Introducing WildCare: a free wildlife rescue and rehabilitation management system

Wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centres manage complex information every day. Each admitted animal may require identification, clinical assessment, medication, feeding schedules, photographs, laboratory results, progress notes, staff coordination and, eventually, release or mortality records.

When this information is spread across paper forms, spreadsheets, messages and separate files, it becomes difficult to maintain a complete and reliable history for every animal.

To help address this challenge, we created WildCare: Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation Management System.

WildCare is a free, open and adaptable digital platform designed to help wildlife rescue centres organise animal care, clinical information, daily tasks and reporting in one place.

What is WildCare?

WildCare is a database-driven management system for wildlife first-aid and rehabilitation centres. It supports both the day-to-day work of staff and volunteers and the more detailed requirements of veterinarians, scientists and centre managers.

The system creates a complete case file for every admitted animal and connects that record with treatments, progress updates, imaging, documents, photographs and daily care schedules. It can also publish selected rescue statistics for supporters and members of the public.

Complete animal case records

Every animal admitted to the centre receives a unique case number.
The record can include:

• Common and scientific species names
• Genus and family
• Sex and age class
• Weight
• Admission date and reason
• Location where the animal was found
• Finder information
• Current rehabilitation status
• Photographs
• Clinical notes
• Release or mortality information
• Administrator-defined custom fields

Species can be selected through iNaturalist taxonomy autocompletion, helping centres maintain consistent scientific names and avoid spelling differences between users.

Medical and rehabilitation records

WildCare keeps clinical information connected to the individual animal record.
Users with the appropriate permissions can add:

• Medications and treatments
• Dosage, route, frequency and duration
• Dated progress notes
• Rehabilitation milestones
• Radiographs and findings
• Laboratory results
• Necropsy reports
• Certificates, permits and supporting documents

The system also maintains a history of changes, showing who updated the record and when.

A complete medical dossier can be exported as a PDF for veterinary clinics, authorities, partner organisations or receiving facilities.

Daily feeding, medication and care schedules

The daily programme converts each animal’s care plan into practical tasks for staff and volunteers.
For a selected date, the centre can organise:

• Feeding schedules
• Medication times
• Assigned staff members or volunteers
• Dosages and instructions
• Completion tracking
• Printed daily programmes
• PDF schedules
• Email distribution to the people on duty

When a task is completed, WildCare records who completed it and at what time. This creates a clearer and more accountable daily workflow.

Roles and permissions

WildCare includes four main user roles:

1. Super Admin
   Controls the full system, including user approvals, roles, permissions, backups and settings.
   
   
2. Admin
   Suitable for centre managers and lead veterinarians.
   
   
3. Member
   Suitable for veterinary staff, biologists and permanent personnel.
   
   
4. Volunteer
   Provides access to assigned tasks, daily schedules and new admission registration without exposing administrative settings or sensitive system functions.
   
   

Permissions can be adjusted in detail, allowing each centre to decide which roles can edit treatments, upload files, manage settings or access particular records.

Reporting, exports and backups

WildCare supports data portability so that centres are not locked into a single system.

The platform includes:

• CSV and Excel imports
• CSV exports
• Individual medical PDF exports
• Google Sheets links
• Google Drive backups
• Preview-before-restore functionality
• Audit records for backups, restores and important system actions

This allows organisations to move existing records into WildCare, continue using established spreadsheets during a transition period and maintain independent backups of their information.

Built for privacy and responsible access

Wildlife rescue records can include sensitive personal and clinical information.

WildCare therefore uses role-based access, approval controls, private file storage and row-level database security. Unapproved users cannot access clinical data, while public statistics provide aggregated totals without exposing animal, finder or user information.

The platform also records important changes and system events in an audit history that ordinary users cannot alter.

English and Greek interface

WildCare currently includes both English and Greek.

Each user can select their preferred interface language, and the system can be expanded with additional languages by adapting the translation files.

This makes the platform suitable for local teams, international partnerships and rescue centres with multilingual staff or volunteers.

Open for everyone to copy and use

WildCare was designed to be adapted, not restricted to one organisation.

Any wildlife rescue or rehabilitation centre can copy the project and create an independent version with its own database and published address.

Centres can change:

• Their name and logo
• Colour palette
• Languages
• Clinical fields
• User permissions
• Public statistics
• Existing admissions data
• Backup settings

The clinical structure is deliberately flexible so that each organisation can adapt the system to its own protocols, species, staff structure and operational needs.

Why we created WildCare?

Wildlife rehabilitation depends on accurate information, clear communication and coordinated care.

A missed medication, incomplete record or unclear handover can affect both animal welfare and scientific reporting. At the same time, many rescue centres operate with limited staff, volunteers and financial resources.

WildCare was created to make professional digital organisation more accessible.

It is not intended to replace veterinary expertise or the centre’s established protocols. It is a practical tool that can support those protocols by keeping information connected, structured and available to the right people.

Better organisation for better wildlife care

WildCare brings animal records, treatments, schedules, staff responsibilities, reports and backups into one system.

Its purpose is simple:
to help wildlife rescue centres spend less time searching for information and more time caring for animals.

WildCare is free, open and ready for rescue centres to copy, customise and use.
​
Open system. Shared knowledge. Better care for wildlife.

https://wildcare.mermanconservation.co.uk/​