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Jun. 11th, 2009 06:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pacificpikachuThanks to everyone giving advice and wishing luck! I really appreciate it, even if the advice is being more realistic/skeptical. It's important to be realistic. Of course this is a big risk and it may not work out, but I'm going to go for it as hard as I can and hope things work out somehow. I'm not naive--I recognize that it'll take a LOT of work and planning and stressing and difficulty, but I figure...hell, why not try? There's no reason not to try. I may regret it forever if I don't at least attempt to make this work.
Anyway, time to talk about birds:
- Transferred my blackbird, junco, and grosbeak to Jan a few days ago. The blackbird and junco now have friends of their species, and the grosbeak went to live with three or four other grosbeaks. :D
- Got in a nest of seven bushtits the same day. Oh man, they were so tiny and adorable! They took forever to feed, though, because they're all so tiny and they eat constantly. I transferred them to Patty because she's worked with them before and she was excited and hoping to get them. :D Yayyy!
- The two quail are doing amazingly well. They're growing up so fast! They're getting real feathers in and are getting taller. They're already afraid of me, too, which is a great sign. I was supposed to get in another two quail today but the lady didn't call me. :/
- Got a call about a mallard duckling the day before yesterday and originally I was going to take it in temporarily but the lady's car wouldn't start so I just gave her Vicky's number. The duckling would be going to Vicky anyway, so it worked out all right.
- Got some weird calls otherwise... A bear getting into bird feeders and bird nests, a completely healthy junco that the lady insisted I needed to examine, things like that.
- Yesterday, got a call on a pigeon with a messed-up beak and a broken foot. I picked it up in front of the vet office my family uses and after examining it more or less knew instantly that euthanasia was the correct solution for that bird. The beak was a complete mess and definitely beyond repair, and with a broken bone and starvation on top of that there wasn't a lot we could do to salvage the bird. I couldn't find a way to euthanize it that late in the evening after all the vet offices were closed and the raptor center's volunteers had left, so I made it as comfortable as I could, gave it some water, and had it euthanized this morning. At least its suffering has been relieved... All the raptor center volunteers and Janey agreed with me that euthanasia was the only solution for that little guy.
- Today, played some confusing phone tag with the Sally, the phone volunteer. A woman said that there was a turkey by the side of the road that was mortally wounded and she wanted us to euthanize it. Then she gave us the wrong number on accident, then called back with the right number. I gave her a call and she had picked up the bird, but she then wasn't sure if it was a turkey and thought it might be a young goose. I advised her to just bring the bird to me and it is, indeed, a wild turkey. A young one, though it's got to be at least twelve pounds so it's not exactly small. And although it's certainly beat up, it's not a bird that I would instantly euthanize. It can't stand up at the moment due to some leg injury or another. I couldn't feel any breaks, but I suspect it could be nerve damage or dislocation provided my feeling for a break was correct (could be, could not be). It also has a wound in its crop preventing and mom and I are going to--get this--stitch up the wound ourselves. Mom has some sutures and she's a nurse, and I've been reading some instructions on suturing up bird crops on the internet (...you really can find anything on the internet). I also got advice from the woman who owns the ranch where mom keeps our horse, who stitched up a chicken's crop successfully about two weeks ago. I think it's important to learn, which is why I want to try suturing it myself. If I'm wrong in how I do it, the turkey will be seeing Dr. Lund tomorrow morning so he can correct the sutures. The turkey needs to see the vet anyway because of the leg issue.
It's a handsome turkey and quite alert--I hope it manages to pull through! It flails its legs a bit and can stand if I support its weight on the one injured leg, so I think there might be hope. I'll just have Dr. Lund euthanize it tomorrow if it won't be able to walk again, but I want to try and do whatever I can for it. I'm proud of myself for figuring out the Clavamox dosage myself! Now to dilute the silvadine.
Our wildlife group has been so busy lately! I'm sad for Janey... She had a Black-Crowned Night Heron that she was so excited about. It was eating fine, walking fine, and the only thing wrong with it was that it needed one wing amputated. Normally we just put down any bird that needs a wing amputation unless it's something we can use as an education bird, but this bird was perfect potential for a zoo to take and I guess the Folsom Zoo was even interested in taking it. Unfortunately, somehow the raptor team heard about this and apparently advised her to have the bird euthanized, and that due to some law or another she could not have the wing amputated. So it was euthanized today. Jan said Janey was pretty upset, and it was the first time she had seen Janey cry. :(
Anyway, I'm going to go get prepared to stitch up some turkey crop!
