Wildlife Care Badge

03/03/2024

🌿 Help wildlife rehabilitators help wildlife! 🦉

There are lots grant opportunities out there for not-for-profit organisations. Unfortunately, applying for grants can be really time consuming which means wildlife rescues often don't apply for them.

But you can help!

📩There are often community grants that rescues can be put forward for. Supermarkets such as Tesco, ASDA and some Co-operative stores offer regular grant giving offers where charities or not-for-profit organisations are nominated by members of the public.📩

You can find often find out more about these in store or on their websites.

02/03/2024

🚗 Did you know there are some things you can do to make transporting a wild animal less stressful for them? 🚗

📦 Keeping animals in a dark, quiet environment can help keep them calm. This is why we love a cardboard box as a mode of transport! Although you have to throw it away at the end of the task, cardboard boxes provide the darkness a casualty will appreciate. (Just remember to make air holes and secure the lid!) 📦

🚷🔕 You can also minimise their stress by not playing music in the car and by not talking around them. It is also very important to remember that stroking wildlife does NOT comfort them! Although we stroke our pets and they may understand we're being kind to them, it can be very scary for a wild animal to have contact with a human so it's important to keep it to an absolute minimum. 🔕🚷

02/03/2024

Based on our last 2 meetings this year to support Wildlife Rehabbers to be in co-supportive relationships with Vet Practices, we are holding another meeting (on request from Rehabbers) to specifically make sure that there is a structure/template document crafted by us that Rehabbers can use to 'set the tone' of their relationships with Vet Practices this year, trusting themselves as the professionals that they are and enabling a 2 way trusting relationship with a Vet Practice.

This will probably be the last meeting on this topic before baby season hits.

It will be on zoom (the link will be provided on the day).

[Minutes from the last 2 meetings are going to be provided in advance too.]

[ If you are a Wildlife Rehabber or a Vet Professional & want to attend, you can find the event in our WCB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wildlifecarebadge ]

02/03/2024

February 2024 saw our WCB 2 year anniversary since our launch and we have out together a timeline on all of the steps we've been through, from the founding idea to now...

Originally, this timeline was just for our WCB Committee (we've had some new members so I wanted us all to be able to see an overview of the WCB thus far) but then we decided that we really wanted to share it. We have been busier than even we realised ❤

Here's to another great year & thank you to everyone who has been part of getting the WCB this far... 🥳

It's been 2 years since our launch and here's what we've been up to & how far we've come...

02/03/2024

🌿 Help wildlife rehabilitators help wildlife! 🦉

Now I know many of us aren't social butterflies BUT in person events are usually really good fun!

You don't need to just do a car boot sale or bake sale. You can do so many things!

Most village halls are super cheap to book or you might have a local pub that will donate a room to you for the evening. Once you've got the venue you can host the ultimate Pokémon card battle, with people donating £5 to enter!

Or you could:
✍ Run a quiz
🐛 Host a competition in the park where people have to identify as many insect species as possible
🤸‍♀️ Run an adults sports day (definitely check insurances on this one!)
🎨 Host an art exhibition

Some places will ask for public liability insurance, but you can get this relatively cheaply for day events! The cost can also be covered before the event if you ask people to pre-book.

01/03/2024

😱 Did you know that your disinfectant might not be working as well as you think it is? 😱

🪣 Unless you have it diluted to the correct concentration and are allowing it to be in contact with the surface for the allotted time, it might not be working how you want it to! 🪣

🧼 Some disinfectants come ready-mixed but others come in a concentrated form where you have to mix them with water. Most disinfectants have a contact time of at least 5 minutes, which means you have to leave them on the surface for 5 minutes before wiping them off! When doing deep cleans you might need to leave the disinfectant on for 30 minutes for it to be effective. 🧼

01/03/2024

🌿 Help wildlife rehabilitators help wildlife! 🦉

What if we told you you could raise money just by doing your online shopping?

So many of us shop online now, whether it's new clothes, home bits or our food shop.

EasyFundraising is a completely FREE tool that donates money to your chosen charity when you use it as a browser for your online shopping. All you have to do is:
💻Go to the website: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/
💻Create an account
💻Select the charity you'd like to donate to
💻Use it when you shop!

