Wildlife Medicine

Wildlife medicine treats, rehabilitates and conserves wild animal species.¹ This differs from wildlife rehabilitation, in which the focus is on individual animals and where the goal is to care for each animal until it can be released back into the wild.² Rehabilitation is a component of wildlife medicine, but wildlife rehabilitation is a more comprehensive discipline.

Veterinarians who work in wildlife medicine treat, rehabilitates and conserve wild animal species. These veterinarians protect wildlife populations, control diseases within them and study wild species to better understand their behavior and function. While exotic animal veterinarians in clinics treat individuals, part of the field veterinarian's work is to help in conserving populations.¹ The recent increase in public interest in wildlife medicine largely stems from concern over conserving endangered species as well as preventing zoonotic diseases. This can be seen in debates over the recent Covid-19 pandemic, which some researchers believe is a zoonotic disease that "jumped" from animals to humans.

Wildlife veterinarians work to keep new pathogens from emerging and older ones from spreading to humans or livestock.¹ Threatened species at wildlife conservation sanctuaries, which research wildlife and diagnose and treat injured, sick or orphaned animals, depend on veterinarians' understanding of zoonotic diseases.

Wildlife Veterinarians in the Field

In wildlife medicine, animals are usually treated in the field, although they may require transportation to a facility for treatment, depending on the treatment required. The field is the natural habitat of the animal, and may be far away from human habitation. In these cases, wildlife researchers and veterinarians must bring all of their equipment and materials with them. They may also spend a great deal of time finding the animals they need to take care of. In most cases, the animal is released immediately after they are tagged, treated or tested for health problems.

The duties of the wildlife veterinarian may include sedating animals for procedures, performing exams, giving vaccinations, taking blood samples, administering fluids, performing surgeries when needed, prescribing medications, evaluating and treating wounds, taking x-rays and ultrasounds, cleaning teeth, assisting with captive breeding programs, and providing intensive care for very young animals abandoned by their parents.³

Wildlife veterinarians often work in conjunction with wildlife rehabilitators at a rehabilitation facility. They also must be able to interact and communicate effectively with veterinary technicians, wildlife officials, and members of the public.

The wildlife veterinarian's schedule and lifestyle can be very demanding. It is not unusual for wildlife veterinarians to work nights, weekends, and holidays. Some wildlife veterinarians have schedules that involve being “on call” for treating emergency cases, and it's common for them to put in 50 hours of work or more per week.³

Demands on the Wildlife Veterinarian

While the studies undertaken by the aspiring veterinarian are definitely demanding, those of the wildlife veterinarian require even more focused study. Some of the aspects with which the wildlife veterinarian will need to be proficient include:

• Understanding the role and key challenges and opportunities for veterinarians in wildlife medicine and conservation
• Critical conservation issues and challenges with a focus on human wildlife conflict
• Wildlife immobilization, handling, restraint and examination
• Wildlife medical approaches
• Stressors and risk evaluation
• Distance immobilization & restraint for mammals, birds and reptiles
• Emergency medicine and triage protocol
• Emerging and common zoonotic diseases
• Wildlife transport
• Comparative wildlife anatomy, osteology, and radiography
• Ecology of the wildlife species in the area in which they work
• Husbandry and nutrition of wildlife species in the area in which they work
• Necropsy.
• Regulatory and practical applications associated with wildlife conservation
• The role of community-based conservation organizations, NGOs and governmental entities in conservation⁴

Challenges of the Wildlife Veterinarian

One of the most delicate and challenging aspects of the wildlife veterinarian's role is that of being an expert in the chemical immobilization and sedation of wildlife species in the areas in which they work.

The diagnostic and therapeutic plan frequently requires some form of chemical restraint in wildlife medicine, and the approach to analgesia and chemical immobilization of wildlife species presents special challenges. Among these are the dangers of working with large, predatory or unpredictable species, the small size of other species, and the unique features of prey species, which often do not exhibit signs of distress or pain as a survival mechanism.

Medications and Protocols

Wildlife veterinarians in the field typically rely on four classes of drugs. These are paralytics, tranquilizers & sedatives (representing a single class), dissociative anesthetics and opioid anesthetics. When choosing between chemical agents, consideration must be given to pain, animal stress, and both human and animal safety. Capture- and anesthesia-related morbidity and mortality is inherent with field immobilizations.^5,6 It is essential that the veterinarian evaluate all aspects of the protocol, including species, terrain, and capture and restraint methodology, to minimize animal risk.

In some situations, it may be sufficient or preferable to physically immobilize an animal without inducing unconsciousness. Physical restraint without sedation or anxiolysis should be limited to short, non-painful procedures or longer procedures in species that are exceptionally tolerant to manual restraint. Physical or mechanical restraint can be stressful to nondomesticated species, and conscious sedation can reduce stress in the animal and decrease risk of injury to the animal and humans.⁷ In the case of invasive procedures, restraint without consideration for analgesia may be inappropriate and anesthesia or local analgesia should be used.