For anyone who hasn't seen my albums, please come check out the rescue clinic album:
We picked up another female Hooded seal that has an infection. We are treating her with antibiotics and her prognosis looks pretty good. She'll probably be with us for a month anyway.
Our male is still having some problems with his flipper. He is doing a little better and his blood work looks good, Hopefully he'll get the ok from the Governmnet to be released within two weeks. I'll post another update when I have more.
Glad to hear the Baby is now enjoying Freedom after much needed TLC. And if you ever need another volunteer, let me know. I also offer Free acctg svc...as long as the place is cruelty-free.
Do unto others as...
Thanks from the Babies.
This sweet female hooded seal was nursed back to health at our clinic. This is a shot of her as she was released Tuesday on a RI beach. Another success story!
I regret to report that the baby gray passed away in the night. She was successfully operated on and Seemed to be ok. She made it two more days and just passed away in her sleep. I really hate this part of any rescue efforts but I guess they all are not meant to make it. I have been really busy but knowing I had to make this post has helped in my procrastination. I really hate having to be the bearer of bad news.
Please say a prayer or light a candle for this sweet little girl. 
Thanks. Ty
Carla, I too have the headache problem. I hope yours has diminished. I enjoy keeping you updated. Thanks for the hugs. Right back at you! Ty
Ty,
Sorry it has been one of those head banging headache weeks.
thank you so much for keeping us up to date on this
hugs
Carla (dreamcatcher)
Sending her love and prayers,Um praying she pulls through.
Thanks ty,your doing great work.
On Sunday night we recieve a call from Little Compton RI. We brought in a female gray seal pup who had a gash on her rear flipper. She wasn't using her left front flipper and was tucking it against her body.She also has balds spots and was passing a tape worm when we got here to the clinic. She is in the critical care unit and is being treated for her wound, and worms. We will be monitoring her blood and giving her antibiotics accordingly. She is weak but stable. Lets hope she'll be ok. Here is a photo sent to me by the clinic.
I recieved my email update from the stranding assistant concerning the Atlantic White-sided Dolphin. The news was not good.
Starting at about 8:30 in the morning this male juvenile dolphin was sighted This time the animal was found by the bridge that connects Westerly and Pawcatuck so that both sides of the river were full of people plus the bridge itself there were even more onlookers.
he looked health and appeared to be simply hunting at that point. We wanted to give him a chance to return to the open ocean so we left him in the river. A large part of what we do is about education, and it was a perfect time to teach others about the laws protecting these animals, along with explaining what are plans were. Later in the day the dolphin stranded himself in shallow water and brush. The team implimented a rescue and the animal was brought into the clinic.
His blood looked good but he had indications that he had an infection. A short time later he died. We have to do more tests to determine why he died but right now we think it was a combination of things.
I will include a shot of this guy while he was still cruising the river. Not all the rescues end with releases. Light those candles tonight guys. Ty
Annette, There are a number of rescue teams on the west coast and one in Texas. I think all of them have rescue volunteers. Here are some links.
http://www.tmmsn.org/ Galveston, Corpus Christi, TX
http://www.tmmsn.org/ Cresent City, CA
http://www.mar3ine.org/aboutmar3ine.htm Fort MacArthur, CA
http://www.whalerescueteam.org El Segundo, CA
http://www.friendsofanimals.org/actionline/summer-2004/marine-mammal.html El Segundo, CA
I Just recieved a call that there is a Atlantic Whitesided Dolphin in one of our local rivers. Although they do not usually enter estuaries, this one appears healthy and actually came up to the dock and let people pet it! This is not really normal behavior but he seems to be just hunting fish and hanging out. The river has a big school of herring and we think this might be what drew him in. We will see if he stays in the river and reassess his needs again tomorrow. As long as he stays out of harms way we will probably leave him be. He apparently has been hanging out since yesterday morning. I will see if we have pictures and try to post them later. I'm off to my first Beluga training class! More late tonight or tomorrow morning.
This morning(the 12th) a chest radiograph (x-ray) was taken of the porpoise. The animal was captured in the tank and secured within a specialized stretcher for transport out of the tank and into the treatment / radiograph room. The Foundation's radiograph equipment was obtained through funding from the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program
The feeding session after the treatment went well, and as of today the porpoise is eating completely on his own.
This really made my week! He is going to make it, I do believe!
See video of him eating at:
http://www.riverheadfoundation.org/features/content.asp?code=feature_one
Go to the bottom of the page and click on the video.
I think next year for vacation, I am going to visit your area and see you in action.
Keep up the good work Ty
hugs
Carla
Heres another update on the harbor porpoise, thanks to the Riverhead Foundation.
