Triage and the ABCs — NY Wildlife Rehabilitator Exam

Triage and the ABCs

Why this matters

In first aid it is always tempting to treat the most visible injury. The most visible injury is rarely the one that kills first.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to

Define triage and apply it to a caseload

Work through the ABCs of emergency care in order

Recognize physiologic shock and respond correctly

Triage is the process of sorting out the medical priorities of your patients to decide which cases are treated first and which can wait. Sometimes it means a conscious decision not to treat a problem, or to euthanize an animal, because there are higher priorities.

The ABCs

A is for AirwayMake sure the animal can breathe. In serious cases a tube into the trachea may be needed. This is not a beginner procedure.

B is for BleedingStop any major bleeding. Manual pressure directly over the wound usually stops it within a couple of minutes. Ideally there is a sterile bandage between your gloved hand and the wound.

C is for CardiopulmonaryIs the heart beating? Is the beat regular? Injured animals are often in physiologic shock.

Recognizing shock

Suspect shock if the animal is immobile and its gums and mucous membranes are much whiter than normal. Shock is a collapse of circulatory function from severe blood loss or toxins. These animals need to be warmed and given fluids rapidly. Ideally fluids go intravenously, but other routes help.

Beyond the ABCs, most injuries can wait

A broken limb or a large wound is not often immediately fatal. Use common sense:

Minimize examination time, or divide it into short segments with recovery time in between.
Have everything you need ready before you pick the animal up.
Cover the head. Keep talking to a minimum.
For animals that are not critically ill, an initial quiet period to recover from transport is often beneficial. Animals with respiratory problems are especially prone to collapsing from the stress of handling.
Never touch open wounds with ungloved hands. The bacteria on your skin cause infections.
Cover open wounds with moist sterile dressings, using warmed sterile saline on the gauze.
Do not apply force to broken limbs. Immobilize them with bandages.
Keep the animal in a darkened, warm, quiet place for an hour or two until an experienced person or your veterinarian can examine it.

A bird that has hit a window sometimes needs nothing more than a couple of hours of rest in a dark, quiet, well ventilated, warm box before it can be released. Examine it for injuries before you box it and again before you let it go.

This lesson is part of the NY Wildlife Rehabilitator Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.

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