Well after my post yesterday, I can let you know it leaded to being a completely rough day. I was on-call all day yesterday (my day off) because Shona is off playing at the Skagit Eagle Festival. So Heather manned the Hollow for a few hours and then turned the pager system on, giving me the responsibility.
It was quite for the after noon, after me drinking way to much coffee and putting myself in the place where I felt like I had a severe hangover. I finally decided food and other liquids would be the best thing for me. Just as I start to make dinner my pager goes off, /groan. I call the person back and they have a Bald Eagle in a box that had been downed for almost a week now, but never in a place that it could be "rescued". I called my list of volunteers on mainland and finally got a hold of someone who could collect him. I wasn't sure at that point if she would hold him over night or try to get him over on the ferry. After she did a visual exam of him, she decided to send him over on the last milk run ferry.
I had headed over to my friend's house to hang out and took my dart board over that has just been living in my closet plus the two extra dart sets I have to see if he liked one of the sets. So we were playing some various games that are on my electronic, plastic tip board. when I got the call that he would for sure be on the ferry and to expect it to be in around 10:30. Whee. I asked Jason if he could help me; he has had experience working with eagles as a conservationist in Arizona so I knew he would be up for the challenge.
So, we picked up the bird, headed out to the center. Did an exam and found a few things wrong. The original "grounding" of the eagle was something to do with the left wing. right at the elbow there was a very hard mass encompassing the entire joint. I would say it was roughly the size of two golf balls. That was something that could be looked at later, after an x-ray, a biopsy of the tissue (or draining of if it was pus or fluid). Moving on I checked the other wing, looked great; and then I uncovered the head (as I had it protected from both the light to keep him calm, and also to keep that pointing thing under control since Jason was controlling the other pointy bits. His mouth was a bit pale, hydrated, but pale; shock will do that to you. His keel was slightly sharp. Hard to tell if it was that much weight loss (probably some weight loss even though the fish plant the eagle was by was supplying him with fish), but probably mainly atrophy in the muscles from being on the ground for over a week. After that I checked the legs.... this is where the no good part of the story comes in.
His right leg was a jagged break to the Tibiotarsus. and the bone, was no where near being in stable clean break place. Muscle and nerve damage had been done. The hard part was really knowing that what I was going to do was the best thing. In my opinion it was, the decision was made to end the birds suffering. Always a tough decision when there is doubt playing in the back of your mind, thinking.. "there has to be a way to set this leg".. "really come-on it can't be that bad". But as they teach you in a euthanasia course, you also have to look at the fact that Eu =good, and Thanatos=death. And is preformed as a painless and stress free with compassion and dignity for the animal. (Though they also tell you that there is ERS (Euthanasia Related Stress) for the persons) I do feel a sense of guilt, but also respect the animal, and understand it is an individual, which I appreciate and enjoy --the animal, not having the "license to kill". Enough with that heaviness.
If you want to have another take on this case I HIGHLY recommend you check out Jason's blog, he put things quite well in it.
Today I did take radiographs of the wing and leg. The leg was a very jagged break to the Tibiotarsus, and even broke the tip of the Fibula. As for the wing, there was high calcification in the distal humeral head, but nothing that extended outside the natural bone (I don't know if it was an impact fissure, or a chip).
Hopefully it stays quiet, healthy, and alive around here. The cold outside has me pinned up inside today. I really don't want to do much outside work today.
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