Carolina Raptor Center Rehab Blog

Some super cool release photos taken by one of the visiting veterinary students. 

The great horned owl is patient #17048.  This adult was admitted 22 days ago after being hit by a car.  She was diagnosed with eye trauma and bruising on her pelvis.  No fractures.  She recovered quickly and was released last Friday evening.

The red-tailed hawk is patient #16999.  She was admitted 39 days ago after being hit by a car while eating a possum in the road.  She was diagnosed with an enlarged liver (hepatitis).  This was an interesting bird (both as a medical case and her personality).  She would wait by the door for food.  She obviously got the routine.  She was released yesterday afternoon.

So far today (and the day isn’t over…), we have admitted 14 birds.  11 of them were within 2 hours. 

Here is a quick look at them:

a barred owl with head trauma (patient 17115), two slightly emaciated orphaned red-tailed hawks (patients 17114 and 17119), one adult turkey vulture with a humerus fracture (patient 17127), one adult red-shouldered hawk with head trauma (patient 17117), one adult red-shouldered hawk with eye trauma (17118), one adult red-shouldered hawk with a severe cere wound and beak defect (patient 17122), and seven orphaned red-shouldered hawks with varying degrees of emaciation (patients 17116, 17120, 17121, 17123, 17124, 17125, and 17126).

Red-shouldered hawks are everywhere.  Our patient count is exploding.  Welcome to summer at Carolina Raptor Center’s Medical Center!

More Happenings…

We admitted our first hatching year great horned owl, patient #17111.  Caught in a soccer net.  Like, seriously caught.  This bird had its head, wings, legs, everything tangled.  I guess if you are going to get caught, get caught well.  Go big or go home.

Our lone orphaned American kestrel got a roommate (another orphaned American kestrel, which brings the orphan count total to 127).

We admitted MORE red-shouldered hawk orphans.  No surprise.  They are obviously starting to explore the areas around their nest, called branching (and then they “un-branch” as they fall from their trees and into the eyesight of people). 

We admitted an adult red-tailed hawk, patient #17104, with an intense head wound.  Eyes swollen shut and 1 cm of skull exposed.  Surprisingly, her more serious issue is emaciation.  It would be very interesting to know what happened to the bird.   

Today we surgically repaired six fractures in one wing of red-tailed hawk patient #17105.  It was a long surgery on a fairly unstable patient, so we skipped the intraop radiograph and will get a post-surgery radiograph tomorrow or Wednesday.  We feel confident that it was successful. 

 As Dr. Scott said, it was like stringing beads together, bone fragment after bone fragment.  This was a horrible fracture (one of the worst that we have attempted to repair) but we are hopeful for a full recover.  Fingers crossed.  As shown in the post-surgery photo, this is one tough bird.   

Today’s Happenings

Two of the new patients that we admitted today were red-shouldered hawk orphans that were transferred from the Blue Ridge Wildlife Institute in Banner Elk, NC.  One was a healthy (shown with the purple dot on his head) and one had a humerus fracture.  We repaired the fracture soon after arrival this morning and the procedure was successful.  The fracture should be healed in less than 2 weeks.

Eight of the orphaned great horned owls transitioned into one of the largest flight cages.  They are quite stubborn.  They are fully capable of flying but why should they if they don’t have to?  I mean, when they are 20 feet above the us, why move?  It is much more convienent to huddle together on the upper perch and hiss at the “intruders/people”.  Their surrogate mother, Betbait, raised them well. 

The orphan count has broken 100.  We are now at 101 orphans.

1 American kestrel, 36 barred owls, 12 Eastern screech owls, 14 great horned owls, 30 red-shouldered hawks, and 8 red-tailed hawks.  Lots of mouths to feed and bodies to weigh!

Busy week at the Medical Center!

Over the past week, the patients have been rolling (or flying…ha!) in.  Our orphan count has exploded and we currently have a backlog of surgeries. 

We have 75 orphans: 35 barred owls, 15 red-shouldered hawks, 13 great horned owls, 9 Eastern screech owls, and 3 red-tailed hawks. 

We repaired a tarsometatarsus fracture in a barn owl (patient #17018) today. He was admitted on Friday but we had to wait a few days until he was stable enough for surgery.  Tomorrow we will repair a tibiotarsus fracture in a red-tailed hawk (patient #17038).  And then there is a great horned owl (patient #17045) with ulna/radius fractures that will need surgery, as well.  You can track all of these patients (plus 123 more!) through our online medical records database. 

Follow this link: http://raptormed.carolinaraptorcenter.org/cgi-bin/RaptorMedCGI.exe