📣Each time you shop the website donates a small percentage. While this might not seem like an awful lot, every little counts and it does add up! 📣

29/02/2024

📈 Did you know that a realistic release rate for an adult wildlife casualty is 30-40%? 📈

This might sound low but actually it's really good! To understand why it's good, you need to understand the reasons wild animals come into care.

🐣 Juvenile animals may come into care for a number of reasons but many are completely unharmed as they are either genuinely orphaned or a perceived orphan. This means the rehabber needs to rear and release them. While this is no easy task, they may not need to battle with illness, injury or disease, which means there's a higher success rate. 🐣

🦉 Adult animals, however, are nearly always injured or unwell when they come into care. They know to be afraid of humans so for them to have been captured, they must have been feeling fairly rough! Often adult animals come into care days after they are originally injured or after being ill for a while. This means we have a much lower chance of saving them. 🦉

29/02/2024

🌿 Help wildlife rehabilitators help wildlife! 🦉

Today we're looking at sponsored events! We've all heard of sponsored walks and sponsored silences, but how about doing something a bit different?!

🎨 Sponsored portraits: Ask people to send in pictures of their pets or family members and get sponsored to draw as many as you can in an hour! (You don't need to be any good but we would like to see any hilarious attempts!).

🍽️ Sponsored cook-offs: Re-create Bake off in your back garden and get people to sponsor you! You can draw in the bakers with a prize for the winner!

🎉 Sponsored read: Set yourself a number of books to read in a 24 hour period and ask people to sponsor you! Better yet, get them to pick the books you read!

🌿Everything you raise helps wildlife, so it's worth getting a bit out of your comfort zone isn't it?! 🌿

What's the weirdest sponsored event you've ever heard of?

28/02/2024

A huge thank you to everyone who has already filled in our feedback survey.

There are still a couple of days to get your thoughts in before our committee meeting on Thursday!

You can find the survey here:
https://form.jotform.com/240456054393052?fbclid=IwAR1u0_Q_LUve5VHcH6oPvjqhvrM5m3GUTU30zfdgG5k9eF1_3iDYsvoRzQg

28/02/2024

🌿 Help wildlife rehabilitators help wildlife! 🦉

We're breaking down some easy ways you can help support wildlife rehabilitation!

💻 When people talk about online fundraisers they often think of birthday fundraisers on Facebook or GoFundMe pages. 💻

These platforms offer easy ways to rally support for wildlife rescues but they do come with some restrictions! GoFundMe typically charges a percentage of each donation and the Facebook Donate Button is only available for Registered Charities. 💸

📲Keep an eye out for fundraisers shared by wildlife rescues on their social media channels! These campaigns often highlight specific cases and urgent needs. If you can't donate, you can still make an impact by sharing and commenting on fundraisers so that they're seen by more people. 📲

What online fundraising platforms do you use?

27/02/2024

The season for fox cubs has definitely started... 🍃

27/02/2024

👩🏽‍⚕️❤️‍🩹 Sometimes wild animals need medication to help them get better ❤️‍🩹👩🏽‍⚕️

There are laws in place that mean you have to be a Registered Veterinary Nurse or a qualified Veterinary Surgeon to be able to give medication in certain ways.

💉💊A 'lay person' is someone who is unqualified. Under veterinary direction a lay person can give medication orally (into the mouth) and by subcutaneous injection (an injection just under the skin). However, they can't give injections into the muscle or into the vein! This is because the body is a complicated thing and the chances of things going wrong is increased, so it can only be done by qualified people.💊💉

🏥Medications must always be given in accordance with the vets directions.🏥

27/02/2024

This is a brilliant book...

Our book, An Introduction to Wildlife Rescue, Rehabilitation and Release, is now on offer for only £25! Get yours now. A great gift for someone interested in British Wildlife.
https://shop.secretworld.org/.../an-introduction-to.../

27/02/2024

Tonight we have this online meeting coming up (on request, after our last Vet/Rehabber meeting on the 18th January)... 🥳

[ If you're a Vet Professional or Wildlife Rehabber, you can follow this link to join the WCB Facebook group, to access the event: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wildlifecarebadge/ ]

We will be focusing on... Providing support to Wildlife Rehabbers to be able to approach Vet Practices from the strongest possible position, to be taken seriously as Wildlife Professionals.

