Despite the “official” beginning of slow season, the critters do continue to trickle in; unfortunately, this time of year we tend to see more injured/ill adults and often there’s nothing we can do except end their suffering.
This was the case for the barred owl shown below. He was found in the middle of the road, and his left wing had an open fracture. It was an older wound, as the exposed bone had already begun turning black and the poor bird was rail-thin. Our only humane option was euthanasia.
This was the case for the barred owl shown below. He was found in the middle of the road, and his left wing had an open fracture. It was an older wound, as the exposed bone had already begun turning black and the poor bird was rail-thin. Our only humane option was euthanasia.
We had slightly higher hopes for this American coot, until closer examination revealed two open fractures, nearly hidden by the bird’s thick feathers, and multiple closed fractures, all on the right wing. Essentially, the wing was shattered, so again, euthanasia was our only option.
Eastern screech owls rarely escape an eye injury when they have run-ins with vehicles. They don’t always sustain wing or leg injuries, but you can almost bet money on some sort of eye injury. This little gray-phase male had not a mark on him, not a feather out of place. But his right eye was filled with blood. We began treatment to bring the swelling down and wait for the blood to clear to the point that we could determine the extent of injury to the eye. This was on a Tuesday; late Friday evening, the screech keeled over. He had eaten well Wednesday but hadn’t touched his mouse Thursday, which wouldn’t be unusual if he was still full—and he was well-fleshed, so he hadn’t been struggling for food in the wild. All we can figure is that the head injuries were more severe than we initially thought, perhaps with a slow bleed that killed him. Unfortunately, hemorrhaging and soft tissue damage don’t show on x-rays…
This gorgeous female Northern flicker came in with a wing injury that at first glance appeared to be a fracture hidden by severe bruising and swelling.
A closer exam, however, showed that the bruising was actually massive infection, to the point that the tissue was blackish-green. We have no clue how the wing got so infected, but it had reached the point that she couldn’t fly. Because she was well-fleshed, alert, active and had quite a healthy appetite, we opted to give her a chance and see if we could clear this up before, as vet Shelley Baumann said, “her wing rots off.”
This is her wing a week later—still a bit swollen, but MUCH improved over its appearance on intake. She’s also much more…umm…vocal and bouncing-off-the-walls active. She has another few days of antibiotics before she’s moved to the flight pen prior to her release. She’s pretty much demolished the log you see in these photos; I’ll get photos of what’s left of it when I move her into the flight pen early next week.
Thanks to Shelley Baumann for manning my camera to get the photos of me holding the flicker and the before and after wing shots!
Aaannnd…to round out this update with a healthy dose of cuteness, the flyers are down to one formula feeding a day and within the next week should be totally self-feeding. At that point, they’ll go into the big cage and be prepped for release!
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