How To Help An Animal In Need

When you're out and about, you may come across an animal that is in need of help.  This episode will be a guide for what to do for all types of animals.
In all cases, contact your local wildlife rescue team or safely take smaller animals to the vet.

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Transcript

Magic Barclay: 0:59

Welcome back to a magical life. I'm your host magic Barclay. And this is your episode, 88. Now, wherever you are listening to this around the world at the moment as I record this new year has just been and I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year, but let's get on with this episode. Many times in our lives, we see animals in need. And I know for myself before I became a wildlife rescuer, I actually didn't really know how to help those animals when I found them. Now, whether they be orphaned or, you know, victims of a storm or victims of people, Or the usual, which is road accident victims. They do need our help, but how do you do that? And how do you do it safely? How do you do it with the animals needs in mind? Dan, here in Australia, we have many fascinating animals that unfortunately have road collisions a lot. And. There are certain ways that you can treat these animals. But before I get onto Australian specific animals, let me talk worldwide. So let's cover things like large animals. So DIA they're all around the world. Here in Australia, there are pissed, but they are all around the world. Very large animals. You're not going to be able to move off the road. So if you see one that has been hit by a truck or a bus or a car, then you need to call the road authorities. You also need to call your local wildlife rescue group. Now you call the road authorities for a very large animal like that because they are too heavy to move off the road. You call the local wildlife animal rescue group. So the animal can be euthanized safely quickly and in the best needs of the animal. Now, why do you do this and not just leave it? Well, first of all, just leaving an animal in pain is a terrible thing to do. You wouldn't want someone to do that to you also, it can be a traffic hazard, so it could be in the way of traffic. It could be not immobile through its injury, so it could be darting in and out of traffic. And these big animals can cause a lot of damage and any animal winning pain will lash out. That's its only defense. So clipping a large animal or maiming, a large animal will cause the animal to run on adrenaline. And what it's going to do is try and defend it. Let's look at some smaller animals like we're near west. I think you have opossums. You have raccoons again, an animal in distress will lash out. It will try and defend itself. So again, call your local wildlife animal or animal. So again, call your local wildlife or animal rescue. Now, while we're talking small animals, cats and dogs as well. We're not just talking wildlife here. Do not just hit someone's cat. Hopefully the cat isn't outside, but there are a lot of feral cats around the world do not hit someone's cat or dog and just leave it. If it is a pet, if it has identification, call the owner. If it doesn't, please pick it up, put it in a box. Be very careful because again, injured animals lash out and take it to a vet. Now, if you can't do that, call an animal rescue group, working down the line here. We've got birds. Now your local wildlife animal rescue group will help you, but there are several types of birds. So we have Raptors, owls, Eagles, Hawks, things like that. You do not want to attempt to pick one of those up. Why? Because they have very sharp talons, very wide wing expansion with very strong wings and very sharp beaks. Do not attempt to rescue a bird of prey. Call your local wildlife animal rescue group. They will come out with trained rescuers to do that for you. And you have smaller birds now around the world. There's starlings, blackbirds, minor birds, sparrows, lots of birds. Again, just put a towel around it, put it in a box, take it to your local. Don't leave it on the side of the road. Many birds are very social, more talk more about social animals a bit later, but many birds, particularly in the Northern hemisphere crows, we know them as Ravens here, magpies that we have here, they live in family groups. So if you leave one injured on the road, It's partner and it's family will come and try and get it up. They don't know it's dead straight away. And so what happens is they get hit as well on the road. So the best thing to do is pick it up. If it's dead, move it off the road. If it's injured, take it to the vet. And then we have lizards, turtles, snakes. I guess he could throw frogs in there too. So turtles pick them up off the road. Very gently. If they're still alive, move them in the direction they were facing off the road and they will just go along their Merry way. They're trying to find a water source. If they're injured, take them to the vet. Again, pick them up with a towel and put them in a box safely so that they can't slide around. Take them to the vet. Lizards, the same thing. If they're dead, just move them off the road. Uh, frogs are a little different. And why frogs have very sensitive skin. And if you pick them up with your bare hands, you will actually dry out their skin and injure them. So how do you pick up a frog? You put some water on your hands. If you have a drink bottle with some water in it, or a bottle of water in the car, wet your hands before you touch them. Most of the time they'll hop off the road anyway, but if it's extreme temperatures, you want to give them a helping hand literally, but make sure your hands are wet. When it comes to snakes, never, ever anywhere in the world, handle a snake, call a snake catcher. Uh, in Australia, we have most of the