Sorry folks, but I just have NOT been in a blogging mood as of late. Not sure why, although it could be the weather weirdness we have been experiencing. Anyhoo, I am trying to get back into the blogging mindset and I want to start by sending out a HUGE thank you to everyone who braved the elements and came to the first Open House we have had in a couple of years and to those who made it to the "Keep the Wild Alive" concert fundraiser. Let's start with the Open House. Now, the night before, I did some heavy begging and pleading with the weather gods to please let the weather be pleasant, as the whole week had been filled with days of sunshine, then hail, then snow, then sunshine...you get the idea. And sure enough, at least out at Wolf Hollow, we had a brief period of light sprinkles and that was it! It was only after I heard tales of the weather in town...hail, rain, and snow...that I understood why so few people came out after Noon. But for those intrepid souls who did venture out, they got to feast on a very yummy cake and other goodies made by staff and volunteers. But the cake, the cake was the piece de resistance: Isn't it GREAT?! Oh, and did I mention that it's Wolf Hollow's 25th anniversary this year? Yep, 25 years of helping the locals....local wild animals that is. The "Keep the Wild Alive" concert was great fun with lots of local musicians teamed up into duets singing great tunes. My favorite tune of the night was my favorite from last year as well and that was the song "Wolf Hollow Jamboree" written and performed by Teddy Deane with Cecil on backup: That's Teddy on the left there. It's a great number about the animals rehabbing at Wolf Hollow having a musical jamboree after everyone leaves at night. And everyone got to sing along with the chorus, so that made it even more fun!!! There was also a silent auction and the item that caused the biggest bidding war was this stuffed animal that has a webcode that you can enter on the manufacturer's website and interact with others in this toy community. As you can see, the bidding was fast paced and furious, with frequent side trips to parents to borrow just 50 cents more for the next bid. It was great fun to watch (I have blurred the faces to protect the bid-icence of the kids involved). Thanks again to everyone who made that night so wonderful with their music and support. We appreciate it immensely!! Now let's get to some animals, and honestly folks, there haven't been a lot of them. First we can start with another Bald Eagle that came in. This guy was found downed in a field in Mt. Vernon and was suffering from organo-phosphate poisoning. This is different from the Bald Eagle poisoning that happened on Orcas Island in March of last year . Organo-phosphate poisoning is caused by some agricultural product, like rat poison. The eagle eats that rat, lets say, and then the meat stays in the crop and becomes septic. It was very messy and he required a good deal of flushing of the crop and his entire system with fluids and activated charcoal. Once he regurgitated the meat in his crop he started to turn the corner, but it was VERY touch-and-go there for awhile and they weren't sure he was going to make it. But make it he did and he got released as soon as possible due to the fact that he went ballistic in the Indoor Mew, even trying to fly out the tiny, and by tiny I mean 1' x 2', window, even after it was covered up. We also got in this beautiful Evening Grosbeak. Found on the mainland, her left wing was drooping after trying to fly through a window. She initially had a light wing wrap on but messed with it so much we took it off and left her to her own healing devices. The funny thing about her was that when I went in and cleaned her cage for the first time, she never got overly flustered. She was very laid back and would calmly hop from one branch to another, watching me the whole time. Now that I think about it, she may have just been deliberately lulling me into a state of complacency to make her big break, as I got to see first hand how well her healing was coming along when she decided to exercise her wings in the Isolation Room during her cage cleaning the next week. After her dazzling aerial display, it was determined she could be moved to one of the outdoor aviaries. She did great out in the Aviary and was taken back to the mainland and released near some other Grosbeaks. And yes, baby bunnies, both of the European and Cottontail varieties, have slowly been trickling in: Let's now move on to some updates. The Red-tailed hawk was finally released. WOOHOO! It had been with us what seemed like FOREVER, so we were more than ready to say goodbye to it. As for the New Year's Eve Bald eagle? It's not looking good folks. We put him in the Heron Cage a few weeks back to see how this would affect his wing, and he still can't fly....at all. Here he is taking off from the low perch in the Heron Cage.... ...and here he is not 2 seconds later after landing on the ground not even 10 feet away from the perch he just launched himself off of. Looks kind of stunned, doesn't he? I feel REALLY bad for him right now and the outcome of his situation will most likely not be a good one. I'm just sayin'. In the last week we have gotten in a baby Rock pigeon, a baby Robin and this: Care to venture a guess as to what this is? Here's a better picture of it: Now do you have any ideas? Well, if you don't, that's alright, because while we do know that it is a newborn (See the egg tooth on the end of its beak?! And its eyes are still closed!) owl of the woodland variety, we have no idea which woodland owl type it is. Considering that it's about the size of my palm, mayhaps a Sawhet owl? Assuming it does well, we will know when it gets a bit bigger. It's always hard not to get too attached, but it fell a long ways out of its nest and while it is eating well, probably because it can't see that it isn't Mom feeding him, we try to keep in mind that newborn ANYTHINGS are more than a bit difficult to keep alive. Since I don't believe they have had this young of an owl in before, or at least not while I have been volunteering there, it would be great to watch and document its changes as it grows. Let's all keep our fingers crossed! Til next time...