April 11, 2006
Yesterday the Riverhead Foundation's veterinarians examined the animal and collected a blood sample. The porpoise was also weighed again and measurements were taken.
Dr. Rob Pisciotta, Riverhead Foundation's veterinarian, collected a blood sample from the animal.
The porpoise is still on assisted feeds, however, the biologists are able to hand feed him small herring in the tank without holding him. He seems to be making progess with every feed.
Rob DiGiovanni, Riverhead Foundation's Director, is also hand feeding the porpoise.
He is looking better everyday. Another story with a positive ending!! You got to love it! Peace. Ty
Thank you so much for these pictures Ty.
It makes the heart feel good to know you and others like you are doing such a great job of taking care of these beautiful creatures
hugs and a big thumbs up
Carla
ty the work you do is amazing
i live in england so maybe cant be so hands on but anything i can do to help be it fundraising raising awareness just ask my friend
Thanks again ty, I know I keep saying it but it really warms my heart.
Im glad to know you
I only have thumbnails that were emailed to me of the Baby female gray that is in the clinic right now. I will try to get some good shot and I'll post them later. Also, I put in some shots of our clinic.
Big mouth.
Chasing a live fish.
Cute.
The pool on the right is where the porpoise was kept.
The above feed is a TV clip of this release.
This guys blubber to weight ratio is that of a seal twice his age. He had the trawl end of a fishing net around his neck and a slight infection when he came in. He was wooped from dragging that net around but he is really sturdy.The below shot is of us doing a ultra sound on him to figure his blubber ratio. This helped in our asessment on when to let him go. Thats me on hind flipper duty! He is in a contraption called a doghouse to keep him and us safe during his check up.
Day one.
Here she is going home too.
This little girl was with us for just two weeks. We thought she wasn't going to make it when we brought here in. Suprisingly she had no infection. she was just worn out. We fed her and gave her a vacation and here she is going home.
What it is all about! This shot is my desk top!
This guy was chasing people on the a Rhode Island beach about a month ago.
Like most Grays he thought he owned the world.
We watched him till dark and kept people away from him. We came back the next day and he was gone!
Baby Gray's first day. Only known Gray seal born in Long Island Sound. Estimated age in this shot is 6 to 10 days. This pup isn't eating yet.
Here he is on his third day. Notice how quick he lost his white. He has some infection and is on antibiotics.
Tube feeding time.This is a gruel mix of fish oil, frozen fish and frozen squid blended in the blender. We also we force feeding halved fish at this point.
We eventually got him to eat on his own and catch live fish. We kept him for about a month total. Thats me in the red coat.
Away he goes.
We took in a 4.5 ft Harbor Porpoise last night. He was in the surf on a local beach. He is kind of weak. We are sending him to a better equipped facility today. I didn't get a chance to check him out. I will let you know how this guy is and if he made a safe transfer. We had two people with him all night, two hour shifts, in the pool, walking him around. I will post any photos sent to our network. Heres a shot of this species from the web.
Thanks Ty,It worked perfectly, what a wonderful heart warming sight.
Respect to you for your work.
These are the things that make my heart glad, What wonderful work you are doing, its people like you that give me hope.
As someone else said you are so fortunate to be able to see these beautiful animals and help hands on.
Peace to you
I figured I would post this here as it is about the clinic and what we do in the field.
As a intital responder, or first responder, with the Marine Mammal Stranding Team, life can be a roller coaster of emotions.
Our calls range from mad adults seals on a swimming beach,
to deceased animials brought in by the tide.
We could be called out for a Harp, Hooded, Harbor or Gray seal,
and it seems, more recently Ringed seals.
Our team has not had one yet but the Long Island Team has on now. Harbors and Grays are the local seals and the Hooded and harps are Ice seals. This means they are born on the Northern ice flows and then come here.
We also respond to calls for stranded sea turtles.
The species common to our area are Leatherback sea turtles
(Adults 5-8ft and 1500lbs) which are most common,
Loggerhead sea turtles(3-4ft and 450lbs),
Green sea turtles(3-5ft up to 500lbs), and Kemp's Ridley sea turtles(24in-32in).
We respond for strandings of Common Dolphins. White-sided dolphins, Harbor porpoise and Pilot whales. Any whales larger than a pilot are cared for by a different team than ours, but we may assist.
The Aquarium I work for really does a good job with the hook up concerning the equipment we have. We Have a newer 4 door, king cab, 3/4 ton 4 wheel drive pick up.
