Monday, October 06, 2014

Snowy Owl time

This young snowy owl came in Saturday night from North Slope, Alaska with a right wing wrist injury. As you can see in the x-ray, it has a compound fracture at the metacarpal near the joint where it joins the ulna.
 Chances are it clipped its wing on something while flying along.
 It has heavy bruising and is very sensitive.
 Dr. Karen knocked it out to do a more thorough exam. At this time we were able to treat for feather louse and trim its talons.
 The small black dots are feather lice or louse. Because of the infestation, it might not have been taking good care of itself prior to its accident. It's weight was good at 3.7 lbs.
In this photo a still very sleepy owl. Because of its age, size and colorization, we're unable to tell sex. Blood was drawn to help us on that. It's also too soon to determine a course of action. Dr. Karen is consulting with many of her colleagues. This is a tough one.

1 comment:

Aaglu said...

Awesome! Thanks for sharing!