...I was in Las Vegas...WOOHOO!....visiting old childhood friends. And I didn't go in last Saturday, as I wasn't feeling well....cough, hack! But, as you have probably surmised, feeding baby mice was not the only thing I did that weekend that seems oh-so-long-ago. It was actually MOVING DAY!!! Yes, we moved the three raptors we had indoors to outdoor areas so as to assess their recovery status. Let's start with the Great Horned owl. Dr. Michelle Loftus came over to take a look at her wing handy work, as she was the person who operated on him... ...and she also gave the wing some laser therapy to help with the healing process. I was blissfully taking pictures, including taking ones of his feet.... ...I just love owl feet, with their downy feather coverings and their seriously scary talons...when I got the distinct feeling that I was being watched. I looked around and didn't see anything and then I looked down and saw this! Yikes! The Great Horned owl is giving ME the huge hairy eyeball, and I'm not even the one messing with him!!! After the exam was done, Shona and I went out to setup the mews for everyone. Shona knows how much I LOVE to hang branches....No, seriously, I do!...so she let me do most of it. Thanks Shona! Here is the GHo's mew. And then we placed him in it. At first he looked highly annoyed. But by the next day he was more relaxed, so much so that he pretended like I wasn't even there when I went in for my photo op. Dr. Loftus also looked at the Screech owl's eye. It's a feisty wee thing and this picture lets you see the difference between the two eyes. He, too, got to move outside into a mew to assess his ability to see food and catch food. At first he did this "moth" imitation, as Shona called it, where he just clung to the side of the mew before finally flying to a perch. But by the next day he was doing a lot better and was actually perched ON one of the branches we had hung in his mew. After determining that he could not only see but catch live food, he was released last week! Michelle glanced at the latest shoulder x-ray of the eagle and NOTHING has changed. And I mean NOTHING. So it was decided to move him into the Slatted Flight cage to see if a little more room might sway things one way or another, as he has already been with us for 2 months. And lastly, we come full circle back to the Deer Mice, or Deer Meeces, as Shona likes to call them. Unbeknownst to me, they had been moved outdoors to a tub in a sheltered area. This is what Deer mice, who are rudely awakened when the piece of bark they were napping under is removed, look like. Man, have they ever changed! They have gone from looking like this.... ...to this..... ..seemingly overnight! Sniff..sniff! Our babies done all growed up!! And now comes the part which I always feel must be the most traumatic for babies that were raised without parents to show them how things are done in the real world. We released them. As you can see, one brave soul has made a dash for it. But then there is the one still hanging out in the container, checkin' things out and probably awaiting a status report from the others. He finally braves the outdoor world that is now his home and then comes the look that I just KNEW was coming. And that is that look that appears as they freeze, when it hits them JUST how big their new world now is. It's that "Oh my god, BETTY! It's HUGE and SCARY out here!" look. All of the babies get it, it's just more obvious with the baby mammals. Til next time...

Can I keep 'em?! Til next time...

