recovery

Well I can show you some pictures today because we did a procedure. You all remember that we have a juvenile trumpeter swan in correct? Well today we finally got a chance to re x-ray the pelvic region and the hock that has been incredibly swollen. After a little bit of a struggle we got her captured and hauled up to the xray room. To reduce the stress and make sure we got some good photos we put her under anesthesia. This allowed us to manipulate her and take a series of radiographs to make sure that we could see what exactly was going on. After roughly 4 radiographs we could see that the pelvic girdle looks quite well, but the inflammation in the right hock is pretty severe. Our bird vet was there and drained excess fluid off the hock (I will be sending in samples to our lab) and then gave the antibiotics I had drawn up. We also did some maintenance work on dings on the wings, and also some rough spots on her good foot. We also did laser therapy on the legs and hip areas.

I completely didn't think about taking pictures during the process, because I was running around processing the radiographs, getting syringes and needles, betadine, and all the other things we needed. Once we put her in a warmed room with dryer warmed blankets, someone said.. maybe we should get some pictures. I pulled out my camera and started snapping. I had to change the ISO (3200 & 6400) so they are a bit grainy as we were in a very dim room to aid in the wake up of the swan. She was very slow to come out of anesthesia, but soon she was able to hold her head up and we left her to be.

I hope you enjoy