Anyway, time to talk about birds:
- Transferred my blackbird, junco, and grosbeak to Jan a few days ago. The blackbird and junco now have friends of their species, and the grosbeak went to live with three or four other grosbeaks. :D
- Got in a nest of seven bushtits the same day. Oh man, they were so tiny and adorable! They took forever to feed, though, because they're all so tiny and they eat constantly. I transferred them to Patty because she's worked with them before and she was excited and hoping to get them. :D Yayyy!
- The two quail are doing amazingly well. They're growing up so fast! They're getting real feathers in and are getting taller. They're already afraid of me, too, which is a great sign. I was supposed to get in another two quail today but the lady didn't call me. :/
- Got a call about a mallard duckling the day before yesterday and originally I was going to take it in temporarily but the lady's car wouldn't start so I just gave her Vicky's number. The duckling would be going to Vicky anyway, so it worked out all right.
- Got some weird calls otherwise... A bear getting into bird feeders and bird nests, a completely healthy junco that the lady insisted I needed to examine, things like that.
- Yesterday, got a call on a pigeon with a messed-up beak and a broken foot. I picked it up in front of the vet office my family uses and after examining it more or less knew instantly that euthanasia was the correct solution for that bird. The beak was a complete mess and definitely beyond repair, and with a broken bone and starvation on top of that there wasn't a lot we could do to salvage the bird. I couldn't find a way to euthanize it that late in the evening after all the vet offices were closed and the raptor center's volunteers had left, so I made it as comfortable as I could, gave it some water, and had it euthanized this morning. At least its suffering has been relieved... All the raptor center volunteers and Janey agreed with me that euthanasia was the only solution for that little guy.
- Today, played some confusing phone tag with the Sally, the phone volunteer. A woman said that there was a turkey by the side of the road that was mortally wounded and she wanted us to euthanize it. Then she gave us the wrong number on accident, then called back with the right number. I gave her a call and she had picked up the bird, but she then wasn't sure if it was a turkey and thought it might be a young goose. I advised her to just bring the bird to me and it is, indeed, a wild turkey. A young one, though it's got to be at least twelve pounds so it's not exactly small. And although it's certainly beat up, it's not a bird that I would instantly euthanize. It can't stand up at the moment due to some leg injury or another. I couldn't feel any breaks, but I suspect it could be nerve damage or dislocation provided my feeling for a break was correct (could be, could not be). It also has a wound in its crop preventing and mom and I are going to--get this--stitch up the wound ourselves. Mom has some sutures and she's a nurse, and I've been reading some instructions on suturing up bird crops on the internet (...you really can find anything on the internet). I also got advice from the woman who owns the ranch where mom keeps our horse, who stitched up a chicken's crop successfully about two weeks ago. I think it's important to learn, which is why I want to try suturing it myself. If I'm wrong in how I do it, the turkey will be seeing Dr. Lund tomorrow morning so he can correct the sutures. The turkey needs to see the vet anyway because of the leg issue.
It's a handsome turkey and quite alert--I hope it manages to pull through! It flails its legs a bit and can stand if I support its weight on the one injured leg, so I think there might be hope. I'll just have Dr. Lund euthanize it tomorrow if it won't be able to walk again, but I want to try and do whatever I can for it. I'm proud of myself for figuring out the Clavamox dosage myself! Now to dilute the silvadine.
Our wildlife group has been so busy lately! I'm sad for Janey... She had a Black-Crowned Night Heron that she was so excited about. It was eating fine, walking fine, and the only thing wrong with it was that it needed one wing amputated. Normally we just put down any bird that needs a wing amputation unless it's something we can use as an education bird, but this bird was perfect potential for a zoo to take and I guess the Folsom Zoo was even interested in taking it. Unfortunately, somehow the raptor team heard about this and apparently advised her to have the bird euthanized, and that due to some law or another she could not have the wing amputated. So it was euthanized today. Jan said Janey was pretty upset, and it was the first time she had seen Janey cry. :(
Anyway, I'm going to go get prepared to stitch up some turkey crop!