So, when I went back in to Wolf Hollow the following Saturday, not only was the Red-tailed hawk not released, but he was back inside with his foot wrapped. It turns out that he was still leaning on his right foot a bit more than we suspected and, coupled with the fact that the main perch in the slatted flight cage must not be a good fit for his feet, he ended up with the initial stages of bumble foot. This was discovered when we went to put him into the Heron cage for a few days of flight muscle build-up. See, a bit scabby but not a full case of bumble foot, where an infection has started and gone into the foot. So he stayed inside for a week or so, got his foot soaked a bunch, then rewrapped, and then was placed back out, with his foot wrap still on, into the Heron cage, so he can build up flight muscles. There are some birds that just need to be out flying, perching on different sized branches and whatnot, and therefore not perching on the same thing over and over, for their feet to stay in good shape and methinks he is one of those. Ugly-Cuteness Alert! Some would say this is a face only a mother could love...yes, he's missing an upper canine tooth and yes, he's drooling.... but I find him SO CUTE! As you can see, he is NOT happy about being messed with during what, to him, is the time he should be sleeping. This guy (Ed. Note - It was just brought to my attention...Thanks Amy!...that I never said what this animal is exactly. It's an opossum!) was found, completely caked in dirt and mud, sleeping under a parked car in Mt. Vernon. He had some scrapes on his face and feet, with a bit of blood coming out of his nose. We took him in and gave him a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory for possible trauma. He also seemed to have limited vision in his left eye. He stayed with us for a week or two, eating and sleeping just fine, and finding nothing wrong with him, was sent back to the mainland to be released. Eee! We got in a Western Screech Owl! This wee one flew into a truck on Lopez Island. As you can see, the brunt of the impact was on the left side of his face. His left eye, which was spotted with blood and has no pupillary response, was closed for the first week we had him. He was given a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory for his head injury and a homeopathic drug for trauma and shock. Now, I just LOVE the smaller owls, like the Screech and Saw-whet owls, when they come in!! I like to think of them as the Chihuahuas of the owl world. They are these cute, tiny things, yet they have these HUGE attitudes. For example, when I went in to get him so we could give him his meds and put drops in his eye, I was unprepared for the reaction that I got. It was like he had taken the Barn Owl Tantrum 101 class! And I mean the full works....throwing himself on his back and kicking his tiny legs at me. I literally was taken aback and then, with an "Are you kidding me with this?" attitude, reached in and grabbed him, chuckling the whole time. His eye has since opened and now it's waiting game to see if he will ever be able to use it again. CAUTION! GRAPHIC PHOTOS FORTHCOMING!!!!! We got in this Great Horned owl around the same time that the Saw-whet owl came in. This unfortunate fellow was found in Sedro-Woolley dangling by his left wing from a barbed-wire fence. Eegs! You just KNOW that can't be good! They cut him free of the fence and then sent him to Wolf Hollow with cuts and puncture wounds. Upon first glance, it looked like the wing just needed some suturing, that is until they got a closer look at it after the owl was anesthetized. *At this point I would like to thank the Shona and Penny for taking pictures of the surgical procedure and loaning them to me for bloggage purposes. Thanks you two!!! It turns out that the barbed wire had hooked the patagium, which is the tendon/skim making up the leading edge of the wing, pulled it down and hooked it to the muscle of the elbow region. NOT pretty! And there was still a piece of wire enmeshed in his flesh. So Dr. Michelle Loftus came over to try and get him put back together. After he was put under and as much of the blood was cleaned up as possible, she examined the wing thoroughly. Michelle has her finger on the section of the barbed wire poking out through the patagium. This was removed... ...and then the post barbed wire removal cleanup began. After everything was cleaned up, Michelle sutured up the wing. And here is the end result. Yes, it still looks raw and painful, even as of this week. He was put on antibiotics, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, and an iron supplement to help counteract his blood loss. We are also doing laser treatment on the sutured area. He is now eating on his own and Shona is the one who takes him out and holds him while I clean up. Weirdly enough, he seems to do better without his head covered up, so Shona lets him "watch me", as she calls it, while I clean up his carrier. I think we can all agree that it's more like he is glowering at me rather than watching me. As a side note, I would like to thank all the wonderful people who came out and participated in the Work Party yesterday. I REALLY appreciate it!! And lastly, it's my 2 YEAR BLOGIVERSARY! WOOHOO!!! Thanks to everyone for the support over the last two years!!! Til next time...

