East meets West at wildlife rehab clinic

Dr. PJ Deitschel EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY After sunrise and before the fog lifted, Dr. PJ Deitschel, along with another veterinarian and a handful of interns and fellows, were gathered in the exam room at the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife on Sanibel Island. It is a first stop for many of the 4,000 injured birds, mammals and reptiles from all over Lee County that CROW rescues every year.

The group had already finished a morning checkup of patients under their care. They were standing around the exam table looking at an x-ray of an injured bird, a cattle egret, found the day before in someone's backyard. The female bird was alert upon arrival, with blood on its feathers. The person who found the egret thought it might have been shot. The group thought it was mostly likely hit by a car.

"(The patients) all have a story to tell," said Dr. Deitschel, the clinic director since 1998 and one of two staff veterinarians. "You don't have to know the story, but I think you have to have a sense of compassion. Every patient is created equal in our eyes. Whether you have feathers, skin, scales, fur — it doesn't matter."

If only humans were lucky enough to have her as a doctor.

But, as she likes to say, "Humans are one species. We take care of all the rest."

The group made a number of diagnoses and discussed how to treat the egret, using a combination of eastern and western medicine. "The best of both worlds," Dr. Deitschel said.

The meeting of those two worlds, for the cattle egret, meant using western medication like antibiotics and a bandage. Eastern herbs such as Body Sore (for aches and pains) would be taken orally along with western pain medication. Acupuncture could be used to remove the stagnant chi (energy that moves throughout the body) from the bird's injured shoulder.

"I am a firm believer in this modality of healing," Dr. Deitschel said. "We may not understand how it works all the time, but it works. We tend, as western doctors, to put our blinders on to other healing modalities. You get a lot of skeptics in western medicine."

Dr. Deitschel, 54, calls it her work "integrative." She incorporates all the advantages of her varied background.

Her first love was fine arts — including sculpture, film and theatre — and she considers that to her patients' advantage.

"It really developed that part of the brain that is creative," she said. "Especially when you're doing integrative medicine, you have to have a way of thinking that is outside the box…

"I actually fell into wildlife rehabilitation in my late 20s. It was one of those light bulb moments."

At the time, she was doing volunteer work for an animal advocacy group in New York and met some wildlife rehab veteri- narians. Fascinated with their work, she was later hired as a veterinary assistant. She had no experience, but it was a beginning.

"I was just so passionate," she said. "I think that's what (that clinic's director) was looking for — somebody who was passionate and compassionate. It was definitely on the job training, but it was something I just adored."

She returned to school at age 38 and graduated from Colorado State University with a veterinary degree in 1996. That year, she also began serving as CROW's first veterinary intern.

Soon after, she spent a year in South Africa at a wildlife rehab center, rehabilitating some larger, exotic animals like monkeys, zebras and baby rhinoceroses. She returned to CROW in 1998 as the staff veterinarian. In 2003, Dr. Deitschel graduated from the Chi Institute of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville.

CROW has operated quietly on Sanibel for the last 40 years, mostly out of an old house made into an animal hospital, like a hidden outpost in the wilderness. That will probably change soon. In addition to a new hospital being built alongside the old one, a new Visitors Education Center promises to make CROW accessible and transparent to the public eye, as well as a destination for tourists. It includes features like live video of staff members working with the animals. Under the leadership of Dr. Deitschel, it is set to open Jan. 25.

"Our goal has been to educate and inspire," she said.

Dr. Deitschel stood in the new education center, in front of a big-screen television. It was showing a bird, once in captivity at CROW, being turned back into the wild. With her wiry frame and tied-back gray hair, the no-nonsense doctor contrasted with the dazzling new visitor attraction. The bird on the screen took flight over a lake.

"This is the ultimate," Dr. Deitschel said. "This is what you aim for — the release."

If you go

>>Who: New Visitor Education Center at CROW >>When: Sunday, Jan. 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. >>Where: The Visitor Education Center is just

across from the Ding Darling Wildlife

Refuge at 3883 Sanibel Captiva Road >>Cost: Free >>Info: Visit www.crowclinic.org

or call 472-3644, ext. 1