Supporting British Wildlife: Launch of the RSPCA Wildlife Toolkit for Veterinary Professionals
The RSPCA have recently launched their ‘Wildlife Toolkit for Veterinary Professionals’, a collection of resources, links and articles created by their wildlife veterinary teams alongside Vet Sustain and various partner organisations. The toolkit is available online and is aimed at helping veterinary professionals improve the welfare of wildlife when triaging and treating wild animals.
Vet Sustain
Led by Dr Justine Shotton, Head Vet for Wildlife and Exotics at the RSPCA and one of Vet Sustain’s Directors, this toolkit gives practical advice on the provision of veterinary care for a wide variety of wildlife species such as birds, deer, foxes, hedgehogs and marine mammals. Topics covered in the toolkit include common diseases, triage and euthanasia, dealing with a wildlife casualty, pharmacology and drugs, public advice, legislation and how to build relationships with reputable wildlife rehabilitators. The toolkit brings together a wealth of resources, factsheets, articles, webinars and videos from the RSPCA’s veterinary teams and partner organisations including Vet Sustain.
Justine said:
“Vet practices do an amazing job caring for sick and injured wild animals brought in by members of the public and rehabilitators, providing appropriate first aid, pain relief and euthanasia under the RVCS Code of Professional Conduct. It can be daunting for those who don't see wildlife frequently, so we've put together this toolkit to help vets and vet nurses maximise the welfare for these species. Our ‘Wildlife Rehab – the First 24 Hours’ short course features as part of the toolkit and is a great starting point for veterinary professionals interested in learning more about veterinary care in wildlife species”
Stephanie Sanderson, Director of Vet Sustain and Trustee of Cheshire Wildlife Trust said
“Vet Sustain are delighted to be able to support the new RSCPA toolkit with resources such as our Hedgehog Essential Veterinary Care Guide. Justine and her team at RSPCA have done a fantastic job of researching and bringing together key wildlife focused veterinary resources into one, easy to access online space. We hope that this toolkit will help veterinary professionals to better support Wildlife, one of our 6Ws of Veterinary Sustainability.”
The toolkit is available for veterinary surgeons and nurses registered with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in recognition of the need for professional veterinary training required to interpret and implement the toolkit content.
Accessible via the following QR code, the toolkit is also available online from: https://science.rspca.org.uk/vets/species. Please keep this resource within the veterinary professions (vets and nurses) and students.
