Bobcat kitten ailing from suspected rat poisoning saved by New England teamwork

A baby bobcat was picked up recently by a wildlife rescue in Massachusetts with symptoms of a very common problem among wildlife: rat poison.

The bobcat kitten was taken back to Newhouse Wildlife Rescue and cared for overnight. The bobcat’s blood wasn’t clotting, a common sign of anti-coagulant rodenticide poisoning.

The next day, the Wildlife Clinic of Rhode Island reached out to Newhouse Wildlife Rescue and asked if they could take the kitten. They had a single, orphaned bobcat kitten of their own that they had been looking for a companion.

Blaine Hymel, lead wildlife veterinarian at the Wildlife Clinic of Rhode Island, said the bobcat kitten they already had was found thin and dehydrated by the Department of Environmental Management.

“We never want to raise something alone,” Hymel said of the solo kitten. “We always want to raise it, at least in pairs, so it doesn’t imprint on us, become too socialized and can’t be released.”

They arranged the transport and the rat-poisoned kitten was brought into their clinic at the end of July, where it’s doing well, Hymel said.

“We do see a lot of rodenticide poisoning in many of our mammals,” Hymel said.

She said raptors, foxes, squirrels and apex predators, like bobcats, are frequently impacted.

Hymel said in situations with anti-coagulant rodenticide, the animal will hemorrhage because its blood can’t clot, then will die.

Thankfully, the bobcat kitten was found before anything serious could happen, and was given vitamin K, the antidote used in this case.

The wildlife clinic did a full health work-up on the kitten and found that it also had signs of being hit by a car.

“It had an older fracture of its femur,” she said. Additionally, the bobcat had a broken tooth and some road rash as well.

Hymel said the clinic was surprised to see the animal was injured because of its agility.

The kitten’s injuries are starting to heal, but until it completes its vitamin K treatments and the injuries have healed a little more, it will get to know its companion through a cage.

“It is feisty,” she said. “It is sure a spunky little kitten.”

‘We love their sass – from a safe distance’

The kitten is eating well, too. Hymel suspects the kitten is between 8-10 weeks old.

She said it’s important that the cats don’t rely on humans and approach them when released, so that spunkiness is important.

Video from Thursday showed the two kittens growling during the cleaning of their cages.

“Though they’re still young, their wild instincts are strong, and that’s exactly what we want to see in rehab,” the Wildlife Clinic said in a post with the video. “We love their sass… from a safe distance.”

Both kittens will be kept at the clinic until they’re old enough to prove they can be successful animals in the wild.

“We use a series of graduated caging,” Hymel said. “Making sure they are hitting certain markers, making sure they are not friendly.”

Once they check all the boxes, the Wildlife Clinic will work closely with state and local agencies like the DEM to figure out where they can release the bobcats.

While the injured bobcat kitten is expected to make a full recovery, rodenticide poisoning is a very real issue wildlife rescuers face.

To learn more about rodenticide poisoning and safe alternatives to rodenticide, Hymel recommends checking out the National Audubon Society’s website.