another licenced wildlife rehabilitation organisation or by a privately licenced individual. You must be over 18 to attend a WIRES training course.
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In Victoria, all wildlife rehabilitators, including shelter operators and foster carers must be authorised by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE). Shelter operators are also required to maintain and submit an annual record of all animal admissions.
These records help DSE to monitor the movement of wildlife and to understand the reasons why animals are brought to shelters, the species involved, where they are coming from and the outcomes of rehabilitation.
They also help to ensure that the primary aim of rehabilitation is to release the native animals back into the wild.
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I know there is a process here where, as a volunteer, you need to be apprenticed to an authorised shelter/carer where you learn how to care for each species of wildlife including birds. Dependent on the species of baby bird alone, there are particular types, amounts and frequency of food and the size of instruments used to feed them and the way to feed to ensure the food is not entering the airway. There is also a specific code of hygiene and ordered method of feeding within a group of animals. It is a requirement where possible that animals are raised in groups of species type so they imprint on their own species not humans so they can be safely released - human imprinted animals are usually not safe to be released.
It is illegal here to keep wildlife without being authorised by DSE to make sure people are following the correct regimes - it is not a sole operator scenario but a network as this is time consuming and expensive. I suggest you contact Wires again and apprentice to someone and become authorised to do this kind of work. Not all animals will make it out of rehabilitation - some are abandoned by their parents for a reason as they may not be fit to make it in the wild (survival of the fittest) and they become food to other animals - not a nice thing to think about but that is nature. Good luck!
Alison
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"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
Great points Alison - I had interpretted that they were looking for mentors for working within WIRES (increasing knowledge internally). And a very good point that we can't save everything!
Me too, Holly, and that may still be the case however others may read this thread and not everyone knows these requirements. I truly wish we could save them all.
Alison
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"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."