So there's this squirrel that walks into a bar.........

Things are hopping around here. The last 2 squirrel orphans are about a week until they are released. I haven't decided where to release these 2 but they will be released together.
The Peregrine is also doing very well. He is going into the vet's office in Payson next Tuesday. We will get some x-rays and then we'll know more about the severity of his injury. I hope there is nothing broken as he is an adult and more than likely has a mate waiting for him somewhere nearby.
Tomorrow (Thursday), Connie and I will be driving to Richfield to meet up with one of Best Friends volunteers. They will be taking possession of the Prairie falcon that was seized from a falconer here in Price. The bird will be hanging out there, growing in new feathers to replace the old broken ones on her right wing. When they are finished growing in, then she will be checked for her ability to kill successfully and then released there, in southern Utah.
My facility is smaller than Best Friends but we see pretty much the same number of patients in rehab each year, so since the Prairie falcon doesn't need anything medically, just time, they have more space to allow that to happen. We have a good working relationship and help each other out whenever possible. Their head rehabilitator (my equivalent) is Carmen Smith. What a sharp gal! When Utah changed their protocol for those wanting to be rehabilitators and not just a sub-permittee any longer, I was the first one to take the test (and pass) and Carmen was the second. That's how we became acquainted and I thank Suzanne McMullin for that!


We released the ring-neck dove we had in rehab this week. Something, I think a cat, had got ahold of the poor thing and it was in terrible shape; missing a lot of important flight feathers and puncture wounds and tears. With some antibiotics and time, she's now out flying around, being a dove!
Yeah!!!







We're still working on the transfers for our bald eagle Shu to New York and the 2 American robins to Florida. I hate this part of rehab! Paperwork, yuk!












We also got in a little mystery bird, that has now been identified as a Willow flycatcher. What a sweet little thing. It was found, orphaned, in the desert on an ATV trail. The people that found him/her are from St George, Utah, but know me from a few years back when they brought me a hummingbird. Lucky for this little bird that they were the ones that found her and contacted me and where able to get the bird out of there right away. I've included a picture of her compared to a quarter to give you an idea of her size. That's full grown! She shouldn't be with us for long. I just need to introduce her to bugs any day now.
All of the eagles are doing great, eating us out of house and home. We had a local man donate some game meat to us the other day. It's not a lot, but it will sure help out and we can space out the quail feedings a little bit for a week or so until that meat is gone. The quail are $25 per bag of 10, without shipping and we go through 1 1/2 bags a day. Eagles are big birds and they eat a LOT of meat! That's why we're constantly looking for donations. We're not sitting around eating bon-bon's that we buy with the donations- we're buying food necessary for our patients and medicines that they require to heal. No one GIVES this stuff to us, unfortunately, but we have to buy it and the same goes for everything we use and need to do this job.
Well, I think that covers all of the patients that are currently with us.
I'll get pictures tomorrow of the transfer and include them in the next post.
Debbie..................

And on it goes and where did this heat come from?

Hey everyone,
It's been pretty steady here, releases and new patients.
I'll update first.
All the original rock squirrels are now released. We loved them and kissed them and gave them lot's of reassurance. Still, it was hard. I hope they'll make lots of little baby squirrels.


The other two rock squirrels from Salt Lake are doing great. My grandson named them Berry and Acorn. They are down to 3 feedings of squirrel formula a day and eating well on their own the rest of the time. Their teeth and jaws are finally mature enough to crack hard shells on nuts. Aren't they cute! They get a variety of food every day, just like the others did.
We're still caring for 2 non-releasable robins. I'm hoping to send them to Florida, but it's not a sure thing. It's getting very expensive feeding them. Both have wing injuries that prevent perfect flight so therefore cannot go back to the wild.
Unfortunately the transfer for Shu to Pennsylvania was denied. There was something about the persons permits there that my region in Denver disapproved of. Very frustrating. Now we start at square one all over!
The newest Eagle, Rojo, is doing very well. He is very aggressive and holds his own in the flight with the other four eagles.
Ivy will go up to the vets here in a couple of weeks and I hope, the pins in her wing can finally be removed. Remember, this is the third set of pins.
Fremont's amputation is still healing. He's doing well and gets along well with the other eagles.
Zuma still has some swelling below the injury on that one wing. Hopefully this will resolve itself with time, which we have plenty of.
Cleopatra's tests came back. No heavy metal poisoning and the other chemistry's looked good. The skin biopsy also came back and it is some sort of allergic reaction. Odd!
When I take her in to Salt Lake to have her eye's looked at by a specialist, I will also have them look at that area of her skin. The clinic has eye and skin specialists for animals. Great, huh!
Her feathers sure look rough where the skin is irritated and thick. They also have an odd shape to them.
I've included pictures of the two birds seized by wildlife resources here in Price from a scary falconer. The Harris hawk is the dark brown bird and the other is the Prairie falcon. The state agreed with my assessment and has given me permission to carry out my plans for the two birds.
This will take some time as each bird has different needs. I'll keep you posted on their situations.
We also got in an adult male Peregrine falcon two days ago. He has some trauma to his right wing. It's bruised and swollen so it's hard to tell without an x-ray if it's broken, so I'll need to take him to the vet's to get that done. He's a little thin since he couldn't get off the ground to hunt. Right now we are tube feeding him. Tomorrow, I hope to start him on some cleaned meat (no feathers, fur or bones). He's just beautiful. I've included his picture in this post. We've named him Lionus as he is always pulling his blankets out from his kennel when we need to take him out to feed.
Everyone, help us by forwarding this blog site on to your friends and others or even creating a link to your blog sites or web-sites. The more eyes that read this the better for our patients and what they need while in our care.
Thanks everyone,
Debbie.......................

