Mystic Aquarium

Today we were very short staffed. Many of the volunteers last days have come and gone, leaving the facility short on people to help. I was placed in the ICU again. I had a total of 60 birds in my care for the day. Having been in ICU a few times before, I knew I had a lot of work to do to feed or tube each of the 60 chicks seven times, nebulize the chicks three times, move the chicks inside/outside twice, cleantwo separate areas and do the records for all 60 birds. But Friday is also a day for the staff to do rounds and check the birds to see if any can be upgraded or to see if any of their treatments need to be changed. It takes the staff about an hour and a half to check through all 60 birds. However, today four birds got upgraded from ICU to pen three, and 13 birds got upgraded from ICU to pen two. That means that many of them having started moving in the right direction.

Now just when I thought I had cleared some birds out of my pen, we received 20 more chicks in from Stoney Point. This makes almost 50 chicks that have been admitted just this week alone! Since November 1, SANCCOB has admitted about 155 chicks. With just 50 coming in this week, it looks like things are just getting busy!

Today we also had a lot of special medical cases to tend to. There were two adult penguins at the facility that had come in with broken legs. The facility has been caring for them; feeding them, hydrating them and letting them rest until they were strong enough to go for surgery. They actually had to have amputation surgery today. Both birds came back from surgery and were recovering nicely. They even were ready to eat in the afternoon. Eventually these birds will be released back into the wild. Even with their amputations, it is known that penguins can survive in the open ocean with only one foot.

We also have a little blue chick in that has a severe wound to his head that we are trying to treat. This wound may have been caused by several things. Either a shark, seal, or maybe even a boat propeller. Either way, I hope the little guy’s head heals up okay. He is still very cute and is very bright and alert. Maybe someone would like to adopt him as a Christmas chick to help support his treatments. If you would like to learn how to adopt a chick at SANCCOB check out SANCCOB’s website at www.sanccob.co.za.