Fall Meeting 2024

Announcing the Fall Meeting of the Connecticut Wildlife Rehabilitators Association!

Date: Sunday November 10, 2024

Time: 8:00am – 5:00 pm

Cost: $10 for CWRA members

CWRA members are those individuals who paid for their 2024 membership.

$25 for NON-members/ walk ins

Location: Note this is a NEW venue! Wesleyan University, Tischler Hall in Exley Science Center- 265 Church Street, Middletown CT

The Most Important Medications for Wildlife Rehabilitators to Know About! This presentation will give us an overview of the most commonly used medications, including antibiotics, pain control medications, anti-parasite treatments -- and pharmaceutical best practices, how to avoid common pitfalls and mistakes, dispel common myths, and more!

Dr Robert Adamski, BVMS serves as consulting veterinarian for the two largest wildlife centers in Maine and the Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of Massachusetts (WRAM), along with serving as an instructor for the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (IWRC) and assistant professor at Unity College for the Captive Wildlife Care and Education program.

The Social Behavior of Black Bears: Dr. Kilham will share fascinating insights about the social behavior and intelligence of bears, show his novel rehabilitation methods for raising bear cubs in a way that emulates nature, and discuss effective ways to avert human-bear conflicts.

Ben Kilham, PhD is the “Bear Whisperer” featured on National Geographic, and author of Among the Bears: Raising Orphaned Cubs in the Wild and other publications, and founder of the Kilham Bear Center in New Hampshire which has rehabilitated and released over 350 bears. His work has appeared on media such as Good Morning America, The Today Show, ABC News and the Discovery Channel.

Emaciation: To Feed or Not to Feed: This presentation will cover the causes and complexities of this all-too-common condition, and how treating it is not as simple as just offering food. Dr. Parker will walk us through what emaciation is, various causes, how it affects the body, and yes, how to treat!

Not So Normal Skunks with Not So Normal Diseases:A brief review of neurological skunk cases from the summer of 2024, discussion of differential diagnoses, diagnostics, and their implications.

Dr Shary Parker, DVM specializes in zoo, exotic and wildlife medicine. She is the wildlife veterinarian for the Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy, Beardsley Zoo volunteer, as well as a frequent lecturer at the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association and other state and national wildlife rehab conferences.

ROUND-TABLES: We will also feature 2 interactive roundtables focused on pivotal issues.These will allow for audience participation and a venue for discussing those tricky rehab-specific issues. Bring your questions!

Veterinary Issues Roundtable:

Led by Arianna Mouradjian, CWRA Board member; Director of Operations, Wildlife Clinic of Rhode Island

Pre-release and Other Challenges Roundtable:

Led by Laura Simon, CWRA president

More Relevant Information:

For aspiring rehabilitators: attendance at this conference can count towards your new rehabilitator apprentice hours

Lunch options: Bring your own lunch, or several walking-distance options for take-out will be listed. Bring your own drinks please! Morning snacks will be provided.

No raffle/silent auction this meeting: We will resume our raffle/ silent auction at the spring meeting!

Questions? Contact CWRA at: secretary@cwrawildlife.org