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Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
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Reports coming to our news blog is that last night, an injured ocelot was hit by a vehicle near the hospital in our Corozal Town.

Neighbours and our Corozal Police were able to rescue the furry animal. The jaguar is currently under the good care of our vet Dr. A. Charles of Your Pet's Health Clinic where it has been stabilized and will be transferred this morning to the Belize Referral Wildlife Clinic.

THANK YOU to our Corozal Police, Dr. Charles and a great community for the care and compassion shown to our injured animal.



Photo credit: Jorge Aldana

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Joined: Oct 1999
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Marty Offline OP
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MARGAY MAKES IT TO BWRC BUT STILL IN CRITICAL CONDITION

"After a night of countless messages, phone calls and some midnight video chats, we are happy to see this patient arrive alive, albeit still in critical condition with head trauma from his run in with a vehicle and suspected lung injury.

We thank all involved in this past curfew emergency response (kudos to Dr. Charles, Thank you to FD and Mr. Flowers for the afterhours effort and permission!). We keep our fingers and toes crossed the patient pulls through and wanted to confirm that it is indeed an adult male Margay.

How can we tell? One of the most useful morphological featured is well visible in this image during rehydration: the length of tail compared to body length. The Margay as an arboreal species has a tail as long as his body or longer (whereas the bigger sized and terrestrial Ocelot has a tail that is shorter than it's body). The Margay uses his long tail as a balancing stick in the trees and is of slender build and lighter weight. The eyes (much larger in the nocturnal Margay) as well as the body size of adults (which is not always easy to assess and may sometimes benefit from xrays or dental exam) are further criteria to differentiate the species.

Another awesome anatomic feature of the Margay that none of our other cats share is that they can rotate hindlimbs 180 degrees, and hang or climb facing head down, as another adaptation to their arboreal Lifestyle.

BELIZE WILDLIFE AND REFERRAL CLINIC

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Joined: Oct 1999
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Marty Offline OP
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Sad news: We are heartbroken to share that the margay started to deteriorate from day 5, when his pupils stopped responding (you can see him in the picture pressing his head into the corner, a sign of headache, which he showed intermittently) to today when he went from unresponsive and circling, to recumbent with petit mal (short seizures) to grand mal seizures. While heavy sedation and muscle relaxants helped at first, he then progressed to status epilepticus (seizing constant) and had to be anesthetized. Shortly after relaxing from anesthesia, which we had avoided previously, he passed away. Brief attempts at CPR were fruitless. We got our hopes up too early and expected this patient to continue his positive development of the first three days but head trauma is unpredictable and can kill even after 10 days. In humans (special surgeons) may actually drill hole into the skull to relieve the pressure of the swollen brain (which is the cause of the symptoms observed, and death). But in animals or wildlife this is not really an option. We appreciate everyone's interest and care for this beautiful feline. We tried but we lost the fight.

Belize Wildlife & Referral Clinic is at Belize Wildlife & Referral Clinic


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