Beautiful creature....

Following on from the excitement of having 3 peregrines in in just one week, when we seldom see them, another rarity for Vale Wildlife yeaterday was a beautiful adult male otter.

The RSPCA brought him in from Frampton-on-Severn in Gloucestershire where he had sadly been hit by a car the previous evening.

He had obviously sustained a blow to one side of his head & his shoulder area, although his injuries didn't look too serious at the initial examination. His one eye was red & inflamed & one of his teeth had been partially broken off, but no bones appeared to be broken so he was treated for shock, given antibiotics, & was settled into one of our badger pens, complete with infra-red heat light & a delicious trout!

This morning he looked a great deal brighter, although he had wasted our expensive trout (ungrateful otter!). He was given fresh water, as he had decided that his water tray would make an ideal toilet (!!), & we also put in a much larger water container to allow him to get right in & have a good bath if he wanted to.

Now he is more alert & active, we have noticed that he is not using his front legs properly, which is very worrying. It would be so sad if his injuries were too severe to treat - there are few enough of these beautiful creatures in the wild as it is. They are slowly making a comeback, now their habitats are getting cleaner, but we need every otter we can get to make sure that this trend continues.

We have now got to wait until tomorrow, when we will be x-raying him & our vet will be trying to find out what the problem is. Fingers crossed!!

To be continued....................