24 hours caring for a Great Horned Owl while we waited for the game warden to come and take him to a wildlife rehabilitation center. No updates are available on his outcome. The warden would not/ could not tell me where he was going. I was only told that they have several rehabilitation centers that they use and that someone else would be placing him in one of those.
To address a few concerns: There are power lines around but he was initially found in my back yard which is in a heavily wooded area, and then later in the day just over the fence outside my yard (he was probably trying to get into my predator-proofed chicken run). When I picked him up out of the woods he was using his wings to try and move along the ground, so it was questionable as to whether it was a wing injury or something else entirely. I would not have handled or fed him had the warden picked him up in a timely manner, but since I was given a time frame of 24-72 hours for pick-up I didn't think it was kind to keep him in a cardboard box without food or water for that amount of time considering the lethargic condition he was already in. Obviously the care wasn't perfect but it sufficed and he perked up significantly. He also was not subjected to unnecessary interaction and petting but he only ate when I hand fed him and you can see in the video that he actually shut his eyes and stopped shaking while being gently touched. This interaction occurred while I was trying to get some nutrition into him. It worked and once he had some meat and water he perked up. Otherwise he spent most of the time with a towel covering the cage so he could relax and not have to look at the hen recovering from a leg injury.
27 сен 2017
