Slow(ish) week

Believe it or not, LWR had just two new intakes this week! Given that I have a whole small colony of flyers and a nest full of barnies, I’m not complaining, not one little bit…If ya gotta be crowded during “slow” season, though, it’s better to have the cuties like flyers and barnies, right?
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The fundraiser is currently sitting at $815—just over the halfway mark. Of that, $300 has already been used for a small rodent order, and these little bottomless pits are already on the second bag from that order. If you’ve donated, I thank you and the barnies thank you; if you’ve not contributed to the cause yet, the barnies say send mouse money!

​Speaking of the barnies, I think they change noticeably every day. They had to be moved to bigger digs late last week, and it’s looking like the new box might see ‘em through another week, possibly 10 days, before they’ve outgrown it. Below are pix and videos of them over the past week—impossibly adorable, I know, and starting to look less like their dinosaur ancestors!

Once again, YouTube randomly decided to rotate the video--was filmed in EXACTLY the same position as the others and should be horizontal, not vertical...Who knows?

​The Eurasian collared dove had multiple wing fractures and did require euthanasia. Vet Peggy Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital pointed out several less obvious fractures in addition to the very obvious ones on the x-ray.

LWR had two barred owls come in last week, and in an extremely rare occurrence, neither required euthanasia! Because they tend to hunt near roadsides, barred owls normally come in with fatal injuries; a couple of years ago we saw 100% euthanasia rate in barred owl intakes for that year. That’s unusual, but a high euthanasia rate is the norm for barreds. This year, we’ve seen more barred owl releases than usual, which is always good, and these two should join the “release club” shortly.
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Barred #1 spent two days in a vehicle grille before being removed and brought to LWR. To be quite honest, I did NOT have high hopes for this bird upon hearing it’d spent two days in a grille, so I was delighted to be proven wrong. On intake, Barred #1 showed no signs of injury aside from ruffled feathers and a slightly swollen eye, consistent with a concussion. When Peggy examined him, she confirmed blood in the eye, again consistent with a concussion, but nothing that shouldn’t clear up in a few days.

​He’s in the raptor flight now and is eating well but the eye is still a bit swollen. As soon as it looks more normal, he’s good for release.

​Barred #2 was found by teens on the roadside and brought to LWR nearly immediately. Upon intake, he still had a bloody beak from a rather severe nosebleed and a massive headache from his concussion, but no other injuries. He just came in Saturday and is still a bit “concussy” so he’ll stay confined for another day or two and then go into the raptor flight, as well.

​And, of course, the flyers remain unbelievably cute! They’re harder to photograph now, as they’re in nearly constant motion when they’re awake—and their big game now is to cluster on the pen door and try to escape when their food and water is being freshened. The next step is to move them to a larger overwintering cage, but they’re not quite ready for that yet.