I went outside to go feed the adult Red-tailed hawk last Saturday and heard quite the commotion amongst the trees, with crows and seagulls all very disturbed by something and loudly vocalizing their distress. I continued walking down the path and an eagle flew off of our compost pile to a nearby tree! Now, in all the years I have been at Wolf Hollow, I have never seen an eagle eating out of our compost pile. I have seen crows, ravens, song birds of all shapes and sizes, and even a fox picking through it like a buffet, but never an eagle. So, me being me, I went over to see what it could have possibly found worth eating and saw this: It's the remnants of the deer leg that we fed our eagle in residence the other day. Looks like it did a good job of stripping it, even removing the fur. Yum! I continued on to drop off food for the Red-tailed hawk and he is doing so much better. Now out in the Slatted Flight cage, he is flying and eating well and can catch live mice, which is always the last stumbling block they need to overcome/master before their final bid for freedom. It wouldn't surprise me if it was released sometime this past week. The younger Red-tailed hawk was released a few weeks ago as well. The eagle is still with us, still slowly healing, and still pissy. They took another x-ray of him to see how the dislocated joint was doing. The big bulge at the base of his neck is his crop full of venison, so let's move our focus a bit south of that to his "shoulder" area. If you notice the joint on the right, which is actually the left wing, the ball of the main wing bone, the humerus, is in the socket of the shoulder, or coracoid/scapula area. Now take a look at the other side. You can see that the humerus is displaced out of that socket area. Here's a closer view: Left shoulder....looks good! Right shoulder.... ...not so much. I didn't see the initial x-ray, but hear this is an improvement over what it looked like upon his arrival. So that's good I guess. But if he would just keep a wing wrap on, it would help to speed things up! But since he won't, it's a steady but slooow healing process. I sometimes wonder if it actually will heal completely. I was told early on in my stint as a WH volunteer that soft tissue damage in birds is extremely hard to heal, more so than breaks, as if the tissue stretches too much it won't restrict back enough for the bird to be able to use that muscle/tendon to the extent it needs to, which is a bummer if it's a wing injury, as that means it won't be able to fly again. So let's keep our fingers crossed. His feet look good though! Til next time...

Hello everyone. Or I guess I should be asking, are there enough people reading this to classify, en masse, as an "everyone"? I know there must be...hopefully...some lurkers out there. Right? And when I say lurkers, you know what I mean and who you are. You check in to see if I have posted anything new and curse my name to the heavens when I inevitably haven't. And you hopefully get some enjoyment out of the posts I do publish. But after doing this for....Gads, has it really been almost two years?!!...I am really curious as to who is reading this. Are you family and/or friends? Are you past or hopefully soon-to-be current Wolf Hollow interns/employees? I seem to have the same few people leaving comments...Thanks family/friends-close and extended!!...but that's about it. So, this ONE TIME, I am hoping you all will do me the favor of doing the "publishing". If you could just leave a brief comment, even if it's just to tell me to stop my whining, I would really appreciate it. And it would help sate this burning question I have had almost since the day I started this blog for the betterment of Wolf Hollow, and that is "Who is reading this and why?" Mucho thanko!! Til next time...

Yep, we finally released the Merlin today! WOOHOO!! The re-imped feather stayed put and after one last look at Dr. Loftus' handiwork (sorry about the blurry pic)... ...Shona released it back into the wild. At which point, instead of flying as far away from us as possible, as I would like to think I would if I had just been released after a few months in solitary confinement, it flew back over our heads and landed in the tree right behind us. And then it just sat there, alternately glaring and bobbing up and down at us. Fare thee well, little one! Til next time...

