Wildlife knows no holidays

People who call rehabbers on holidays frequently apologize for doing so. I always tell ‘em wildlife doesn’t know what day of the week it is, much less if it’s holiday—nor does it care. Not in its realm of concern at all—days and weeks and months and holidays are all human constructs. When wildlife needs help, it needs it now, not after the weekend or after the holiday!
​
That was the case Thanksgiving when a volunteer transporter from south of LWR called about a hawk she’d been asked by local law enforcement to pick up. On her way home from retrieving the hawk, a flash of black in her peripheral vision made her do a double-take; it was a crow hung on a chain-link fence. She initially thought it was dead until it moved slightly, so she stopped and extricated the poor crow from the fence. She then called LWR and made plans to get the birds to me ASAP Friday.

The crow, a fish crow (smaller than an American crow), has a massively infected left eye and some swelling in the left wing, as well, but nothing feels broken. He’ll get x-rays Monday to confirm. The good news is that the eye is showing improvement with meds, and it appears there’s no damage to the eyeball itself, just the swelling in the conjunctiva. 

On intake 11-24

Currently this is his "good side"

Not feelin' real chipper on intake

Saturday, 11-25: Eye draining nicely

Today, 11-26: Swelling's noticeably reduced!

​However, an intake exam on the hawk, a first-year red tail, revealed an open fracture to the right wing and a closed leg fracture at the hip. There was nothing to be done for the poor bird but end his suffering.

​And the day before Thanksgiving, an adult male barred owl came in, also with a broken wing. Because I knew Smalley’s would be closed for the weekend after Thanksgiving, I needed to get this bird in immediately, so I honestly didn’t even stop to get photos. The x-ray did confirm a bad “hand” fracture, and it was open, as well, so given the bad displacement of the bones and the open fracture, vet Richie Hatcher and I decided the kindest option for the owl was euthanasia.

​The GHO with the badly damaged eye did require euthanasia; as I predicted last week, his eye continued to deteriorate.

And the blind barred owl was also euthanized.
​
The kestrel stubbornly refuses to leave any kind of wrap on his wing. I was worried that in his struggles to “unwrap” himself, he might have done further damage to the wing, so when I had the wing-fracture barred owl at Smalley’s Wednesday, I took the kestrel back and asked Richie to re-x-ray his wing. There was no change, thankfully.

And a hawk (the finders think) found in a neighboring county will be en route shortly, so it will join the crow in a trip to Smalley’s Monday unless it comes in with an open fracture. That I can handle myself, without making the bird suffer overnight.
​
The flyers are doing their little nocturnal thing and are still as cute as ever. That never changes!

​Finally, for those of you who follow LWR on Facebook, you know that Saturday LWR initiated a small fundraiser, mainly at the urging of Facebook’s admins, who have partnered with a charitable group to match donations made on (and apparently before) Giving Tuesday, Nov. 28 this year.  After the one big fundraiser mid-year, I’d said there would be no more, but hey, if Facebook will match your donations, it’s worth a try, right? The goal is small, $500, and we’ve had $145 donated already, so we have just $355 to go! The link is below, and thank you for any amount you donate, as it will be matched. (Not sure the link will work for those not on Facebook.)

https://www.facebook.com/donate/1493682460713566/1705016719529166/