The idea is to help Wildlife Rehabbers to be able to prove their professionalism & to have the mindset/tools that can help them to connect/engage, human to human, to give them the best chance to either start a new Vet/Rehabber relationship (with Vet Surgeons and Vet Nurses in the Practice) or to transform, perhaps, a currently struggling one.

The WCB is not placing the full responsibility for a strong, positive, cooperative & mutually supportive relationship just on Rehabbers. We work a lot with Vet Professionals to support what they need in Vet/Rehabber relationships too.

In this instance, we are simply (after discussions with Rehabbers on what might help the most) focusing on helping Rehabbers to set themselves up for the best chance of success, to help them in their amazing wildlife care efforts...

[Anyone who would like to can submit, in advance, ideas for what places a Wildlife Rehabber in the strongest position to start a new relationship - or renew a relationship - with a Vet Practice. These will all be discussed & debated in the meeting.]

27/02/2024

🌿 Help wildlife rehabilitators help wildlife! 🦉

Our wild friends often find themselves in need of a helping hand due to injuries, illness, or displacement. Wildlife rehabilitators work tirelessly to nurse them back to health and release them back into the wild.

From cleaning enclosures to administering medications, wildlife rehabilitators juggle so many tasks to ensure every animal receives the care it needs.

And then on top of that they need to fundraise to keep things running smoothly! 💰

While you might not have the time, facilities or experience to care for wildlife yourself, you DO have the ability to help fundraise! There are lots of things you can do, some with next to no effort, to help raise funds for wildlife rehabilitation. 🦔

This week we're going to be looking at easy fundraising options, to help you, help them!

26/02/2024

A huge thank you to everyone who has already filled in our feedback survey.

There are still a couple of days to get your thoughts in before our committee meeting on Thursday!

You can find the survey here:
https://form.jotform.com/240456054393052?fbclid=IwAR1u0_Q_LUve5VHcH6oPvjqhvrM5m3GUTU30zfdgG5k9eF1_3iDYsvoRzQg

Please click the link to complete this form.

23/02/2024

Every life counts… 🥰🐭

22/02/2024

We would like to know what YOU think of the Wildlife Care Badge!

We've been running for two years now. We've found some things that work really well and others that don't, but we'd like your views on things.

Please take a moment to fill out this survey:
https://form.jotform.com/240456054393052

Thank you!

Please click the link to complete this form.

22/02/2024

The Wildlife Care Badge started off as an idea to create a strong, safe, supportive Wildlife Carer community (of Rehabbers & Vet Professionals) united around an agreement that wildlife are entitled to at least a minimum standard of medical & rehabilitative care. We wanted to enable a celebration of Wildlife Rescues: developing a community where everyone could trust one another, within a state of transparency & openness...

As we acknowledge our 2 year anniversary this month, this is still what is important to us.

These premises were laid out, at the launch of the WCB, in February 2022... https://www.wildlifecarebadge.com/wcb-benefits

20/02/2024

An amazing rehabilitation effort to help this bat, by Leicestershire Wildlife Hospital...

19/02/2024

🌨️ Winter Release Wisdom for Hedgehogs! 🦔

❄️ Years ago, we used to keep hedgehogs in over winter and release them in the spring, but we don't do that anymore!🚫

🌬️Keeping hedgehogs in for longer than necessary can lead to a multitude of problems including obesity, parasite problems and stress. 🍂 Research shows that you CAN release hedgehogs during the colder months, and that they do well! 🏡

You have to meet certain criteria for release to be considered okay, such as:
🦔A minimum weight of 600g
🦔A minimum temperature of 0°C for 5 consecutive nights
🦔Support feeding after release

19/02/2024

As this is our second anniversary since our launch (I can't believe it's been 2 years already) I thought it would be a good time to reshare some of the founding premises of the WCB, starting with the 'benefits of self regulation'...

