The fundraiser is going well, with $1250 raised thus far and just $550 to go to meet our goal. Many thanks to those who’ve donated already and for those who haven’t, YOUR donation could be the one that pushes us to the goal—so what’re you waiting for? Time’s a-wastin’!
Only one new intake this week, an adult great horned owl with a massive eye injury. It was an older injury: It appeared somehow his eye may have gotten injured and infected in the wild and by the time he was found sitting in the middle of the road, it had ruptured. Essentially, he had no eyeball left; when I gently pried open the eye to see the extent of the damage, my fingers were resting on the exposed orbital bones. Probably because of this, he was also near-starvation thin, but he was still alert. He was offered mice, which he eagerly ate. The plan was to check with DNR and FWS to see if the regs on euthanizing a one-eyed bird could be waived if the remains of the eyeball were surgically removed and the bird placed as an educational ambassador (one-eyed birds are frequently successfully used as ed birds), but the poor fellow died overnight. I suspect the infection from the ruptured eye had spread throughout his system.
Georgia’s back to more temperate daytime and nighttime temps, so the screech has been back in the mini-pen for the past week. He’s lost all his damaged tail feathers but is showing no signs of going through a molt. His overgrown talons are slowly being trimmed back, and the bumblefoot in his right foot is showing slight improvement. His will be a long road of recovery, but I’m hopeful he’ll eventually be releasable sometime next year. Let his situation be a constant reminder that all wildlife requires professional care when in captivity; the wrong diet and housing can ruin that bird or mammal’s chances of release and, indeed, often lead to the need for euthanasia.
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