Yes, this is how I felt when I found out that the Merlin broke off, a day after the imping procedure, his outermost feather, the one that is technically, I am told, called R10. As you can see, it really was the wood piece that couldn't take the pressure and it broke at the joint area, as when the Merlin, or any bird for that matter, goes to land on the side of the cage, it braces itself with its wings, like this: I then tried to get a picture of the feather nub on the wing to find out just how much of the wood piece was left in that. There was still quite a bit of it left in there. At this point, Dr. Loftus needed to decide if we should try this again, and that we did on Friday morning. The only difference is that we decided to just have Penny hold the Merlin while we did this instead of anesthetizing him . And luckily, more of the wooden skewer bit had fallen out of the wing nub over the last week and a half, making this a bit easier. First, we measured the broken feather against the new one, and marked the new feather so we knew where we were going to cut it at. Then we glued another skewer bit into the wing nub portion. And yes, we did wrap his feet, although I am sure Penny wished we could have done the same with his head, as the procedure was punctuated with Penny "ouching" when his head would get out of the towel and he would start trying to bite off one of her fingers, glove and all. We then glued on the new feather and then thoroughly glued all around the joint section. At this point, we all brainstormed and came to the general consensus that we needed to somehow strengthen this area. Dr. Loftus said we should just use another feather bit, so I cut off the hollow bit of another feather and then sliced it open down one side. This was then wrapped, as much as it could be, and glued around the joint area. No, it isn't pretty, as this is just the initial stage, where we were just trying to get it around the joint area without getting glue everywhere! We then went around the area and crimped it down as much as possible while the glue was drying, but not hard enough to break the feather or wood. We let this dry and then put him in a small carrier for a bit to de-stress and let the feather solidify in its place before letting him go back into the aviary. As of today, the feather is still holding strong! Let's take an imping break and chat about our largest resident in right now and that is this eagle. He was spotted on New Years Eve walking across a road here on San Juan Island. Yes, "walking" is the key word here. Local law enforcement officers called Penny and she went out to wrangle him into a kennel. Turns out he dislocated one of his wings. But, being the wild raptor that he is, he removed all 3 wing wraps we have put on him. So, he has been staying in the Indoor Aviary so as to keep his movements to a minimum. I was concerned that something more might be wrong with him, as up until the 5th, he wasn't eating on his own and when I went in to clean up the aviary, he just sat on his perch. I didn't get the usual defensive display...spread wings and gaping beak. In fact, I had to take one of the folded sheets and use it to nudge him off of his perch. Want to know how close that is? It's this close: No zoom was needed. I am happy to report that he is now eating on his own and is feeling well enough to act a bit pissy when people walk into the aviary. Til next time...

..just keep breathing, breathing... That was the little tune that Penny, our head rehabber, would softly sing to the Merlin at various intervals throughout the morning's procedure of imping its wing. I know that was my one worry as well, all for naught as it turns out, as it came through the procedure like a trooper. But let's start at the beginning, shall we? First, you need some wooden skewers, which you must cut into small pieces and then these pieces need to be shaved down small enough to fit into the hollow feather shaft. Then, one needs to make sure you have all of the tools of the trade at hand. Super glue? Check! Alcohol? Check! Scalpel? Check! Then, you need to take a dead bird of similar species and cut off, as close to the quick as you can, the feathers which you have determined need replacing on the live bird. It's crucial that these remain in the correct order, so we taped them to a piece of paper towel and labeled them . Notice how the R1 and R2 feathers look different? Here's a closeup of the R2 and R3 feathers. Those indented feather tip ends, I found out, help the bird to dive quickly, as they do hunt on the wing. One end of the skewer bits are then glued into the shaft of the feathers. The feathers on the paper towel already had these glued into them. This next part was something that we did on a whim and it ended up being a big help during this imping process. Avian vet and Board Member Dr. Michelle Loftus, or "Zarinda, the Imping Queen" as she was dubbed by the end of the imping procedure,...Smile Michelle!... .. asked me yesterday, the day we had originally planned to do this, to take a picture of the Merlin's good left wing.... ..which I printed out and brought with me this morning. We then numbered the feathers from 1 to 5, starting with the outermost one, flipped the page over and made outlines of the wing tips on the back. This template helped us in determining