Do With An Injured Bird or Wildlife

I’ve found an injured bird / wildlife. What should I do?

If you find a bird or any kind of stray or wildlife that appears injured or displaced, feel free to give us a call and we can help direct you as to what to do depending on the circumstances.

If we are closed, you can call Wildlife Victoria on 03 8400 7300 and they can help direct you to the nearest open vet or wildlife shelter.

If you find a baby bird, you may like to take a look at our flow chart and use this as a guide to help you determine whether or not the baby needs our help or if it is best to leave the baby bird alone.

Did you know it is free to bring any form of wildlife to the vet?

Wildlife is always welcome here at Lynbrook Vet. We take in sick, orphaned and injured wildlife and triage them on arrival. We even take in stray animals such as lost dogs or stray cats and kittens.

In our area, there are a number of stray cats who sadly continue to breed on the streets leaving litters of kittens homeless. This in turn effects our native wildlife who become preyed upon by these street cats, who are just trying to survive.

Help us break the cycle, give these animals a better quality of life and save countless lives.

Did you know your actions can help us better treat an animal?

There are some very important things you can do to help us treat birds and wildlife.

By taking note of where you rescued the animal from and other important details about the rescue such as if other animals were around (dogs, cats, other birds, parents maybe) or if you saw the animal become injured and how the injury occurred, this can be crucial to the examination and animal’s treatment plan.

It is also very important not to feed a wild animal and to only ever offer a shallow bowl of water -never force an animal to drink. It can cause them to aspirate if they are unwell and can lead to further decline in their health. Most wildlife also require special diets and feeding the wrong foods can cause problems with their gut health and recovery.

Unable to drive or travel?

Always give us a call if you are worried about an animal. If you are unable to travel, we may be able to assist in sending a transporter to your location or alternatively, if we can’t get someone out there, Wildlife Victoria may be able to assist with their network of carers.

Did you know we’ve even had people Uber wildlife to us!

These kind-hearted people have been unable to drive so have placed the animal in a secure box with air holes and sent it in a taxi or Uber! Amazing! This small action could mean life or death for an injured animal and saves them from waiting around in pain for someone to arrive.

What happens to wildlife at the vet clinic?

When any animal is brought to our clinic, we begin by triaging and accessing their injuries before starting veterinary treatment.

If the animal is able to be rehabilitated, we organise a dedicated wildlife carer who will continue the animal’s care at their wildlife shelter.

In some cases, if the wildlife brought to us has special needs, requires ongoing treatment or specialist surgery, we can refer them to an animal sanctuary such as Healesville Sanctuary who have a specific wildlife hospital to help them through their rehabilitation.

If you’re interested to learn more about how you can help our native wildlife, click here to check out the wildlife section of our website.

A wildlife success story!

Recently we had a call from a lovely lady who was out on a walk in Lynbrook. She saw a magpie on the ground under a tree and it just didn’t look right.

She phoned us for advice and after hearing the bird’s situation, we asked her to stay where she was and keep an eye on it as we sent one of our team out to her location to help.

When our animal attendant arrived, she knew something wasn’t right. This was an adult magpie and she was lying on her side, on the ground with other birds swooping her. The magpie was taken back to the clinic for assessment.

On arrival to the clinic we did a full health exam and found her to have no external injuries, no fractured bones, no wounds or other injuries. She was a little bit of a mystery!

Given it had been a very windy day, we decided to give her some time to rest in a quiet, dark place as we suspected she may have had a concussion from a failed flight. After some rest, it was like a miracle had happened! Our magpie friend was standing up and watching our every move!

Now in her situation, she was looking bright and ready to go back to the wild but considering the state she was in only hours earlier, we decided the right decision for her was to contact the amazing team at Wild Days Wildlife Shelter and allow her a few days to recover properly from her concussion.

We transporter her to the shelter where she stayed for the weekend. It was kind of like a magpie bed and breakfast for her! She received food, shelter and time to recover properly. After a few days in care, she was released back to the wild where she had been found only a few days ago.

She flew away as if nothing had happened with her magpie friends who were very happy to see her!