deadly snakes from around the world live here. So never, ever handled a snake. If you live in Australia, the Eastern brown snake has about 15 different color variations and can be mistaken for a non venomous snake. So never, ever handled a snake. Okay. Australian animals. We're blessed to have koalas here. They look really cute, fluffy and cuddly, and they are, I adore them, but they have very sharp claws. Now those sharp claws are designed to scale a tree, an injured koala may think your legs are a tree and it will shred your legs. They are very heavy. So do not try and pick up a koala with bare legs. Obviously you have some gloves on your hands. If you can wrap a towel around your legs in summer, just to protect yourself a little bit. But the best thing to do is if you need to move a koala off the road, be very, very careful and then call a wildlife rescue group. In Australia. We have kangaroos and wallabies. Now wallabies are solitary animals. So you're most likely only going to find one. They have very long tails and they are mostly Placid. But remember, any animal in distress will lash out. If you find one injured, please call your local wildlife rescue group immediately. And if you find one dead and the same goes for kangaroos, grab it by the tail and pull it off the road. Pull it off the road so that no other Wallaby in the area will get hit. Lift up the back leg. If there's testicles, it's obviously a boy. If they're aren't, there's a pouch. Now what I need you to do with some gloves on is gently open the pouch check for young. So Marsupial's give birth to live young, the live young crawl up to the pouch where they attach to a teat. They grow there for several months, depending on which animal it is Now they attached to the Tate and the math actually fuses around the Tate because that's where they're going to be for a long time developing. It's almost like when we as humans have premature babies and they are very dependent on their life support. Well, the teat is the life support for young Joey. Now the Joey lifecycle, they start as what's known as the embryo. So we refer to that as a jelly bean. They, they resemble a little pink jelly bean. At jelly bean will then start to form its legs. Um, his tail. we'll then develop to a pinky stage where it looks like a minature wallaby or kangaroo or koala or whatever it is then it will get its first hair, it will open its eyes. Its ears will pop up, get its first hair. It's known as a velvet. Cause the hair looks like velvet. Then it becomes furred. It's usually out of the patch when it becomes furred and it becomes at foot, which describes how it lives. If it's a kangaroo or a Wallaby it's at foot so it'll be at mum's feet. And in and out of the pouch drinking, there's usually another one in the patch by then. So, and at foot we're learning, pop its head in for a drink, then it becomes juvenile. And of course, young adult and adult. So there's various stages in a life cycle of a marsupial. At all stages. They need help. So if there is something attached to the teat, I'm going to need you to get some scissors, cut the teat. Do not pull the Joey off the teat because it will suffer horrendous internal bleeding. It will almost implode because of that really strong suction of being fused on the teat. So we're going to need you to cut the teat, put a pin in the end of the teat so it doesn't get swallowed. Put the Joey in t-shirt or a cloth, wrap it up and keep it warm and safe. Never put E young animal alone in a box. So as wildlife rescue is what we do with Joey's is we have them in a little pouch and we put them down our tops to keep them warm and they can hear a heartbeat. So that's a Wallaby. Now we have kangaroos here, many times, kangaroos rent. Parts of Australia, but the treatment is all the same. Now, remember I mentioned birds are social kangaroos, a very social, they have large family structures known as mobs and the females will often group together. They'll form a like a mothers group, aunties, grandmas, will all be there. The babies will be raised together. The juveniles will all learn what to do together. So when a kangaroo's hit on the roads goes without saying that the other kangaroos will come and visit the body. So again, you need to grab any deceased kangaroo by the tail, pull it off the road. Check the patch, as I said, but this time you need to make sure the body is well away from the road. You need to call your local wildlife rescue group immediately. I hear many people here say, oh yeah, I hit a kangaroo on the road, but it's okay. It got up and hopped away. It's not okay. Kangaroo and wallabies can develop myopathy very quickly. And what happens to a kangaroo when it's collided with the car is the myopathy start straight away. Now you see it hop away and go into a field. Or the Bush what's actually happening is it's hopped away and now it's in pain. Myopathy will set in and this kangaroo is going to die very slowly in the field of the Bush that you saw at hop away into, but you've convinced yourself it's okay cause it got up and moved. It's not okay. Call it in, report it straight away. Now, here in Australia, we have possums again. They have pouches. So the life cycle of Joey possum is it's a jelly bean. It goes to the pouch, develops till pinky, velvet, furred, then it doesn't become at foot. It becomes a back rider. It's a mother possums all around the world will hold their babies on their back until they are juvenile. So what should you do with a possum in Australia? Well, if it's injured, you need to call the local wildlife rescue group. If it's been hit by car, you need to check the pouch. If you can see teats with milk, obviously the Joeys have been ejected somewhere or fallen off or whatever. So you need to look for them. Actually same with the kangaroos and will every