Paws 'N Claws
News from All Things Wild Rehabilitation, Inc.
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What's in this issue:
A Very Lucky Owl
Bravo Avocado
The Little Tortoise That Could
Black Friday is Wild Friday!
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A VERY LUCKY OWL
James Reese: New experience for me today. About 20-30 minutes after launching my kayak, I saw a brown object move in a weird way. I paddled over and saw an owl stuck in fishing line hanging mostly in the water. As I approached the bird, she moved again raising her head above the water line to keep from drowning. I knew she was alive. I was cautious about handling an owl as they have razor sharp claws and beaks. I cut her free and removed the fishing line around her wing. She didn't fight me at all while I was helping her. If you know anything about raptors, that is a bad sign. I got her on my kayak and made a call to an ex-game-warden friend who helped me figure out what was next.
The barred owl was very cold and probably didn't have much longer to live if we didn't come across her. Our best guess is she was flying around sometime at night and got tangled up. She was pretty lucky the turtles didn't get to her either.
After I took these pictures I found a gravel bar and wrapped her up in a sweatshirt to help keep her warmed up. I called Melanie Paulson Reese to meet me at the takeout ramp with a carrier so the bird could be taken to a rescue center.
I paddled the rest of the way with a wrapped-up owl on the bow of my kayak and did my best to stay in the sun, not get water over the bow, or tip the boat and lose her. I decided to name her Oatie and checked on her frequently to make sure she was still alive. Once at the ramp, Melanie picked her up and took her to All Things Wild. Apparently she had a little more fight in her because she was "feisty" getting out of the carrier. Hopefully, she makes a quick recovery and can be released.
All Things Wild Rehabilitation: Oatie is a barred owl, probably a female because of her large size. She arrived in rehabilitation needing quality recuperation time. She had a dislocated toe, which was splinted, and was hand-fed food and fluids every day until she regained her strength. After several days in the ICU at our center, we took Oatie to a large flight cage outside where she proved to us that she could fly well. She was lucky that the wing caught in the fishing line was not broken.
The ATW Director of Animal Care splints Oatie's dislocated toe.
On a beautiful Friday afternoon, we met James at Little Webberville Park on the Colorado River and opened the carrier. Oatie didn’t need any urging to depart seeming to know that she was back in her home territory. As she flew away, we wished her a good life free of fishing line.
A very lucky owl flies out of the carrier to freedom.
Please ask the fishing people in your life to pick up excess fishing line. To read an article, entitled "Catch Fish, Not Birds with Fishing Line," click HERE.
To learn more about barred owls, click HERE.
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BRAVO AVOCADO
by Kaela Jones
Because the little fawn, who had been hit by a car, arrived at the All Things Wild center in an avocado box, the staff named him Avocado.
Avocado had a compound fracture on his front left leg.
Little Avocado was covered in bruises and road rash, and the break on his front left leg was a compound fracture causing both his radius and ulna to protrude from the skin. Fixing a leg injury on young white-tailed deer is always problematic because not only are they growing but keeping them quiet and stable can be difficult. The medical staff was able to set and splint his leg, but due to the distal location of the break, they had to keep the knee splinted with the radius and ulna; this made him a peg-legged little fawn. Nonetheless, he proved to be a model patient limping around on three legs while the fracture healed.
Avocado became good at hobbling around with his broken leg in a sling.
The staff was concerned that the break would calicify too close to his knee making it impossible for him to bend the joint at all. To ensure that his knee didn't freeze up, Avocado had daily physical therapy sessions with the staff during which his knee and leg were moved and manipulated. Physical therapy is always hard in the beginning. The staff was concerned with the lack of mobility in his knee and had to consider the possibility of amputation. Even so, Avocado toughed it out and allowed us to manipulate his leg in every which way. Though he lived with a peg leg for a couple of months, nothing got in his way. To watch a video of Avocado zooming about with a splinted leg, click HERE.
Avocado is falling asleep after a physical therapy session.
Once his splint was off, Avocado began to rebuild his muscle mass, and his knee began to bend more and more. Eventually, with just a big of scarring, he looked and ran just like all the other fawns. Click HERE to watch a video of Avocado after the splinting was removed.
On a beautiful Friday in early November, a healthy, four-legged fawn named Avocado was released with other fawns at a property in Bell County where the owner will keep an eye on him until he is fully grown and integrated into the wild. So far, he is doing great! Bravo, little fawn!
Newly released Avocado explores his surroundings. |
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The Little Tortoise That Could
The Texas gopher tortoise arrived in rehabilitation badly damaged. He had been mauled by a dog and was in serious condition.
Texas gopher tortoises are native Texas wildlife. Although Texas has listed them as threatened since 1977, their population continues to decline. Because they are small and cute, people pick them up and keep them as pets preventing them from breeding. Based on the condition of the tortoise’s shell, it appears he was captive raised. It’s illegal in Texas to collect or hold a Texas Gopher Tortoise without a permit from Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Hand feeding wasn't always easy.
Torto, our staff’s name for the badly injured tortoise, has been with us for several weeks while his bandaged shell slowly heals. He lived on hand-fed intensive care food for herbivores, electrolyte fluids, pain meds, antibiotics, and Vitamin B until a few days ago when he began to eat on his own. With advice from an expert at Reptile Conservation International (see below), we are serving a smorgasbord of orange, yellow, and red fruits and vegetables for him to sample including papaya, yellow squash, and tomato. In the wild, Texas tortoises eat succulents like prickly pear cactus with prickly pear fruit being their favorite food.
We have been very impressed with Torto’s tenacity to cling to life despite his serious wounds. When he is healed, and with so much determination he will surely heal, he will go to the Texas Gopher Tortoise Project run by Reptile Conservation International (RCI) at the University of Texas. If you click HERE, you’ll see the tortoises in the project. Big Tex and Gopher came from rehabilitation at All Things Wild. With luck, Torto will be joining them in the future. Plus, we understand that Torto is a sexually mature male so he will be an asset to the project.
RCI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to the conservation and restoration of endangered reptiles. For more information about Reptile Conservation International, click HERE.
An article about Gopher, entitled "Tortoises Times Two," was in our August 2020 newsletter.
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Black Friday is
Wild Friday!
We are renaming Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving (Friday, November 26), Wild Friday! because the annual All Things Wild winter raffle will be live. Winners will be drawn on Sunday, December 12.
You can help the wild animals by buying raffle tickets from a wonderful array of prizes. Choose from a Yeti cooler, a handmade squirrel quilt, a basket of dog goodies, a weekend at the beach, animal art, a Roomba robot vacuum, and much more. There are baskets dedicated to our favorite animals: dogs, cats, raccoons, rabbits, opossums, birds, skunks and owls. Because the raffle prizes are donated, all of the income from raffle tickets will go to helping the wild animals.
In addition to the raffle prizes, All Things Wild will be selling 2022 calendars with pictures of the ambassador and rehabilitation animals.
Stay tuned, more information and reminders will follow.
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