Category Archives: Clinic Update

Wild Night Out 2019

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On January 25, the Wildlife Medical Clinic successfully hosted its largest fundraiser of the year, Wild Night Out (WNO), at Papa Del’s Pizza. This event is designed to be a fun and engaging night out for veterinary students and faculty. Activities included a silent auction, a live auction, raffle ticket sales, and a delicious pizza dinner (both deep dish and thin crust!) for everyone who attended. This event is special both as an opportunity to build camaraderie throughout the veterinary school and its ability to help to raise necessary funds to support our patients at the wildlife clinic.

Highlights from the night included Veterinary Clinical Medicine Department Head Dr. Dennis French’s incredible auctioneer skills and light-up shoes, a competitive but friendly bidding war between students to attend a bar crawl with the large animal/zoo medicine clinicians, and the birthday cake that was brought out for the Wildlife Medical Clinic’s very own Dr. Sarah Reich’s birthday, which happened to be that same night!

This event was a huge success for the Wildlife Medical Clinic with over two hundred people in attendance and thousands of dollars raised. All proceeds will go toward the care for our patients at the Wildlife Medical Clinic. We look forward to the opportunity to grow further student educational opportunities and maximize the chances of the successful release of our patients back to the wild in the months to come!

A huge shout out to the Wildlife Support Fund, Nina French, Gina Clapper, Dr. Dennis French, Dr. Julia Whittington, and Dr. Sarah Reich for everything they did to help organize this event and make it run as smoothly as it did! We look forward to hosting this event again next year and the support it provides for our patient in the clinic.

Sincerely,

Ivana Levy

Fundraising Co-Chair

Wildlife Medical Clinic at Illinois

Delphine Trainer Chat

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In 2018, the Wildlife Medical Clinic welcomed Delphine, a female Virginia opossum. She was initially brought to the Wildlife Medical Clinic after a well-intentioned member of the public attempted to rehabilitate her. Unfortunately, this led to Delphine becoming too habituated to humans for her reintroduction to the wild. Additionally, some abnormalities in Delphine’s gait were of concern. Upon further testing, and it was determined Delphine required a Femoral Head Ostectomy (FHO) due to suspected past trauma to her hip. This surgical procedure removes the head (top portion) of the femur to relieve pain and increase patient mobility when severe disease or trauma has occurred previously. On the bright side, Delphine’s calm demeanor and overall good health meant she was a good candidate for the Wildlife Ambassador program! Her FHO surgery went well and, after a little bit of physical therapy, Delphine is now happily working with our other amazing ambassador animals!

Delphine is one of the first mammals to join our Wildlife Ambassador Program. Since her joining, Delphine has been working with numerous veterinary student volunteers to adjust to her new lifestyle. One of her trainers is Allison Wright, a second-year veterinary student. We sat down with Ally to ask her a few questions about Delphine.

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Meet the Managers: Exit Interview

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Third year student and clinic manager Kara Hiebert answers questions about what she has gained from her years in the Wildlife Clinic

What initially sparked your interest in wildlife medicine?

 I’m not sure if I can really pinpoint one thing that sparked my interest. As my parents can attest, I’ve loved animals for as long as I can remember. Anytime our cat brought in an unfortunate bird or rodent, I was adamant that we needed to rescue it and put it back out in the wild. When I was in kindergarten, I was actually bit by a mouse because I was trying to “save” it (not my smartest move). I was also super lucky to have a family that travelled quite a bit, and looking back we always seemed to find wildlife along the way, whether that be stopping to see the sea lions at Pier 39 in San Francisco or waking up at the crack of dawn and piling into a dingy to see wild dolphins. In undergrad, I got more of a taste for what it is like working directly with wildlife during my internships at the California Wildlife Center and the Animal Rescue Clinic at Mystic Aquarium. I loved everything about my experiences with those organizations, which really reinforced wildlife medicine as a major interest of mine.  Continue reading →