Another victim of our roads!

Rescue

As the evenings have gotten darker over the last month, our road traffic accident patients have certainly increased, and this adult female badger, was one of our recent victims, and one of the incredibly lucky ones.

Rescued by the RSPCA, the badger was found on the roadside, after she was witnessed being struck by a car.

During her examination, it became clear quickly that she'd suffered damage to her upper and lower jaw, with the latter injury exposing bone.

The sow was sedated whilst vet, Meriem got to work cleaning the badgers facial wounds, as well as the deep wound to her lower gum. With the placement of the gum injury, the only option was to clean and monitor its healing, as there was no chance of placing a bandage to prevent further infection.

Rehabilitation

Incredibly, the badger had not sustained any other injuries to her body, but her old age was very clear not only by her teeth, but by the cataract that had developed in her left eye.

A badgers eyesight is fairly poor, with their strongest sense being smell, so our concern for reduced vision in that eye was low.

With the injury to her gums a concern, predominately due to the question of how she'd eat, the badger was placed on a soft-food only diet. With foxes you can, very cautiously, provide support feeding to them, but unless a badger is completely collapsed, providing support feeds isn't really an option.

Understandably, the large sow was reluctant to eat for the first few days, but once her pain relief and antibiotics began to take effect, she began to look a lot brighter, and get her rather large appetite back!

In order to reduce the amount of time that the badger had to be handled and placed under sedation, Meriem opted to clean and check her gum wounds every few days, rather than the preferred everyday checks.

After two weeks, her gums began to heal incredibly, whilst the road burn to her face will take a little longer to recover before the fur begins to grow back through.

But, considering she had a fight with a 3000lb piece of metal, she has come away from her ordeal fairly well.