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.