Currently LWR has three red tails, a red shoulder, a great horned owl, and a screech owl—and, of course, the vulture twins continue to visit at least once daily. Space is getting tight inside, as of the six recovering birds, only one is in a flight pen—the former stargazer.
He’s doing well and would have been released last week except for significant rain chances that cropped up beginning early in the week. And this week is looking to be the same—too few rain-free days to get him released, so he’ll be in the raptor flight another week, poor fellow. He’s so ready to go!
He’s doing well and would have been released last week except for significant rain chances that cropped up beginning early in the week. And this week is looking to be the same—too few rain-free days to get him released, so he’ll be in the raptor flight another week, poor fellow. He’s so ready to go!
The second red tail, the one with the massively swollen eye, has equally massive amounts of blood in that eye and still squints badly with it. On his vet visit we did determine his eye is intact; it was so swollen and draining so much I worried it had ruptured. Vet Jim Hobby at Smalley’s said he’s got a blood clot right on the pupil, so we’ll just have to give him time—and eye drops—to see how it heals.
The third red tail, if you recall, I suspected was a spray-and-pray victim since dove season opened the first Saturday in September and he came in the very next day with a wound that, to me, screamed gunshot. X-rays proved me right, although he wasn’t shot with normal birdshot (shows up as pellets on x-rays). His “hand” is pretty mangled but Jim and I think that with proper management he should heal for flight, given that none of the damage is near a joint. Again, time will tell.
The red shoulder does not, in fact, have an elbow fracture as I suspected; the elbow remains swollen but the x-rays were clear. Jim manipulated it a bit and found the problem; he has a seriously pulled muscle or possibly torn tendon that’s causing some dislocation of the elbow. It’s not an injury we can treat with anything but time. Soft tissue damage is the most uncertain, honestly: It may or may not heal for flight. I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but time will tell.
The great horned owl has a few scraped toes, a broken blood feather—he’s in a molt—a bloody beak, and some serious head trauma. He’s literally blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other. Given the misshapen right pupil, I was afraid the lens was luxated but it’s not. Jim said lens and retina looked fine, so we’re not sure why the pupil is misshapen unless it’s just from sheer blunt force trauma. Neither pupil is responsive to light, however, so again—say it with me—“Time will tell.”
The screech came in Saturday afternoon and hasn’t been to the vet yet; aiming at x-rays Monday. His right wing droops badly and there’s some scabbing at the shoulder and elbow that may be hiding exposed bone—hard to tell. He’s a typical feisty screech with a hearty appetite, though. Fingers crossed for this peeved little fellow!
And, of course, the vultures are still dropping by. Apparently carcasses were in short supply this week, as they hung around a bit more than usual, demanding handouts. Yeah, some of y’all saw this video when I posted it on my personal page yesterday, but it’s too good to share with everybody!
RSS Feed
