FLORIDA KEYS -- If mayonnaise, Dawn soap and stomach coaters are missing from the supermarket shelves, it can only mean one thing: The oil spill has reached the Keys and sea animals are in distress.

Officials from the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center in Tavernier and the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo say they'll be ready with such products in case they need to scrub the shells of turtles, wash injured wading birds, or relieve the irritated stomachs of whales and dolphins who have ingested oil.

"We're kind of getting ready with one hand. With the other hand we're keeping our fingers crossed," said Turtle Hospital founder Richie Moretti, who said his facility already has stockpiled cases of Dawn as well as mayonnaise, an effective agent for cleansing oil from shells.

Whether the Keys will see major impacts, moderate impacts or no impacts at all from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill remains to be seen. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed last Wednesday that light sheens of the oil have been picked up by the Loop Current, which normally flows from the Gulf of Mexico to the Florida Straits and Gulf Stream but had moved further west over the weekend.

But the agency also stated that the oil would be weathered before it reaches the Keys, and that it would require persistent onshore winds or an eddy on the Loop Current for oil to reach the Florida shoreline.

Still, just in case a bad-case scenario comes to pass, local animal rescue agencies have been preparing for weeks, they say.

At the Marine Mammal Conservancy, best known for its work with captive dolphins, training of the 42 staff members began three weeks ago, Conservancy Director Robert Lingenfelser said.

Like all people who wish to be authorized in the recovery of oiled-animals, MMC employees must complete a hazardous materials training program.

Lingenfelser said he also hopes some 300 MMC volunteers will be trained over the next several weeks. But since dolphins and some whales regularly shed their outer skin, he expects that MMC would more likely be dealing with digestive and stomach problems caused by the consumption of oil.

A stomach coater, similar to Pepto-Bismol, is one tool his team would use to treat distressed mammals.

Moretti, at the Turtle Hospital, said that upon any reports of oil in the vicinity of central or south Florida, his facility plans to move its 40 to 50 resident turtles out of the ocean, where they usually reside in a contained area that is flushed with natural seawater. They would be relocated instead to two 30,000-gallon tanks.

If the facility began admitting a rush of oil-covered turtles, the overflow would be housed in rooms at the hospital that were once part of an old motel. That's what the hospital did during the powerful cold snap in January, when 178 turtles, representing four endangered species, were admitted to the facility.

Turtles, Moretti pointed out, can survive on dry land.

"I'm comfortable whatever comes our way, our Keys folks can handle," he said.

Like all wildlife organizations that would be involved in recovering animals impacted by the oil spill, the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center would be working in conjunction with a unified command overseen by British Petroleum and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

As such, the bird center doesn't expect to clean the birds -- that would be handled by Tri-State Bird Rescue Research, a Delaware-based company hired by BP that would set up in the Keys if necessary.

But the bird center does expect to assist in stabilizing wading birds both before and after their feathers are cleaned, Hospital Director Vered Nograd said.

Birds rescued with oil-covered plumage are often hypothermic, as the oil mats the feathers together, exposing sensitive skin to the elements. In addition, the oiled birds also frequently suffer from internal problems caused by ingestion of toxins.

To that end, the bird center is stockpiling intravenous fluids, Nograd said.

"Bird must be stabilized for 24 to 48 hours before they are cleaned," she said. "You have to get rid of toxins so that you can take care of internal threats before you can take care of external threats. We are prepared to take as many as we can and we are prepared to work 24/7 if we have to."

Officials stress that all calls reporting oil-covered wildlife should be directed to 1-866-557-1401.

rsilk@keysnews.com