In wildlife rehabilitation, our job is to change lives through healing wounds, raising babies, easing suffering, and sometimes by finding the best place for critters who are no longer able to thrive. While every animal we help impacts us in some way, there are those special few that touch our hearts and change us for the better. Here we highlight some of those critters that have left their mark on us and our work.
A Coyote’s Bumpy Road to Recovery – Story and Photos by Kaley Egan
I have been one of Red Creek’s head wildlife rehabilitators for nearly four years now, and like many of our staff, I have been wanting to rescue animals since I was a young girl. I would play veterinarian with my many stuffed animals, bandaging their “broken” arms and legs with strips of old t-shirts and linens – once they had healed, the stuffed foxes and lions would resume romping around in my bedroom. Years later, I am working in the demanding and rewarding field of wildlife rehabilitation but it wasn’t until this summer when those same miraculous dreams I had as a child came to life.
At the very beginning of July 2024, we admitted a coyote pup that had been hit by a car and was found lying on the side of a busy road. Vehicle accidents can be traumatic for wildlife, resulting in severe injuries and unforeseen complications. Once this pup had some time to rest, we were quick to complete an in-depth exam and preform X-rays. Upon exam, there were no broken bones, but he would not stand up or use h
is back legs and his stomach was swollen, a sign of possible internal damage from the accident. We consulted with our veterinarian, and agreed to just let the young coyote rest and recover. One of my favorite animals to work with, I was thrilled to have a chance to work with him, yet realistically worried he would not make it through the night. Yet, he did.
I estimated that this young pup was about three months old, probably born in April of 2024. He was weaned from his mother, but not old enough to leave his family unit yet. After allowing him a few weeks of rest, we planned to move him into an outdoor enclosure with enough space to run around and exercise, ensuring that all of his bumps and bruises had healed well, and then return him to the area where his pack lives. Filled with excitement, we moved him to the enclosure with expectations to release him the following day. Unfortunately, despite our efforts to limit dangerous obstacles in the pen, this wi
ld pup managed to trip and break both of his back legs overnight.
I was devastated – the very last thing a wildlife professional wants is for an animal to become injured in their care. Beyond this, I was not optimistic that this athletic, high-stress coyote would be able to recover from two broken legs. Once again, I consulted with our veterinarian and he assured me that we would be able to bandage the broken bones in-house and they should heal. So, we gave this pup our very best shot. Months of bandage changes, bedsores, medications, follow-up X-rays, and plenty of TLC resulted in something I truly was too afraid to hope for: a full recovery. To prevent a repeat of his injuries, we transitioned him very slowly into larger spaces as he healed.
For months of his recovery, the only way that I knew he was healing was through X-rays – he would rarely move for his daily cleaning and feeding indoors. While they can be fierce predators in the wild, this young coyote would cower away from his caretakers and only moved and ate at night when we were not around. This made his treatment safer and easier on our staff, but it did not provide any insight on how his legs were healing. Once he was healthy enough to transition to be housed in a small room in our clinic building, we installed a camera
to hopefully catch a glimpse of him moving. This choice certainly paid off, with footage of not only the pup walking around, but also videos of him playing, chasing his tail, and standing up on two strong back legs to look out the window of his room. Thrilled with his progress, I knew that his last test with us was coming soon: returning to that same large outdoor enclosure. When moving him outside, I held my breath. I knew how far he had come, and I had watched him on the camera footage with a now strong healthy body, but I still feared another accident. However, my worries faded as I watched him bolt around the pen without even a limp.
Finally out of the woods and recovered, we were ready to make release plans once again. However, this was much more complicated th
an before. Coyote pups typically remain within their family units until they are five to six months old, after which they will disperse and live on their own until they have their own family or join another. In November, he was over seven months old – he would not be accepted back into his pack. Not only this, but he came in at a vulnerable age at which he likely would not have hunted on his own very much, if at all. Despite there being less than normal food available in the winter, we did not want to hold onto this nearly adult coyote for an additional three to four months until spring. We found a perfect location with the help of Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Pennsylvania Game Commission – food would be available for him all winter and there is a healthy coyote population in this area for him to thrive with.
On December 17th, I released this coyote back into the wild. I had my professional camera at the ready, hopeful to capture the 
moment we had all been working towards for months. But, he shot out of his transport carrier like a bullet, sprinting and bounding across the large field faster than my camera could even capture. What I thought would be an easy and rewarding three-week recovery turned into an emotional rollercoaster that lasted five months and fifteen days. I wish that this pup’s recovery had gone more smoothly, but this journey and his story is exactly the reason why I do what I do. It reminds me how fiercely resilient wildlife can be, and I know that little girl bandaging stuffed animals would be proud of the both of us.