length criteria of the feathers and some of the ones we cut off the first bird ended up being too short. Good thing we had a second bird to get feathers from! Next, we need to prep the patient. It must be anesthetized, of course, so out comes the technical medical equipment and cone mask. Penny held the Merlin while Dr. Loftus held the mask up over its face. You're getting sleepy... ...sleepy.... ...and it's out like a light! At this point, after fitting the cone completely over it's head, supplying a continuous amount of anesthesia to it (I learned that birds, especially small raptors, metabolize anesthesia very quickly), we needed to secure the feet. This is in case our little feathered friend here came out of the anesthesia at an inopportune time, like when someone was leaning over it, they wouldn't get taloned. Their talons may be small but trust me, they can still do some damage. So, we placed a gauze square in the middle of the foot.... ..and then wrapped surgical wrap around the entire foot. Then, with the Merlin sound asleep and the feet secure.... ...we are ready to begin the actual imping process. First step is to cut the broken flight feathers as short as you can get them. Then, while the Merlin was still on its back, we took each feather that we wanted to imp, aligned the two cut ends, and compared the result with our chart to determine if the feather was long enough. Once we determined that they would all work, some took a bit of adjusting with the shaft and/or skewer lengths, we turned the Merlin over and handed the feathers to Penny, or "The Skewer Gluer Princess" as I was calling her by the end of the process, to have her carefully add some glue to the end of the skewer bits. The feather is then, making sure it's still in alignment, carefully slid into the corresponding shaft portion on the wing itself. Then a strip of paper is placed under the shaft juncture and the juncture itself has a spot of glue placed on it. After every feather, Dr. Loftus always checked to see how it looked. Were the wings looking symmetrical? Did they look correct when the wings were folded up? Once all the feathers were glued in, the Merlin was then turned back over. She then looked at the symmetry of the wings from the underside,.... ...took a quick peek to make sure our patient was still sound asleep,... ...which he was, and then the feather joints on the underside of the wing were glued as well. After this, the procedure was done and it was time to wake up our patient. Shona held him upright during the initial wakening period. Come on little one, time to wake up. Wakey...wakey! That's more like it! We then placed it in a small kennel, but because they do metabolize the anesthesia so quickly, it was fully alert within minutes of this picture. We then waited a couple of hours and decided to take it out to a larger aviary, as it needs to build up its flight muscles after sitting for over a month. Shona slowly opened her hands and it flew up to the farthest and highest perch in the back of the aviary with no problems whatsoever! WOOHOO! Or, as Dr. Loftus kept saying throughout the morning, "This is SO COOL!" So now we wait, make sure none of the feathers fall out, make sure it can turn mid-flight, and once we determine everything is good, it can be released! Whew! Well, that was my day at Wolf Hollow. I hope you found it as interesting as I did! Til next time...

....should be more than a bit interesting, seeing as how it will involve sharp instruments, super glue, skewer bits, and these..... Til next time...

And by that I mean, with the releasing of the fawns today, baby season is officially over. Yes, we loaded them all into a fawn trailer and transported them to Orcas Island, since that is where a few of them came from originally. And believe it or not, the loading went very smoothly. The weather was not cooperating this morning, what with it being very windy and rainy, so I don't have pics of the loading process. But here is how the actual release part of the process went: First we have a picture of Penny (Hi Penny- Thanks for the blog title suggestion. And no, your hair does not look all poofy-like!), our head rehabber at Wolf Hollow. The bag she is holding contains deer grain, which we sprinkled liberally around the release site. The fawns are in that trailer. Upon the opening of the door, there was some definite hesitation on some to come out.... ...while others just barreled their way out.... ... effectively negating the hesitantness of others. And then came the pretty, pretty princess of the release. Her goat-like qualities were never more obvious than at this time, when I could see her from a distance. All her bits and pieces are shorter and stubbier than her year mates. After she meandered out, they all huddled near each other, giving their new surroundings some much needed inspection. After giving their approval of their new domain, some of the bolder ones decided to try their hand at rock climbing. Then, they all slowly walked down the trail into the woods. You all take care and thanks for the memories! I need to send a special shout-out to Bonni and her husband (they are the ones who brought us the piebald fawn oh so many months ago) for scoping out release sites and helping us with the release itself today! Thanks guys! Til next time...

