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Eagle
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.
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.
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I miss my semi tame blue tongue - he was great at keeping the snails away from the strawberries, even if he did occasionally claim a berry or two as payment. I moved house and couldn't take him away from his territory.
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but then, it's better that, then to die a slow death cos of bumblefoot or osteomylitis..
doesn't make it any easier, I know..
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Well, hopefully your next bird call will have a happier ending.
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Poor birds!
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It was for the best.
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When I was at the Renaissance Festival on Sunday, we stopped by the Rocky Mountain Raptor Society's aviary, and got to see a rather friendly turkey vulture who had been too domesticated to return to the wild, a golden eagle missing his right wing (power line accident), and a burrowing owl missing his left eye (car accident, they think).
The RMRS rehabilitates and releases as many birds as they can, but the few that they can't rehabilitate and don't have to put to sleep they keep as "ambassadors." Great people, very friendly, and they love talking about the birds. Every time I see them I give them a fiver.