From Salthaven Wildlife Rehab

This Great Horned Owl had an udderly unlucky encounter with a cow, resulting in a fractured right carpometacarpus-a critical bone in the wing that helps birds fly. The owl was quickly brought to Salthaven for care, where the team at Mount Brydges Animal Clinic confirmed the injury with X-rays, allowing us to begin treatment.

To stabilize the fracture and qive it the best chance to heal, our team carefully placed the wing in a wrap. Now, after weeks of dedicated care and rest, the wing is out of the wrap, and the owl is ready to start test flights.

This determined owl is moo-ving steadily toward a full recovery, and we’re hopeful it will soon take to the skies again. Stay tuned for updates.

  • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
    13·
    6 days ago

    When tryng to find out what happened to the owl in more detail, I came upon a number of stories involving Salthaven. They must be in a big cattle raising area. I’ll share this article as it goes into a number of hazards in cow pens that can endanger an owl.

    From Seaforth Huron Expositor

    A nocturnal bird of prey swooped in on some cow manure and ended up in the surprise of its life.

    After finishing some crops in the field, dairy farmer Heather Ritzema, noticed a large male owl covered in liquid manure, by the movements of the bird, she knew it was upset or injured.

    “It was bizarre,” she said finding an animal that large in such an awkward predicament. The liquid seemed to have weakened the bird, she said it was not capable of flying.

    “They’re just so beautiful, those Great Horned Owls, lovely animals,” said Ritzema. Being an animal lover, the Seaforth farmer knew she had to help this distraught creature.

    “He was kind of scared of us, so we thought let’s leave and maybe nightfall will encourage him to go on his own,” said Ritzema.

    They left a plank out so the owl could have a solid spot to stand on. Not much changed, the next day the bird was still in the same coordinates said Ritzema. The bird was clearly unsettled from the liquid manure said Ritzema.

    She decided to call Salthaven Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Centre, an organization that’s been rehabilitating animals for more than 30 years. The experienced organization told the Seaforth farmer that she would have to bring the owl in, which meant capture it and deliver it. Ritzema regrouped with her husband and a couple friends from work. Her husband put a pair of welding gloves on and picked the bird up and placed it in an old dog crate.

    While in the crate the owl “had these big powerful talons and his beak just snapped, it was crazy,” said Ritzema. According to the National Geographic, Great Horned Owls can kill animals large as dogs and cats. Built strong, these high-flyers can swoop and carry animals several times heavier than their own weight.

    After receiving the battered owl Brian Salt, director/founder of Salthaven, started the cleaning immediately, he said this process is not always successful.

    “The liquid manure has acid and it eats away at those feathers, so the bird can no longer fly,” said Salt.

    The Salthaven team spent five days restoring the feathers for the owl they call Mr. Stinky. The process is long and time consuming said Salt. A precise schedule must be followed to receive the best results.

    “You’re working against the clock when you do this,” said Salt.

    This method requires numerous baths because “it’s important all that manure comes off.” They clean the owl with Dawn liquid dish detergent. The most important thing while doing this is you must keep the bird warm because owls become hypothermic when they’re wet. “You have a hair dryer to them to warm them up and repeat the procedure again a few hours later,” said salt.

    This whole exercise is meant to restore the owl’s cleaning oils on the feathers. One of the last things to do is mist the great horn with water. This encourages them to preen. They use the preen gland, an oily substance located on the base of the tail and with this most birds spread these oils all over their feathers.

    Because the owl ingested an excessive amount of manure, Salt still was not sure if this procedure would be effective.

    “The feathers can be made clean, but internally, he could be suffering,” said Salt.

    Every day the owl showed signs of improvement. After five days the members of Salthaven effectively renewed the feathers and stabilized the bird. Now it was time to free Mr. Stinky back in the wild.

    After being told in the beginning the owl might not survive, receiving the phone call from Salthaven telling Ritzema the bird will live is heartwarming she said.

    “We kept our fingers crossed and prayed,” said Ritzema

    The Ritzema family packed the van and drove for an hour to meet with Salt at the Komoka Provincial Park. They were joined by approximately 30 other people, who also wanted to view the discharge of the owl.

    “Off he went he flew in the yonder, hopefully he’ll get back up to Huron County because they do have quite a range,” said Ritzema.