In addition to two new intakes that required euthanasia, the potentially imprinted barred also experienced a steep and rapid decline. It was one of “those” weeks, salvaged only by the screeches...
A great blue heron with no apparent injuries came in Wednesday. Given his alertness and the fact that nothing was broken, it seemed that all he needed was a few days of R&R before release; however, on Friday morning he started having seizures one after another, lying on his side and thrashing wildly. Obviously, euthanasia was the only humane option.
A great blue heron with no apparent injuries came in Wednesday. Given his alertness and the fact that nothing was broken, it seemed that all he needed was a few days of R&R before release; however, on Friday morning he started having seizures one after another, lying on his side and thrashing wildly. Obviously, euthanasia was the only humane option.
And on Friday yet another barred owl came in, this one with an unfixable shoulder fracture. He was also euthanized.
Adding to the general crappiness of the week, today the potentially imprinted barred was on the ground again, sitting facing the corner of the pen with his head at an odd angle, looking up at the perch above him—or so I thought. When I walked toward him, he was unresponsive to my movements, and when I reached down, he attempted to walk away, fell over, and began struggling to breathe. I have no clue. His feet were already ice-cold, his body temp was low, and he’d eaten only half the mice I’d given him the previous night. I don’t know if there was lingering head trauma that led to a stroke or maybe an aneurysm or...I just don’t know. He was euthanized.
There ARE a few rays of sunshine in an otherwise depressing week, though—three, to be exact. The three screeches are all doing well and should all be moved outside within another week or so. It’s impossible to not experience a mood lift from just looking at a screech, and these three are such pissy, attitudinal little snots that I snicker every time I look at them.
The Christmas week screech, henceforth Screech 1, seems to have full mobility in his wing, so that’s promising. The other two had no fractures, just head trauma. Screech 2’s RIGHT eye was swollen shut on intake, recall, but he closes the LEFT when giving stinkeye. Screech 3 likes to glare with both eyes wide open most of the time; his left pupil is still a bit dilated.
Below are some shots of them from when I freshened their paper this afternoon:
There ARE a few rays of sunshine in an otherwise depressing week, though—three, to be exact. The three screeches are all doing well and should all be moved outside within another week or so. It’s impossible to not experience a mood lift from just looking at a screech, and these three are such pissy, attitudinal little snots that I snicker every time I look at them.
The Christmas week screech, henceforth Screech 1, seems to have full mobility in his wing, so that’s promising. The other two had no fractures, just head trauma. Screech 2’s RIGHT eye was swollen shut on intake, recall, but he closes the LEFT when giving stinkeye. Screech 3 likes to glare with both eyes wide open most of the time; his left pupil is still a bit dilated.
Below are some shots of them from when I freshened their paper this afternoon:
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