10/10/2026
🚨 PLEASE DON'T WAIT – EVERY MINUTE COUNTS FOR INJURED AND ORPHANED WILDLIFE! 🦆🐣💔
I'm imploring people to please reach out to a wildlife rescue or rehabilitator as soon as possible if you find an injured, sick or orphaned bird.
Sadly, we're receiving calls about ducklings, chicks and other vulnerable baby birds that have been caught or brought home by cats, or found injured and struggling. Too often, people are unsure what to do and wait hours, sometimes even days, before seeking help.
By the time these babies reach us, it can already be too late.
These tiny lives are incredibly fragile. Dehydration, hypothermia, shock, infection and untreated injuries can cause them to deteriorate rapidly. A baby bird may appear relatively unharmed, particularly after being caught by a cat, but can still be in desperate need of urgent veterinary attention.
Please don't wait until they stop eating, become lethargic or are visibly dying before asking for help. Even if you message us late at night we still do our best to advise until the next day when they can be transported to us.
I also want people to understand the emotional and physical toll this takes on wildlife rehabilitators.
When these babies finally arrive, we do absolutely everything within our power to save them. We use incubators, warmth, fluids, veterinary treatment, antibiotics when indicated, specialist equipment and countless hours of hands-on care, on very little to no sleep.
We invest our own time, money, resources and, perhaps most importantly, our hearts into giving these little lives a fighting chance.
It is incredibly emotionally and physically exhausting to fight for an animal that may have had a much better chance of survival if help had been sought sooner.
And it's heartbreaking knowing that sometimes, despite everything we do, we simply cannot reverse the damage caused by waiting too long.
This isn't about blaming people who genuinely don't know what to do. It's about raising awareness so that more lives can be saved.
❤️ If you're unsure what to do, please just reach out and ask. We'd much rather receive a call that turns out to be unnecessary than receive a critically ill baby when it's too late.
If a cat has had a bird in its mouth, seek urgent professional help, even if there are no visible injuries. Keep the bird somewhere safe, warm, dark and quiet while arranging help. Don't force food or water into its mouth. However they need to be fed every two hours or so, so offering even wet cat food in warm water, or warm sugar water dripped into the beak will give babies much needed energy to keep fighting until it comes to us.
Wildlife rehabilitators are passionate about saving lives, but we cannot turn back the clock.
🦆 Early intervention saves lives. Please don't wait.
Turitea Bird Rescue 💚