Help us help them..........................

I hope to include several pictures with today's post. We've continued to stay busy and it's hot and muggy around here.
We managed to get Zuma to the vet's office today in Payson, Utah. I also took up Cleopatra, the golden that went through a windshield with no visible problems. Zuma's wing looks a bit better, but there is still some edema in that wing where the injury took place. The vet said he believes with some time, possibly a year, it will resolve and stabilize. My concern is for Zuma's comfort. We will have to watch him closely for any signs of pain or depression related to his inability to fly up to perches. His desire to stay alive is what I'm most concerned for. As long as he's willing to try, so are we.
Cleo, has several issues as to why we took her to the vets. I wanted to confirm my findings that she has no broken bones and I was right. So this is good. She does have some swelling in one ear canal with bruising, I'm sure related to the collision. She seems to be having some difficulty, not much, but Connie had noticed some balance issues. This could be related to the ear problem. The vet speculated it could also be a residual problem from the West Nile Virus she had 3 years earlier. I don't think that is the case. She showed none of these signs prior to her release back then and believe me, we look for those things with West Nile. He took some blood and x-rays. Part of the blood work is also looking for heavy metal toxicity. This could also explain a 'balance' problem. Better just rule it out from the start. I also had him perform some other tests for overall health issues. She also had a skin scraping done and a skin biopsy sent out for analysis.
She has something going on with her skin. It looks very 'crusty' and uncomfortable. Not sure what it is....but I hope the biopsy will tell us something since the skin scraping did not.
She's eating well and has a lot of fight in her.
Since the last posting we also took in a Big Brown bat. He was weak and couldn't fly. We hydrated him and fed him for a few days and let him go. What a cutie!
Our 5 rock squirrels are much bigger now and almost ready for release. What a rowdy bunch!
We have two new baby rock squirrels. I've included their pictures with this post. They are both little girls. What sweeties. They are currently getting 5 feedings a day of formula and eating a little solid food on their own. When we introduced them to the bigger rock squirrels, well, they (the 2 newest ones) didn't care for those "other guys", so the intro came to an abrupt end.
We've taken in numerous songbirds, mostly cat attack victims but others are orphans due to their nest falling or them falling out OF their nest.
When taking the 2 eagles to the vet's office today, we released the two Magpie's, both together in Spanish Fork Canyon. We (and they) sure pissed off a couple of robins almost immediately.
Well, it looks like we may have found a home for Shu, the bald eagle that is non-releasable. There is a gentleman I have been speaking with about the possible transfer in Philadelphia. It sounds like a great match and hopefully we can work out the specifics fairly soon.
Last, but not least, we took in another golden eagle last week. This one came from the 'Needles' area of eastern Utah. It's a baby, and the nest was somewhere in some high cliffs, so we can't get him back into the nest. I'll most likely get him x-rayed as well, just to confirm he didn't break anything falling out of the nest. He has a wonderful disposition. He thinks he's big and bad and tries to convince us of that all the time. He has a lot of that red dirt from that area in his feathers and ground into his skin. It looks like rust, so we're calling him Rojo. I've included his picture as well in this post.
Folks, remember, everything we do for these creatures takes money so any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks to Jimmy and Eva for your support. You guys are great!
Debbie