When responding we also carry what is called a level A initial responder kit. It contains a cell phone, a GPS, a digital camera, a measuring tape, heavy gloves,sometimes tags, and the forms that we need to fill out. The reasons for each item will become apparent.
The first thing to be considered, when responding to a live call, is the current safety of the animal, of the bystanders, and of their pets.
Seals can be very aggressive and will bit you or your dog. They are a wild animal that might be scared; never a good combination! Just stay way back. Seals do not like eye contact. If you walk directly at them and look at them it is mimicing the motions or their natural predators. If you think the seal is in trouble, call a pro, please!
Seals are very easily freaked out. Seals do not get cold so if the seal is shaking it is scared. Many people with good intentions, see a seal shaking and cover it up. This will really pump up the stress factor and if we get to a seal and it is covered
the chances are real good that the seal will have to come in for rehab. If a seal gets too freaked out it may not make the right choices and end up in harms way! The number one rule is stay away from seals on the beach!!! Seals do haul out just to rest on the beach or on the rocks and unless it has been in one place for more than 24 hours we will not bring in an apparently health seal.
One of the initial things we do look for is signs that the seal has been eating sand or beach rocks.
Ice seals are use to getting hydration from eating snow and some are not to smart in telling the difference! These seals that do eat rocks and sand are doomed unless we can get them back to the aquarium under a vets care. If you see a seal eat rocks or sand help save him by calling your local stranding people!
Once we are at a scene, and the safety factor is covered, we first take a GPS reading.
We have three different forms to fill out. One we start as soon as we get the call and that one is the stranding sighting call info sheet. . This sheet covers the basic info about the call and the info about the animal generated from the call. Of course directions also go on this sheet.
We fill in what is called an initial response form, on which we put info like, the animals assigned #, departure time, time returned, mileage, Location of animial with details, The actual GPS reading of Lat./long., the length, Est. weight, the condition of the animial, the sex, signs of entanglment, disposition of the animal, if we took photos, the camera and photo #s and the weather conditions.
We also have to fill in a Marine Mammal Stranding Data Report which asks a bunch of the same stuff and a few other questions. This goes to the regional stranding network which uses the date for future projections and attempting to improve our service to these animals.
We then do an exam if the seal is alive. We look to see if it has missing or infected nails, heavy discharge from the nose, obvious wounds, goopy eyes, entanglment wounds, bit wounds, prop wounds, alot of broken or missing teeth, and obvious signs of stomach bulge from eating rocks and sand. If we need to we can call our vet for any advice.
If we are bringing the seal in we then call the seal rescue clinic to tell them to prep for our new patient's arrival. We then take a bunch of photos of the animal and the surroundings where he was stranded. Next is the sometimes tricky job of getting a seal into a kennel for transport. Always fun!
Now unfortunately some of the seals we respond to are dead or in bad shape. With the ones that have been dead for awhile we just gather info and then bury them. We will bring any sick seal in but some are euthanized.
This is the hard part of the operation but I figure the ones saved is worth it.
If it is a recently killed seal we are required to reteive its body for Necropsy in hopes of saving others in the future!
After a seal rescue we are put on Quarintine. This means we can not go near the mammals in the Aquarium's collection. We can work in the seal enclosure but that is it. With any luck we can do some good for the seal population. I enjoy it and I think the seals are smart enough to realize
they were helped! Well there it is, I hope you guys learned something, enjoyed it and didn't find it boring! Peace. Ty
Ty
I'm not sure if it's my computer or what but the pic's wouldn't load for me.bummer
take care the babies.
brenda p
The release went off without a hitch. We had the release in all the local papers and the local NBC news camera was there. I think we had about 175 people show up. I'm glad it was a Harp because she wasn't that fazed by the crowd. I said earlier that we were releasing the male but, and my sincerest apologies, I had it backwards. We released the female that had the diamond shape on her side. We opened the cage and she made a bee line for for the surf! She wasn't fooling around. She went under and didn't breach until about 200 yards offshore. She was so happy to get back in the ocean. As always it was really heart felt. I will post photos of the release, when I get them. My digital camera will not run on this new computer with XP. it is a old 98 needing dog. I bought a disposable that I need to get developed.
I think I will also get some shots E-mailed to me. I will post them too once I recieve them. The seal in the photo above will be released on Tuesday morning! Peace. Here is the seal we released today:
Thanks Lanie. I do feel fortunate.
Today we get to release the fattie harp. He will go back into his own enviroment at 11:00am est. I love releases. I soooo look forward to releases, more than any other event. It helps to calm the soul and makes up for the ones that we are unable to save.
I will try to get some good shots for the album. I hope eveyone is well. Peace. Ty
