ra7751
Well-Known Member
It sure has been a rough couple of days here. We lost a wonderful elderly gentleman named Finley. He was just the best blue eyed white dwarf in the world. He came to us, with his mate and 16 of his children, from upstate New York. He was a retired show rabbit and was being used to breed....and he fathered some beautiful lion head mixes. He also had a huge hole in his jaw from an untreated abscess. We adopted all his children except two that were sick. The best we could tell, he was about8 years old. He had developed arthritis overthe past year or so....but he went downhill recently. Despite administering increasing dosages of pain meds, he was in obvious pain. The look on his face was unmistakable. He was asking for the ultimate gift of love....and since he meant so much to us, we honored his request. We walked him across the bridge to spend eternity pain free. Farewell my little friend.
And things continued to go bad. I received a call from a wildlife officer that had secured an injured Bald Eagle. I treated this huge bird in the parking lot of a convenience store. I got her somewhat stable but she was stilll a bit shocky. A local emergency vet offered to allow her to stay overnightin a heated isolation kennel pending transport. She survived the night but I was very concerned about her respiration. We started on the 250 mile trip to get her to Carolina Raptor Center. About half way, she started experiencing some severe respiratory distress. I alerted the center and was hoping to find a vet somewhere on the road to assist....but we couldn't so we decided to expedite at fastest possible speed to get her to the center. But she went into respiratory arrest and she didn't make it. She was a huge eagle....nearly 5 kgs which is about 11 pounds. She will have a necropsy but we suspect edema secondary to being hit by a car. A devastating loss of a beautiful bird.....the first eagle I have lost on my watch. A difficult couple of days.
Randy
And things continued to go bad. I received a call from a wildlife officer that had secured an injured Bald Eagle. I treated this huge bird in the parking lot of a convenience store. I got her somewhat stable but she was stilll a bit shocky. A local emergency vet offered to allow her to stay overnightin a heated isolation kennel pending transport. She survived the night but I was very concerned about her respiration. We started on the 250 mile trip to get her to Carolina Raptor Center. About half way, she started experiencing some severe respiratory distress. I alerted the center and was hoping to find a vet somewhere on the road to assist....but we couldn't so we decided to expedite at fastest possible speed to get her to the center. But she went into respiratory arrest and she didn't make it. She was a huge eagle....nearly 5 kgs which is about 11 pounds. She will have a necropsy but we suspect edema secondary to being hit by a car. A devastating loss of a beautiful bird.....the first eagle I have lost on my watch. A difficult couple of days.
Randy
