You can’t save ‘em all…

…but it’s still painful when you lose ‘em, too. That never changes. Rehabbers develop what some call clinical detachment, which to me implies a total separation from the scene playing out before them. I prefer the term “clinical distance”, which seems to imply that the rehabber is very much a part of the scene but must step back emotionally in order to do what’s best for the wildlife.

This gorgeous slightly over one-year-old red tailed hawk came in last week with a broken wing. How do I estimate age? Look at his eyes: they’re just beginning to develop the caramel color that would mark a two-year-old bird.  A mature bird’s eyes will be dark brown. 

Of course, with closed fractures, x-rays are necessary to determine the extent of the break and whether it’s fixable.  The x-ray on this guy, however, showed a jaggedly broken, almost open, badly displaced break. This wasn’t fixable. We had no option but euthanasia.

Now, it’s very popular among the uninitiated to protest that rehabbers and vets should mend a bird in this shape as best they can and keep him as an educational bird.  Unless the bird is very young and has never experienced total freedom, I can’t in good conscience agree with that viewpoint.

A bird that has experienced free flight will never, ever be truly happy in captivity. No matter how “enriched” his environment is, it is NOT freedom. He’s alive, yes, but he’s not LIVING. Do you see the difference?  This is no way for such a magnificent bird to spend the remainder of his days. If I can’t offer him the hope of free, unfettered flight, I can at least give him a humane, dignified, peaceful death.  Life-saving is always preferable, but all too often rehabbers must choose life-ending. We do so because of our determination to make the decision that is right for the wildlife under our care. Their welfare isn’t our major concern; it’s our ONLY concern.

Sometimes we think a critter has a good chance at survival and release, even though it looks pretty rough. This mallard was a victim of repeated attacks by other ducks and geese; his rescuer actually intervened as he was about to be attacked again.

All the feathers had been plucked from his neck and the skin was raw, bleeding and beginning to get infected in spots, but vet Richie Hatcher and I both thought his prognosis was pretty good. Oral antibiotics and ointments would fight the infection and ease the pain of the plucked neck, and while he was thinnish, his weight wasn’t too far off the baseline weight for mallards and his appetite was good.

Unfortunately, our optimism was misplaced and the poor mallard died overnight. Maybe he was sick to begin with, and that’s why he had been so viciously attacked by the other ducks and geese; maybe the damage to his neck was more severe than we thought. In this instance, though, we opted NOT to euthanize because our assessment was that he had a fighting chance at survival and release.

And then we have our long-term guest, the barred owl with the pinned wing…He’s doing great and will likely have the pin removed in the next week or so, as his x-rays are showing only minimal weekly improvement now. This means the healing has advanced about as much as it ever will.

Then the nail-biting begins for us as we hope and pray that the wing doesn’t snap and splinter the first time the owl attempts to use it without the pin stabilizing it. This is a very real possibility that we’ve been aware of from Day One. The x-rays have shown continued callus formation, which should stabilize the wing, but in the real world, anything could happen. We won’t know till we know—comforting thought, huh?

Welcome to a rehabber’s world.