Did I mention we have a few raptors in residence right now? They run the gauntlet in sizes, so let's start with the wee ones first. This is an American Kestrel we got in from the mainland. I had to take the picture through the bars of her carrier, as she was too stressed out. Found by a highway, she held her left eye shut, indicating a possible head injury, and when x-rayed, we saw this: Yep, she fractured her tibiotarsus, hence the leg splint on her. This x-ray was taken after she was splinted to make sure things were lined up correctly. She was given some homeopathic drugs for trauma and bone healing. After a few weeks or so, we noticed that her left foot was swelling, even though the splint wasn't tight at all and we had made sure she could move her toes. It even got so bad that a talon FELL OFF while I was holding her during an exam. Not pretty, nor was it a good sign. Our wonderful vet and Board member, Dr. Michelle Loftus...Hi Michelle!...came by and suggested we do water therapy and laser therapy on her foot, alternating days. Care to guess what mechanism we used for the water therapy? Tada!!! I have some not so fond memories of one of these during my 5 painful years of orthodontics, but that's for another time and another blog. We filled this up with warm water and then let the water pulse all over her foot. She struggled a bit during this process and while I patiently tried to explain that we humans pay good money, and a lot of it, for treatment like this so she should relax and try and enjoy it, it was to no avail. Over the next week her foot swelling started to lessen and eventually, after taking one last x-ray to make sure things were healed well and proper.... we took off her splint. You can see that one toe still looks swollen, and yes, that's the one the talon fell off of, but overall the leg and foot look GREAT! This is the point where I got to try my hand at giving her laser therapy. It was an easy process, just making sure the laser was set at the proper settings and, while holding it about an inch away from the leg, running the beam up and down the leg. She's doing great and as of last week, she was in one of the outdoor aviaries, stretching her wings and exercising that leg. Then we got in this Merlin. Found under window on someone's porch in Mt. Vernon, we assume he flew into the window. It was unable to stand and very stressed out, but there were no signs of neurological impairment, but we gave it non-steroidal anti-inflammatories to combat whatever swelling might be causing its legs not to function properly. When it did start to walk and tried to fly, we noticed it was listing to the left and not flying well at all. The problem? This. Three of its flight feathers have snapped in half. And it's impossible for it to fly well enough to capture food like this. So, we have two options. The interesting option, which Dr. Loftus is looking in to... Did I mention she specializes in avian veterinary medicine? She is VERY handy and it is much appreciated to have her around in situations like this!!.. .is imping the feathers. This is a process by which you graft the feather from another bird of the same species, which has died, onto the broken bits. They are held in place by tiny bamboo sticks which are glued into the hollow shaft of each feather. I am to understand that it is a VERY tricky procedure, as if it doesn't line up properly, the bird still won't be able to fly well. That leaves option two, which is to wait until the bird molts, which they only do once a year. So we could potentially have the Merlin here for MONTHS!! For now we have placed him outside in a small mew. Then along came this Cooper's Hawk. Found on nearby Lopez Island, it too had hit a window! It was holding its legs rigid and while able to move them, couldn't stand on them. We started it on some non-steroidal anti-inflammatories for possible nerve swelling. Its left pupil was also dilated. Due to the leg issue, we made a donut out of a towel for it to rest on and also made a tail guard so it wouldn't mangle its tail feathers while it was grounded, so to speak. We did initially have to force feed it, which isn't fun for anyone.... ..but it eventually regained the use of its legs, although it's still a wee bit wobbly, started eating on its own, and its left eye pupil started being more responsive to light. At this point, we moved it to one of the outdoor aviaries where it is doing just fine. Now, for the big boys! We have in not one, but two Red-tailed hawks! The first to come in was this juvenile, one of this year's babies. One can easily tell he's a youngster by his light coloring. This poor guy was hit not by one, but by TWO cars, before the people in the third car, having witnessed it getting hit twice, stopped to rescue it! If you have read my blog, you know how I feel about this , so I won't go on another rant. Needless to say he came in with a few issues. He came in with a head injury, slipping in and out of consciousness. His left eye pupil was fixed and dilated. He also had a marked Nystagmus, which is a neurological side-to-side head twitch. It looked like he was slowly looking to his right, and then his head would snap back to the center. He was given meds and vitamins for stress and nerve damage. He was also given steroids as an anti-inflammatory. Because we knew the injury was very recent, within an hour or so of when we got him in, steroids can be used as a neurological anti-inflammatory. I know there are pros and cons to this but after listening to all sides, this is the procedure the staff at Wolf Hollow follows. And, because he is a critical care patient, he gets the works. He was very dehydrated, so he was tube fed fluids. He also gets force fed until such time as he can eat on his own. He seemed to take it in stride, but my guess is that's just because he didn't have the energy to fight us too much on it. We then got in this adult Red-tailed hawk, who was found standing in a field along side a road. It can't fly or stand on its left leg. The blue towel you see is a support donut that we can't seem to keep him on. He was given a homeopathic drug for trauma and we x-rayed him but found no fractures, so the leg injury could be one of the soft tissue variety. He, too, gets the full treatment of being tubed..... ...and being force fed, although if you got the meat pieces in towards the back of his beak, he readily swallowed them. And yes, I know this picture is blurry, thank you very much, but I chose it because it lends an almost surrealistic feel to the feeding...don't you think? I also might have chosen it because it was the best one I had of this process with him! I think I will leave the posting as such, with just the raptors in care being chronicled. We do have in a Great Blue heron and I heard we got in a Bald eagle that was on the losing end of a territorial battle, but I will have to get the story on her when I go in on Saturday. Til next time...