I have sought your advice on other occasions, and I have another question. I am a volunteer in our city caring for fifty swans. We had a male mute swan, Ozzie, that was attacked by a coyote last night. Fortunately someone saw the attack and drove the coyote away and called us immediately. Our vet, however is on vacation and we could not get Ozzie in until this morning to see the on-call doctor. Do you have any recomendations on our assembling a swan first aid kit? Also, what about recomendations for emergency care? Coyotes are a constant threat in our area, since we are in the open desert. If our vet is not immediately available, we presently hydrate an injured swan with a tube and clean the wound with anitbacterial soap and apply neosporin. We did ask the doctor this AM about keeping antibiotics in our first aid kit, but she said they have a short shelf life (we inject the antibiotics). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Connie