Skunk in the Sock of Shame
Most rehab jobs are not glamorous, and here is one I'm well familiar with.
Without their mothers and stuck in a strange environment (with people), orphaned animals will console themselves in ways that can be harmful to themselves or others.
Last week we admitted 3 young skunks to the center for care after their mother had been found deceased. After a few days it was noted that the male of the group had swollen genitals from someone trying to nurse on him. He was immediately separated from the group and started on medication. It was later discovered that he was actually doing it to himself... As a result, he gets the Sock of Shame so that he can heal.
Genital nursing does occur in rehabilitative animals for a number of reasons. When young animals (especially orphans or those weaned too early) suckle on the genitals of their littermates or caregivers, it is known as "cross-suckling" or "sibling suckling." It is an instinctive, non-nutritive behavior typically driven by the need for comfort, missed maternal bonding, or misplaced nursing instincts.
Orphaned animals frequently turn to this behavior for emotional comfort, warmth, and self-soothing. It simulates the security of being with their mother as suckling triggers the release of calming, feel-good hormones. Because the behavior becomes associated with relief and relaxation, the animal continues the behavior to pacify itself when stressed. While the behavior may stem from innocent rooting, it can become compulsive. Cross-sucking can lead to severe skin irritation, genital injuries, and infections.
While receiving medications, and having to wear the Sock of Shame, we have also provided this little one with a larger enclosure space, that is darker and quieter, as well as additional toys to play with and hide under to help distract him from what is clearly a stressful experience for him.
Reptar is no shame, Reptar empowers all beasts.
It is about the best sock one could be stuck in! 🦖
Poor little smol stinker. ☹️ Hopefully he de-stresses and can be rehabilitated. Since it apparently wasn't his littermates that were suckling, can he be reunited with them?
Wherever possible, it's typically best for animals to grow up with each other so they learn property behaviors and socialization skills, as that will help them have better futures, so if they get this little one calmed down and healed up, he can hopefully return to its littermates.
We try various things to keep them out of harmful behavior. One of the things I saw this year at our clinic was the "nipplemonster" made of a cardboard tube with fluff and feeding nipples stuck on it. No idea if they used it, but it caught me by surprise when I first found it while cage cleaning.
This is pretty great actually. My brain went, "hook up some tubes to a feedbag of formula!" But I bet you need to keep accurate track of who's getting how many ounces to be sure they're thriving.
It didn't have anything inside, it was just there like a pacifier.
Everyone gets fed specific amounts based on bodyweight, so feedings gets monitored closely.
Hey, I have those same socks!
Make sure you check them for skunks before putting them on!
Ah, cool... learned something today.
I once knew someone in Oz (or "Straya") who was... I think a pre-doc or post-doc lab worker. For whatever reason her dept seemed to prefer dunnarts, a local fauna, over lab mice & rats. Unfortunately, some of the little blighters evidently stressed easy, and one of the typical behaviors of the males was to, yes... chew their own genitals, to the point of destroying them.
Bothersome to me was the fact that my friend didn't seem too bothered by this, but I guess it was one of those situations in which lab workers have practically zero say in procedure, and over time she just got accustomed to it. Not unlike for example vet personnel who work in some shelters, who have little choice but to regularly euthanise a percentage of the dogs & cats staying there.
Never heard of dunnarts. The wiki says they have the smallest Y chromosome of any mammal so maybe that was significant?
I would think they'd be trying to keep them happy and healthy, as I'd think stress, bleeding, and infections wouldn't be the best things for their experiments...
I'm typically not in places where our lab animals are at my day job, but it always seems they are well taken care of and valued, as much as a lab animal can be anyway...
I commented on ickplant's post about the fox rescue lady suicide anniversary, and animal shelter and welfare type workers have a 2-5x higher risk of suicide due to many things like having to euthanize so many animals. Sad stuff for people trying to do a hard job.
Ah, interesting...
And Judas Priest, that's sad about the hate and the suicides, and I'm kinda tearing up here.
I remember Finnegan Fox videos from a couple years ago. He and the late Caplin Rous (a capybara) were youtube stars for a while. I guess I briefly read about Mikayla Raines' death, but had forgotten about it until now. For some reason I don't think I picked up on the fact that hers was a suicide primarily driven by cyberbullying. That's so fucking gross and disgusting. Yeah, and now I really am wiping away the sad-angry tears.
If you're up for it, I wouldn't mind seeing you take your reply to Ickplant and turning it in to it's own little commentary as a post, here. You have a lot of fascinating info and perspectives working on the rehab / rescue (etc) side of things, and I feel like more light needs to be shed on on the hate and bullying, unfortunately.
I touch on it lightly from time to time, because it is important.
Surveys show almost 70% of vets have had a colleague commit suicide, 20% have serious thoughts of it, and 10% have attempted it.
I can only imagine putting yourself out there on social media bumps that stress up even higher as the one or two cruel comments can hit harder than hundreds of supportive ones.
It's just one more reason I tell everyone to support their local people and rescues before even thinking of sending anything to my clinic or the ones I feature. They're your local people and animals, and they need your help the most.
I'll have to think about how I can write something more in depth without being too much of a downer. It's something that needs to be talked about, but it is a heck of a dark topic.