A very sad day for me..

Today has been a very sad day for me. 'Humbug' my 18-year old captive-bred barn owl had developed cataracts in both eyes and had reached the stage where he couldn't even find his food, so I had the tough task of putting him to sleep today. Although it was a hard thing to do, I didn't want to see him suffering, he's had a good life with us and it would not have been right to keep him going just to make it easier for me, but I will miss him.

Latest hedgehog count - 110 and rising!
One reason why we are busier than normal for this time of year is that another wildlife centre which did take a lot of casualties from the Gloucester area has now closed down so I think that we can expect our numbers to carry on going up. Because of this we are also having to call on more and more of our volunteers to go out and pick up casualties, and bring them in to us. Unfortunately we just don't have enough staff to be able to operate a collection service for injured wildlife and we often have to rely on volunteers, so if anyone reading this lives in our area and is willing to be added to our 'collection volunteers list', please get in touch.

With the increase in hedgehogs has come an increase in the food we are using. Normally the number of tins of pet food we use would decrease in the winter months, but at the moment we are getting through over 1,000 tins every week....and we are getting desperately short of stock. We are about to put out an appeal for donations of tins, so please spread the word and help us to feed all our prickly residents.

Yesterday we had a starling in which was absolutely covered in the foam hole filler, which is sprayed into wall cavities and then sets hard. The poor bird had flown into the stuff while it was still soft and it had then set around him, Both his legs and one wing were totally encased in a solid mass. My first reaction when I saw him was that we wouldn't be able to do anything and our only course of action was to put the bird to sleep, but after anaesthetising him, I thought that I would see how easy it was to remove. It wasn't at all easy, but gradually I managed to cut off chunks of the filler and ease it away from his legs, feet and toes. A few of his feathers had to be cut away but eventually a majority of it had come away and he looked quite good.
We then waited until he came round from the anaesthetic to find out whether or not he still had the full use of his legs and wings. Yes, he did, and we spent the next few minutes trying to catch him as he flew round and round our bird room!!
I think that, after a short stay with us, he will be able to be released again.
I will try to add a couple of pictures tomorrow.

Been away...sorry!

Apologies for not writing any posts for a week but I've been away for a few days. I am not back in the Hospital until tomorrow (Friday) so I'm not sure yet what is new....I will let you know shortly.

The only things I can tell you are that the tawny owl with the pinned leg is doing ok but is still not eating for himself. His pin had to be trimmed off a bit the other day as it was sticking out a bit too far. I am going to re x-ray tomorrow to make sure it is still properly placed.

We have yet another corn snake in, courtesy of the RSPCA, a stray found in a derelict house in Wolverhampton. If it is not claimed we will rehome him to a suitable keeper.

That's all I can tell you for today, will try to add more tomorrow.

Owl Progress

The two young barn owls are both doing well. One has started to eat for itself now but the other one is still being given regular fluids via crop tube and being force fed chopped chick (which isn't as stressful as it sounds!).

On Monday evening, a tawny owl was hit by a van, causing a leg fracture and a 2 inch wound to its side. The van driver brought the owl in to us on Tuesday and we set about cleaning and suturing the wound and we took x-rays of his injured leg. The x-rays revealed a clean break, mid-shaft (not close to either joint, which would have been bad news) but it was not the sort of injury which could just be splinted and strapped (see picture left). It needed a pin in the bone to hold it together in the correct position while it healed.
This morning Tim, the vet came along to the Centre to perform the operation which took around an hour. When he had finished we x-rayed the leg again to make sure that the pin was located in the right place and the bones were in good alignemnt, which they were. the pin will remain in place for a few weeks before being carefully removed once the bone has healed. Right - x-ray of the leg with the pin in place.

Fallow Deer Update

Some of my more regular readers may remember the little fallow deer fawn which came in back in July after being caught in a fence by a hind leg.
A common problem with deer, and usually not a happy ending, but this ones injuries healed well but we couldn't release him back where he came from as he was too young to be on his own.
He has been with us since then while we decided where he was to go.

