Saturday, February 16, 2013

Great Horned Owl getting some TLC

We got a very emaciated great honed owl (ghow) in from Soldotna this week. It had a previously broken right leg that has healed in the wrong position. This makes the foot unusable for hunting. Its left foot is very swollen and cracked making it unusable for hunting also. This ghow was also infested with feather lice. Not unusual for a bird having trouble taking care of itself.

The lice was the easy part to take care of. Now we have to get the bird in a little more stable condition. Lori and Chris are giving the bird fluids and then tube feeding a special mixture of good stuff.

Fluids were given sub q in both leg pits to help the bird get rehydrated.

Then Chris tube fed carnivore mix to give it nutrients and hopefully in time we can switch it over to red meat. We score the sharpness of its keel on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the best. This guy was definitely a 1 or less.

And then of course there's always paperwork to help keep track of a bird's care.

Keep your feathers crossed for this ghow. If you would like to donate to Bird TLC to help care for this owl, click on the donate button below.

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