Injured Great Horned Owl

[Miniv]

We're not quite sure what's wrong with it, except one eye looks cloudy.... It's able to hop/flutter (extending its wings), but hasn't attempted to fly.

"He" seems to be a young adult....probably a nestling from last year. I'm hoping it's not the youngster we had perched in our back yard daily during the late summer and all fall. (The mother owl would perch in the same tree and then would take her young one out hunting at night - often into our barn!)

He accepted some water from me - when I used a syringe. Tomorrow we are turning him over to the wildlife rehab fellow who took my "Lady Hawke" last year. In the meantime, he's in a dog crate in the barn with a towel covering it.

I plan on syringing more water to him later, and offering a little raw chicken - once it gets truly dark.......My main concern is dehydration.

Will take pictures when we can. Just don't want to stress him too much.

 

[gatorbait4sure]

Maryann,

My cousin, Gary Hopson in Herkimer, NY is a vet and all the injured owls go to his clinic for help. When I worked there, we only offered them dead rodents which most of them took readily. If they didn't like the dead ones we'd put them in the cage and poke it with a stick until they thought it was live.

Any owl that could fly again was returned to the wild, sometimes after a tough seperation period where Gary had to teach them to catch food again.......Someday I'll tell the story of Hughie......remind me.

dru

 

[Mona]

Sure hope he'll be OK MA!!

 

[LittleRibbie]

Just wondering how your little room mate was doing today. Did he eat his chicken offerings? Keep us posted!!

 

[HGFarm]

We have a couple of wildlife rescues here that are just fantastic, and one that particularly does owls and birds. They have one owl that was so injured she can never fly again, but they have had her for years and they take her on all their demonstrations, appearances, etc.... they also have a hawk and three TINY variety of owls that at first I thought were stuffed ones- they didnt move or blink!!! LOL They are SO CUTE, but we cant touch them. They use the ones that were too injured to educate people, etc....

I was able to be at a place where they had their booth and at dusk, they had one that was ready to turn loose- and did. It was great.

I hope this one will be ok, but sounds pretty serious. Is it ok? Did they take it to the rehab place?

 

[wildoak]

We had a pretty good sized owl get caught in some wire years ago. The wildlife rescue guys came and got him but as I remember were not too optimistic as he'd broken a wing. Hope yours has a better outcome.

Jan

 

[Miniv]

We turned the "fellow" over to the wildlife rehab....The initial comment was that it was a young adult (like we thought). No injury to the wings or legs were obvious, but he thought the owl was underweight. (We noticed some cloudiness to one eye.) A second report just came in that he was ANEMIC. They are giving him inter-venous fluids. So we are keeping our fingers crossed.

 

[Matt73]

Awwww...What a pretty bird. I sure hope he gets well.

 

[Mona]

Maybe that cloudy eye is impairing his vision enough that he is not able to hunt well enough for himsef, thus causung him to eb underweight and anemic? Hope he'll recover well enough to make it on his own once again.

 

[HGFarm]

Oh he is BEAUTIFUL!!!! Sounds like he might have a good chance for recovery then! I wonder what happened? Maybe he was injured and just couldnt recover very well and got weak? How the heck did you guys even catch him or get him into the crate without being mutilated?!! LOL What a pretty boy!!

 

[Hosscrazy]

He is beautiful --- wishing him a speedy recovery!

Liz R.

 

[twister]

What a beautiful bird, sure hope he recovers well enough to be released into the wild.

Yvonne

 

[Miniv]

Sad news.... Larry took the call from the Rehab guy just a bit ago. The young owl died. He said the owl's red blood cell count was just too low.

 

[LittleRibbie]

Oh, how heartbreaking...most likely been very sick for quite some time. I know its all part of natures way but Im glad you were able to take him and keep him safe....the thought of another animal snatching the weak and wounded.. just doesnt seem right. Sorry it ended this way

Rest in Peace little wise one.

 

[HGFarm]

OH NO Miniv! I thought for sure he would recover once he had good food and water, etc.. How sad... he was beautiful.