Today, we took him over to Bob Lawrence, the Head Keeper of West Midland Safari Park, where he is to join a group of over twenty young fallows which will be released together at the Park. This will be an ideal place for him, and it was great to have a fence casualty success story for a change - all too often the injuries sustained are horrific and the poor animals cannot be saved.

Today, as well as more hedgehogs, we have had yet another barn owl chick in, very thin and dehydrated like the one brought in a few days ago, who is doing very well by the way!

One lesson that I always try to teach anyone interested in wildlife rehabilitation is not to miss any injuries or problems. For example, just because an animal has been brought in after being hit by a car, maybe with an obvious injury caused by the collision, always remember that there may be another problem which caused the animal to be in the road in the first place. It is all too easy to find an obvious injury and set about treating it, whilst missing another important problem. This was the case for another deer casualty:
A young fallow deer was brought in by the RSPCA the other day, again after being removed from a fence. By the time I was called to the Treatment Room to look at him, he had already been anaesthetised in order to look at his leg and an injury to his tail. I always like to look at an animal before examining it to see its behaviour and general demeanour, but as this one was already asleep I didn't get the opportunity. He didn't appear to have any injuries to the leg which had been entangled in the fence but his tail had been quite severely injured and we had to call the vet in to amputate the end of it. A straightforward operation which went well and we discussed the possiblity of releasing him in the next couple of days as he had dissolvable sutures in the wound. The sooner deer are released back out, the better they do.
Unfortunately, as soon as he came round from the anaesthetic it was obvious that he had also sustained a head injury which I hadn't treated him for. He couldn't stand and had no coordination at all. We started the treatment for this as soon as we realised, but if I had seen him initially, the treatment could have been started earlier. I will let you know his progress.

Always take a good look at an animal before diving in and starting an examination or treatment. Look at the way it behaves, breathes, stands, lies, sits, moves, look at its eyes, legs, wings, check for symmetry, listen for noises when it breathes.
Once you learn what is normal, you will immediately spot something not quite right with an animal.

Another Day of Hedgehogs.....& Owls

Today, yet again, there has been a constant stream of people clutching cardboard boxes containing hedgehogs coming through the door, mainly juveniles again but also one adult covered in tar. After much deliberation we decided that euthanasia was the kindest option as he was so encrusted in black, sticky tar that we had a job to even get his legs away from his body, he was so well stuck! The other problem was that his skin had already started to burn where it was sticking to him so we thought it was best not to prolong his suffering.

We have taken in two owls today - an adult little owl which fell down a chimney into a lit fire! Ouch!! Luckily he was rescued before it was too late, but quite a lot of his feathers have been singed and his feet are slightly burnt, but nothing that shouldn't heal with daily treatment and antibiotics. He will have to remain with us for some time though, if he makes it, as we won't be able to release him until his feathers have been replaced with new ones.

The other owl admitted today was a fluffy, baby barn owl weighing only 200 grams, very late in the year. He was found down a rabbit hole - what he was doing down there I haven't a clue but I suppose he was just trying to find a hiding place away from the bright daylight after having fallen from his nest. The normal advice for people finding owlets on the ground is to leave them alone as they are perfectly capable of getting back up trees or into barns into their nests, but this one was nowhere near a nest site and would certainly not have survived if he had been left. He is also extremely thin indicating that he has been away from parents for some time. We gave him warmed fluids as soon as he came in and put him in a heated brooder to warm up slowly. Since this morning he has taken some tiny pieces of chopped chick which we have offered with tweezers, but he is very thin and weak. We will see if he survives the night!

90 Juvenile Hogs & Rising.....

At the moment we are caring for 90 hedgehogs at the Centre, mostly underweight juveniles but a few of them are adults awaiting some good weather in order to release them.
A majority of the juveniles are, or have been, on a course of antibiotics as they are prone to infections of every sort!
Despite our efforts, some don't make it as their infections are too far advanced to respond to treatment, but we do our best and many which would certainly perish if left in the wild, will make it and will be returned to their natural environment.