Business as usual pre-Thanksgiving

Last week saw no releases and a couple of intakes: a barred owl and a screech.

The barred owl came in after being found by the roadside, unwilling or unable to fly. An intake exam revealed no wing fractures but his left foot was swollen and “crunchy” right above his toes and he kept that foot balled up. By his vet visit the following day, though, he had the foot fully extended in a more normal position. X-rays showed the foot was indeed fractured but because it was still quite swollen, vet Jim Hobby and I opted to do a soft wrap for the weekend to give the swelling time to go down before splinting the foot early this week.

The screech wasn’t as lucky; he flew into the bumper of a car, resulting in an open femur fracture. His finders initially thought nothing was broken and were going to wait until the following morning to bring him to me, but when they saw blood they called back to ask if they could go ahead and bring him that night. He lasted mere minutes after they arrived with him; it appeared that the broken femur sliced or punctured a vein or artery, causing him to bleed out en route.

The red tail whose elbow fracture froze the joint when it healed is still not showing any measurable progress but, well, he’s a red tail. As I told a colleague last week, unless a red tail is bleeding from every pore or has three inches of bone exposed, I’m inclined to give it as much time as possible—and sometimes it pays off. So we’ll just have to wait and see with this fellow.

The screech who’s recovered from a dislocated shoulder is pretty much good to go; I’ll most likely open the mini-pen door about dusk one evening this week and let him decide when/if he’s gonna leave. I’m sure he’ll disapprove of that, as well—it’s a screech thing...

And since the next update will be after Thanksgiving, I hope y’all all have a happy Thanksgiving!