An interesting eagle

BE 07 - 30 came to us this afternoon from Cordova. Cindy's son Brian is home on leave from the Air Force. He and Dr. Todd Palmatier picked up #30 at the airport this afternoon. He wasn't flying and was very skinny.

A well meaning citizen was feeding this young eagle baby sausages. #30 loved them. Only problem was it couldn't digest them. It probably ate too many at one time. You can't see it too well in the first photo, but there is a bulge about the size of a tennis ball between his lower neck and his keel.

Upon a more thorough examination, there was found to be a huge abscess on it left wing near its elbow. This possible could be the no fly problem. Cindy and Dr Todd decided it was time to remove it. I'll post the removal on PhotoBucket tomorrow. This was almost the size of a ping pong ball. Look at the picture with the ink pen. The abscess was one piece but was cut during removal. A drain will be left in the wound for a few days.

After that it was decided to feed the bird liquids for a few days to see if the mass of baby sausages would start to digest. If not we'll have to back up and regroup.

This bird brought a lot of attention from within the clinic. Cindy called me in during my real work hours to take pictures. Volunteers came in on their regular off time just to see a sausage neck eagel. It'll be Mr. Popular for a while. It was suggested by a friend of mine to name it Jimmy Dean.