Unmotivated Git Land......

...is where I have been holed up for the last month. Not sure if it's the weather or just my roller coaster life right now that had me hiding out for so long, but there you have it. And to be honest, we have had NO NEW ANIMALS come in to Wolf Hollow for the last 3 weeks! So, if I had posted blog entries for the last few weeks, they would have read something like this:

Released the ---- this past week. Went to the dump today to drop off the recycling. And here's a picture of it!

Seriously, it's been THAT slow. But let's get to the two animals we did get in a month ago and then update you on the rest. This Mourning Dove came to us after hitting a window.

Her left eye was swollen half shut and she was missing feathers on the back left side of her lower head and neck. She was holding her left wing tilted so the wing tip was up and while there was no palpable fracture, she may have had a shoulder injury. For the initial treatment, she was given the non-steroidal inflammatory medicated eye drops in her left eye. It's a bit tricky treating these birds, as they will drop feathers very easily when handled. So whatever you do with them needs to be done expediently.

This Glaucous-winged gull was found in Mt. Vernon with a large wound above his keel on the left hand side, a wound that was so deep it was open to the thoracic cavity, so much so that the trachea and esophagus were visible!

He was given antibiotics and a homeopathic drug for puncture wounds. They tried to turn him over to cover the wound with Tagaderm until the vet could look at it, but he immediately started having breathing problems. Upon turning him back over, he had blood in his mouth and wet upper respiratory sounds. The vet did come out and thinks he impaled himself on a metal pole of some kind, as it was a clean entry wound. The wound was then sewed up with dissolvable stitches.

He wasn't eating on his own so he had to be tube fed, even three weeks later.

After removing her wing wrap and determining that her sutures looked good, we moved the Snow goose to the wet pen to make sure she was well water proofed before releasing her. That meant going out and getting her to fly into the pond or....

..hosing her down. She actually loved this and would follow the water if we moved the hose spray around! Last time I was there, they were looking for another flock of Snow geese to release her with. She has since been released.

The Red-tailed hawk had his wing wrap removed and was eating so well they put him in the Slatted Flight cage to get some room to exercise his wings. When I went in a few weeks ago, Serena decided we would move him to the even bigger Heron Flight cage to make sure he could fly well. But first we needed to catch him and do a quick examination of his wing.

Needless to say he was less than thrilled about this. We then walked across the way and released him into the Heron Flight cage.

Now take a good look at this photo. See that perch that's at the top of the photo? Well this is what happened within the 10 seconds after this photo was taken. He flew like he was somewhat aiming for that perch but instead smacked his head into the wood paneling that covers the area above the perch, bounced off said perch, and then hit the ground...hard. If I had been taking a video, you would have heard Serena and I say things like "OW!" and "Oo!" each time he collided with something. I turned to look at her and asked, and this was more of a rhetorical question than anything else, "Does it worry you that he just did that?" Her reply was something to the effect of "Uh...YEAH!"

I went to do the afternoon check and found him doing what I term the "Linda Blair", where they face away from you but swivel their head 180 degrees to keep an eye on you.

But even this was a bit worrisome, as they almost always face in a direction that enables them to flee if necessary. In this picture his body is facing the end of the cage. He ended up being just fine though and has since been released.

As for everyone else, well, the lump on the eagle was benign and based on the type it was it won't get any bigger, so he was released, as was the Flicker and.....BUCKY!!! WOOHOO! The raccoons are FINALLY big enough to be released and they have been looking for a good area to release them in.

I didn't go in last week due to fighting a cold, but was told the only things there were the coons, the gull, and the dove. Like I said, it's been a sloooooow month. I will be going in this Saturday and then will be attending their fund raiser at the Grange later that night! It promises to be a lot of fun with food, drink, and really good music. If you are a local, come join in the festivities! Til next time...