den | 17 July 2003

17 July 2003

Birds
I've just been given the task of collecting a wedge-tailed eagle and transporting it to the Zoo. Eagles are graceful, majestic birds and I love to see them, but an eagle in a cardboard box on the back seat of my car scares the shit out of me. More about this rescue later, if I survive.

Echidnas
Rexie now weighs 1.1kg, and is now too big for her cat-cage. I've arranged to have her transferred to a carer's farm on the edge of town where Rexie will be kept in a cage 2 feet high x 3 feet x 10 feet. She'll stay there until spring and she'll get to know grass, dirt, weather and termites, as all young echidnas must do.

I'll be running her up to the Goonoo Goonoo* for release. This is the Goonoo State Forest

Bats
The gash on Kaye's leg has scabbed up and is no longer the open, raw wound it used to be. I noticed last night that all the fur around it was dry, which tells me she is no longer constantly licking the injury. And she's put on weight. I moved her from the dark pillowcase and into a tent where she'll have more room to stretch and groom. It's still too cold to release her but I don't want to do that until her leg is better. Soon I'll lock us in a room so she can get some flying practice in.

*pronounced "gunny gaNOO"

Current Mood: pleased

The eagle is a juvenile with a broken leg. He was picked up 3 days ago by a vet nurse who cared for him and strapped his leg, and then called WIRES because she couldn't give the intensive care he needs. I assumed she had him in a box, but she didn't. I had to use one of my rescue boxes which are 1/2 the size a wedge-tailed eagle needed. We carefully packed him in and I raced out to the zoo.

The gate staff waved me through as I approached. I slowed and called out "I have an eagle for the vets!" as I drove passed without stopping, and they waved. I seem to be doing this too many times.

The zoovets put the eagle in a large cage so he could calm down before they x-ray him. I hope the journey in the little box didn't make his damaged leg worse.

I asked about the boobook owl I dropped off last time. He had brain damage and had to be euthanased.

They had a large tub surrounded by heat lamps, which contained 6 baby blue-tongued lizards. The little cuties are only 8 inches long! I went "aww" and scratched the head of one. The lizards were accidentally bred, and because they're captive-bred they can't be released do to their exposure to exotic reptiles. AQIS do NOT want to put the wild native animals at risk, no matter how tiny that risk is. And it's illegal to keep them in New South Wales. "Which is a pity," said Tim The Vet. "We could sell them to the public as a fund raiser." They'll end up in another zoo with a different gene-pool.

One Phonecall Later

Tim just rang to say the bird's tibia and fibula were broken in 3 distinct places, and there were a lot of fragments. Also, there was a break near the foot, and there was an open wound in the thigh. The only way to repair that damage is with bone-cement and to fix an external brace to the leg, and to drill pins through the skin and into the bones. It would be 7 months before the bird could bear wight on the foot, and in that time it could develop "bumblefoot", a condition where the foot is permanantly closed and not usable to hunt, kill, perch, walk on etc. And that's IF it doesn't develop osteomylitis in 4 weeks.

He's going to euthanase the eagle. Poor little bird.