A Margay is Knocked Down and Injured!

A wild cat, an adult margay, is recovering from injuries sustained after it was knocked down by a vehicle.  Reports are that two of the wildcats were spotted near the Corozal-Chetumal border recently, and on Monday night, sometime between eleven and eleven thirty, the cats were together when a truck hit one of them.  The Corozal community sprang into action, and with support from the police and a local veterinarian, Doctor Alfric Charles of Your Pet’s Health Clinic, the animal was restrained and treated.  Doctor Charles shared his observations, noting that the injuries didn’t appear to be life-threatening.

Alfric Charles

On the Phone: Dr. Alfric Charles, Veterinarian, Your Pet’s Health Clinic

“My observation of the animal, I noticed a puncture wound on the lower mandible and there was another wound on its left foreleg. It was dehydrated, lethargic and disoriented. Blood was seen coming out of its mouth and nostril which I suspect it was an injury sustained to the head. The animal was treated; it was administered antibiotics, penicillin, given dextrametazone. Restraining it was a little tough so I was unable to administer intravenously which would have been the best to be administered.  It was confined until Forestry retrieved it this morning around ten o’clock where it was transferred to the Wildlife Clinic in Cayo.”

As you heard in the interview, the Forest Department transported the injured margay to the Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic.