Animal Rescues

[den]

Today I rescued a white-winged chough with a broken wing, and had to euthanaze it. And a baby blackbird with a broken leg which I had to euthanaze. And a kingfisher with a broken back, which had to be euthanazed. And a tortoise with a broken shell.

I'm not sure about the tortoise.She's been run over but the severity of the damage can only be determined by x-ray. I hope I don't have to euthanaze her.

I think I need a Dr Death animal rescue icon. *sigh*

Comments

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Aw, poor Den.

I've seen some shows where they've had good luck with fixing tortoises by making them new shells out of some kind of lightweight plaster that last until the turtle grows a new one. So hopefully there's still luck on that front!

[pipibluestockin]

Have not seen the lightweight plaster being used - but have seen fibreglass (of all things) being used successfully.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

fiberglass generates too much heat as it hardens, and it doesn't let go later and can distort the shell as the animal grows.

[pipibluestockin]

Ouch. Well, somewhere in England there is a very thoughtless vet.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I'v seen bone cement used too. And a friend uses steel mesh and small blobs of superglue.

[smof.livejournal.com]

You weren't the cause of their deaths. They would have died anyway, you know that, you just made sure it was quicker and more painless than nature would have done it.

Don't you dare ever feel guilty about what you do.

[sanderling.livejournal.com]

Dr. Death is underappreciated by the living.

Just out of curiosity, is it very difficult to set a broken leg? I've seen a number of birds during banding where it's obvious they broke their leg some time ago, presumably in an escape, and it healed by itself. Most of the time it's not really functional, but birds are resilient and songbirds really only need one functional leg to get by with life. Case in point: we've caught three birds who were entirely missing one leg, old healed injuries, but were perfectly healthy otherwise. It really amazes me.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Some birds do survive, but many don't. If there was some way of garranteeing survival then I'd try. Under the rescue licence I have, the birds and and animals we release have to be 100% fit to survive. Any minor disability means they're not 100% fit, although sometimes the disability is so minor we ignore it.

A mid-shaft break can be repaired easily enough, but the chough had a compound fracture poking through the skin. The magpie has a fractured feamur. Both types of birds are "walking" ground feeders, even though they perch. They need a good leg and at least most of the other to be able to feed.