Wildlife Clinic
Found an animal?

Your answer

Three observations settle almost every case.

You do not need to identify the animal or diagnose it. Rehabilitators triage on a small number of signals, and you can collect all of them from several feet away without touching anything.

What to do right now

  1. 01Is it bleeding, or is a limb or wing hanging wrongly? That is a yes to help.
  2. 02Is it cold, wet, limp, or covered in insects? That is a yes to help.
  3. 03Did a cat or dog touch it? That is a yes to help, even with no visible wound.
  4. 04If all three are no, watch from a distance for an hour before doing anything at all.
  5. 05Photograph it with something for scale and call a rehabilitator to confirm.

What not to do

  • Do not feed or water it while you are deciding.
  • Do not handle a bat, raccoon, fox, skunk, or coyote at all.
  • Do not take it indoors to think about it.

Change your mind if any of this is true

Any one of these changes the answer above. Call a rehabilitator instead.

  • Any of the three questions turns into a yes while you watch.
  • It has not moved at all in an hour, in the open, in the heat.

Get professional help

Tell us where you are — your state, then your county — and we will list the people licensed to take it there, nearest to you first. Rehabilitators are licensed by their own state, which is why we ask.

Understand the animal

Knowing why this happens is what makes the next one easier to read.