animal. If there is a teat with milk, that is a lactating mother, look for a Joey. With possums, you can pick them up. Very carefully with a towel, put them in a box and take them to your local vet. The here in Australia, it should be free for every wildlife case that you take to a vet because the vets sometimes get reimbursed by governments, but they should not be charging you to take wildlife. They will ask you for details. And that is because wildlife need to be released within 50 meters of where they were found when they're well, because that's their home range. Again, do not touch snakes, but just remember they deserve a life too. So that's some things on, Hey, can help some of the animals. Yeah, birds, birds. You really have to love them. Come spring time, anywhere in the world, ducks have babies. And ducks we'll have up to 15 babies at a time. Duck parents are not the smartest parents. They will try and cross the road with their family, the mother and the father will stay together. They co-parent, and they will have their little group of ducklings following them across the road. So if you're seeing that it's duck season, please do take care. Slow down, and allow the ducks across the road. If it looks like they're going to be in danger, get out, use a towel and gently ferry them across the road. Give them a bit of helping hand and slow the traffic down. Ducks or allure unto themselves. And most of the time. They're brilliant brilliant parents, but some of the time they're just not as smart as we'd like them to be. They're certainly not your Raven kind of intelligence. So just give them a bit of a helping hand wherever in the world. You are, you have amazing wildlife on your doors. There are some things that you need to do to help them. In winter, make sure that you have some shrubs, some pot plants, something that will give them some warmth and some shelter, no matter what animal it is. In summer, make sure again that you have some safe spaces away from the sun. You need to put water dishes out medium to shallow depth, water dishes are best. And if you can put pebbles and sticks in those water dishes, that will help because believe it or not frogs drown, so they need something to get back out of the water. You might have hatchlings or juvenile birds that may fall into the water and drown. With water sources, always check them for snakes. So top them up every day and check there's no snakes curled up in there. If there are call your local wildlife animal rescue group. Other things that you can do, probably the most important thing you can do for wildlife in your yard, is keep your cats indoors. I hear many people say that pet cats need to roam. They need to get outside. Well, if you ask my pet cats who are both 16, they'll tell you the opposite because they've never been outside, not alone. My cats have catteries, which are attached to the window. No we rent. So they're not permanently attached. There's little cat doors popped into the sliding windows and the catteries mean that they are safe. They can go outside, I've built them little mini jungles in the catteries. They can chew on the plants in there because they're all cat safe, cat friendly. And they can go outside. They do their roaming and their hunting out there. I don't mind if they catch something in the cattery, it's very rare because birds and things can't actually get in there. It's fully enclosed, but if they do manage to catch something, it was in their domain. They don't tell. But you know what? They also don't tend to get hit by cars or anything like that because they are safe. So know your cats do not need to roam. It is not part of their needs to be stolen by other people. It's not part of their needs to be hit by a car. It's not part of their needs to have fights that could be fatal. Or give them diseases with other cats. They don't need any of that. Then need your love. They need to be part of your family nanny to safe place to go to be outside. So always have a cattery. Dogs should be at home. Many dogs will escape where we've just had new years. That's a great example. They'll escape from loud noises, storms, fireworks. It is your responsibility as a dog owner to make sure your dog is in its yard. Safely. Dogs can bite. So if you do see a dog out on the street, please approach with caution, do not let a child approach a dog that you don't know. And even if you do know it, say it's your next door, neighbor's dog. You've known it all its life. If it's been hit by a car, it will lash out. So approach with caution as many, many other types of animals we could discuss today. But I just wanted to bring your attention to the fact that animals have rights. We talk about health all the time on this podcast for your own health, approach, with caution. For the animal's health, please do the right thing and help it. There is no need to leave an animal in pain or in distress. We do share our environment with everyone, and that's a difference between ego and eco. Ego puts the human above every other. Eco is where you understand that you are an animal too, and the rights that you have are the rights that every other animal has as well. So that means if you see one injured or killed, do the right thing by the animal. Now hope this short episode has given you. A bit more help, a bit more ideas on how to help animals in need. In our next episode, 89, we're talking about labels in life. That could be labels for your health labels for your personality and my good friend, Vanessa Antonin accomplice. We'll be sharing her experiences with labels in life. Coming up this year, we have some fantastic guests joining us, talking all things, health, wealth, and weight loss. But for now, listeners, please respect the animals you share your world with and go forth and create your magical life.