Warmth in the weather and people's hearts.......

Finally, I think we are having a long forgotten thing called 'spring'. For many years, it seemed to go from winter to summer, but our weather of late is unpredictable, aka 'spring'.
Last Thursday, I had a wonderful group of people show up to do some volunteer work. They raked and cleaned. They also did some needed work on the large flight cage we have. The top has been slowly sagging and needed stretching. It is chain link and had to be pulled and realigned. The old sunshade was removed and new sunshade, which I had purchased a few weeks earlier, was put on. They did a great job! Thanks Cory, Paul and Jeff.
We now have a new patient, a white faced Ibis. It's the first one I've had come into rehab. He was found near Canyonlands, about a 3 1/2 hour drive south of here.
He's going in for an x-ray tomorrow, but he does have a fractured wrist of his right wing. It appears there may be a problem in that shoulder as well, but we'll know for sure tomorrow. He's very thin and has lice, common in a bird that is 'down'. We are treating him for the lice and giving him pain meds for the wrist injury. I've also started antibiotics since there appears to be open skin on the wrist.
These pictures shows what he looks like. They are wading birds and enjoy poking around in the mud and marshes.
Connie and I moved Shu, the bald eagle, to my sub-permittee's place in Moab today. I'm not sure how long this paperwork is going to take, so he'll have more room there to move around and THAT is better for him. We took some pictures and I'll include them in the next post.
Thanks for reading everyone......
Debbie

AN UPDATE ON FREMONT................

Hello all,
Last Tuesday, the 7th, we took Fremont back to the vet's office in Payson. It was time for his two week check-up from the wing amputation. It was also time to pull the pins from his other injuries.
The vet cut the bone back a little more where the initial amputation was, so it could now be closed.
All of the hardware from the other injuries was removed. He came through it all pretty well. We have him on pain meds again and antibiotics as well. Since he has been on antibiotics so long, to help his gut out, we have been giving him good bacteria (cultures) orally. This will help his gut keep the good flora it needs to maintain itself and the ravages of the antibiotics.
He's still out in the large flight and it seems he and Ivy have become friends. Possibly since they are the ones that cannot get up on the higher perches is my guess.
Ivy will get her pins out (the second set) sometime in May, towards the end of the month.
I woke up to a wonderful surprise this Easter day. One of my chickens has 6 brand new babies following her around the yard. I believe this is her first time being a mother.
We're suppose to get some additional snow this week, so I hope they will stick close to her and stay warm.
Happy Easter everyone,
Debbie

Walter's update...............

Well it's finally trying to be spring, although we did get snow yesterday. Yuk!
Walter is now living with two other turkey vultures in Phoenix, Arizona. They're all getting along famously from what I hear. It's definitely been different not having him here. I hope he'll be happy and live many more years. The top two pictures were taken at the transfer.
We got a male Northern Flicker in the other day. Unfortunately, his injuries were old and infected and he died only a few hours after arriving. He was very thin, so I think that he had been down for about 5-6 days. I took some pictures after his intake. He's just beautiful. I'm sure you can tell by his beak that they are a woodpecker.
We're still working on the blog site, we're trying to get everything 'hooked up' properly and more buttons created but I'm very pleased with all the work Klaus has put into it.
Well, that's it for now,
Debbie