❤ When we are united, we have even more power to create a brighter, wilder world for ourselves & wildlife... 😄🥳

IN THE FUTURE, IT IS VERY LIKELY THAT THERE WILL BE GOVERNMENT WILDLIFE REHABILITATION LICENSING​, LIKE SCOTLAND'S NEW LICENSING (AS OF SEPTEMBER 2021). HERE'S WHY WCB BELIEVES IT TO BE A GOOD IDEA TO HAVE SELF-REGULATION BEFOREHAND...

18/02/2024

A great example of a Vet/Rescue joint effort, to help this fox…

Update - Sadly despite our best efforts and of our vets, the v***n passed away peacefully and before we could get blood test results to get to the route cause of her issues. Bless her, she was passed with love, warmth and pain relife.
**************************************
We rescued this young v***n yesterday after reports that she was in a poor state, struggling with walking on 3 legs and only slowly moving. Even a very ill or injured fox can be extremely hard to catch, thankfully with her we had some time to attempt a rescue and with the help of a walled garden and two members of the public, we flushed her out and caught her!

She has multiple issues, not least 4 injuries to the legs and body, it looks like she has been involved in an RTA and come into contact with the road surface. Thankfully the wounds are relatively fresh and not infected. She has tics, fleas, is very thin and was very dehydrated, so it was an emergency admission to our vets.

The wounds have been cleaned and treated, she is receiving pain relief, antibiotics, fluids and electrolytes. Tomorrow she is back at our vets where we'll decide if she is strong enough for continued treatment, including blood tests and surgery on her worst wound, a leg injury.

It's very much in the balance at the moment, at the very least we know she is warm, has food and water and treatment for her pain, we can only hope now.

17/02/2024

Having fun indeed... x

17/02/2024

In 10 days we have this online meeting coming up (on request, after our last Vet/Rehabber meeting on the 18th January)... 🥳

[ If you're a Vet Professional or Wildlife Rehabber, you can follow this link to join the WCB Facebook group, to access the event: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wildlifecarebadge/ ]

We will be focusing on... Providing support to Wildlife Rehabbers to be able to approach Vet Practices from the strongest possible position, to be taken seriously as Wildlife Professionals.

The idea is to help Wildlife Rehabbers to be able to prove their professionalism & to have the mindset/tools that can help them to connect/engage, human to human, to give them the best chance to either start a new Vet/Rehabber relationship (with Vet Surgeons and Vet Nurses in the Practice) or to transform, perhaps, a currently struggling one.

The WCB is not placing the full responsibility for a strong, positive, cooperative & mutually supportive relationship just on Rehabbers. We work a lot with Vet Professionals to support what they need in Vet/Rehabber relationships too.

In this instance, we are simply (after discussions with Rehabbers on what might help the most) focusing on helping Rehabbers to set themselves up for the best chance of success, to help them in their amazing wildlife care efforts...

[Anyone who would like to can submit, in advance, ideas for what places a Wildlife Rehabber in the strongest position to start a new relationship - or renew a relationship - with a Vet Practice. These will all be discussed & debated in the meeting.]

16/02/2024

🚫🥛 Friendly Reminder: NO Milk for Hedgehogs! 🚫🥛

🦔✨ Years ago, people used to put milk out for hedgehogs but we know now that they're lactose intolerant! This means that they can't digest lactose and so cows milk can make them really ill! 🛑🐄

In wildlife rehabilitation we have to use special replacement milk, usually a puppy or kitten replacer. This can be really expensive so consider donating to your local rescue to help out with this cost! 🌿🌟

16/02/2024

We've started making Lucy's great 'Did You Know?' info posts into a blog series, so that the info remains readily available. You can find most of them here (more to be added ASAP)... https://www.wildlifecarebadge.com/blog

16/02/2024

Prickleback Urchin Hedgehog Rescue are a fine example of how 'home rehabilitation' can be done REALLY well!

While we know there are some really bad rehabilitation set ups out there, there are also many fantastic ones. The Wildlife Care Badge is really keen to not only highlight brilliant rescues but also celebrate the hard work that rehabbers put in to make their facilities so good!

16/02/2024

We would like your feedback!

The Wildlife Care Badge has been up and running for two years now. We are really interested to hear about what YOU think of the Badge. Positive or negative it all helps towards us making improvements.

Please take a minutes to fill in the survey below!
https://form.jotform.com/240456054393052