Lead poisoning and a little bit of magic

Time has flown by once again and it doesn't feel like a month since my last blog entry.

We seem to be going through a faze where things are really busy or really quiet. This week is starting to get really busy with 6 bookings in the next 2 days while last week was quiet and next week is quite quiet at the moment but I am expecting that to change as quite a few bookings have been coming in last minute. To be honest having a quiet week or 2 at this time of the year is not a bad thing as I am busy in the centre getting this ready for the coming season. At the moment I am working with 15 birds out of the 20 that I have in my collection so things are busy and the days are getting longer. 9 hour days are becoming the norm but the other day I ended up doing a 13 hour shift. All great fun.

The big news of the last month concerned Corrie (European Eagle Owl). I noticed Corrie has been a bit slow and not really firing on all cylinders if you like. I was a bit worried about him as he seemed a little bit out of sorts. I put it down to the fact that he had been flying for a year and maybe needed a bit of a break which he was due. Things weren't that busy and I decided that I would give Corrie a squirrel to eat. Something a bit richer than chicks and then a few days off to chill out and hopefully he would pick up a bit. He ate the squirrel and I waited for him to bring up a pellet (fur and bones which he can't digest) to say he had digested it. I was expecting the pellet to appear 2 to 3 days after he ate the squirrel. I gave him the squirrel on the Friday. The pellet should of appeared Sunday or Monday. When no pellet appeared I started to get worried. I weighed him and his weight said that he was empty - that he had digested the squirrel. I thought maybe the pellet had fallen down the back of his aviary and out of sight. The thing was he looked ok and seemed himself in someways but not in others. I decided to book him into the vets. I got an appointment on the Friday morning. On the Friday I was really worried as I could see a huge difference in him. He seemed very weak. I took him to the vet. The vet examined him and said it could be lead poisoning. I said no way I'm careful about that. he then said well it might Capillaria which is a type of parasitic worm. The next step was to run some tests to see what was going on with Corrie.

I got a call on the afternoon to say that they had x rayed Corrie and found a air gun lead pellet in his stomach and that he had lead poisoning. I went over to collect him with Jo to hear what the situation was with him. We were shown an x ray showing the pellet in his stomach.

The air gum pellet is the mushroom shape in his stomach

The air gun pellet is the white oval shape in the x ray

 The x rays also showed that his stomach was swollen and inflamed. I was sent away with a whole load of different meds to give him. The plan was to try and get him to pass it naturally. A blood sample was also taken for testing to find out how much lead he had in his blood.

Once we got him on the medication to deal with the lead he picked up and seemed a bit brighter. He had to have medication administered down a tube put down his throat and straight into his stomach, medication in his food and get an injection each day. Lucky we were able to do this at the centre as Jo my girl friend is a vet with exotics experience. We gave Corrie his medication with me holding Corrie. Jo and Becky (4th year vet student) administered the medication. Quite a team effort. A big thank you to Jo and Becky for all their help.

A week later we were back at the vets with Corrie. The air gun pellet hadn't been passed and it was time to try and get it out. I was also given the results of his blood test. I was told anything under 20 is low, 60-80 is high and 100 is acute. Corrie's blood test results came in at 580 so he had a massive amount of lead in his system.

It was decided that the best option was to flush the pellet out. I once again left Corrie at the vets not feeling very confident that this would end well. I was told that the last time they had put Corrie under a anaesthetic to x ray him he had not been very stable and at one point they had to help him with his breathing. I was seriously worried about Corrie but I had no option the air gum pellet had to come out.

I got a phone call to later that day to say that they had got the pellet out but it had been a real struggle. The whole procedure should of only taken 30 mins but it took 70 min. The problem being Corrie had been eating small stones and his stomach was full of them. He had probably been doing this because his stomach was not working quite right due to the lead and he was trying help his digestive system.

They had to use a endoscope with a small basket on the end to shovel some to the stones out and then they could flush the rest out along with the pellet.

When I collected him they gave me more meds to help deal with the lead levels in his blood. 5 days later he was back at the vets for a check up and another blood test to check the lead levels. 2 days later I had to go back to the vets to get more meds and the results from his last blood test. I didn't know what to expect from the results. The last one was 580 and that was massive anything below that would be good. I was overjoyed when I was told it had dropped to 47. This is still quite high but it still a massive improvement. One more course of meds and the lead should be out of his system. The vet said he wouldn't need to see him again.

I am normally really careful about the risk of lead poisoning when using wild food to feed my birds. I normally check it over. The squirrel was part of a batch that I had been using to feed the birds over the winter. I had been told they had been caged trapped and then hit on the head to kill them. I didn't check them that closely as I was told that squirrels from the same batch had also gone to conservation projects a to feed wild birds of prey. From what I understand their had been several people trapping and killing the squirrels and 1 of them had been shooting them rather than hitting them to kill them. From now on the heads are all removed and the carcass is thoroughly checked so we don't have a repeat incident.

I experienced a little bit of magic the other week. I got a call from a local farmer asking if I had lost a bird or if I knew of anyone who may of lost a bird as there was a large bird of prey flying on his land with what looked like or could be some straps hanging from it's legs. I said no but I would go out and have a look. I went out to see the farmer and he told me where it was. I asked what it was like he said it has some white on it and that it was bigger than a buzzard. This didn't exactly narrow it down but I said I would go and have a look when I had time over the next day or 2. From what I was told and the questions I had asked I thought someone might of lost a female Harris Hawk. Next day I went to the spot and had a look. He said it had been sitting in an old dead tree. I found the tree and went to have a look about. I was looking for feathers or any food scraps. There wasn't any just some large mutes (bird poo). Too big to from a Harris Hawk. Everything was quiet. I decided to head back. As I made my way back a wild Golden eagle flew out of some trees in front of me and flew over my head no more than 50m away. A magical moment and the closest I have ever been to a wild Golden Eagle.This was the strange bird that the farmer had been looking at.

That's all the exciting news out the way. Now about what has been going on in the centre with the birds. In a word -  LOTS. As I mentioned earlier I am working with 15 birds at the moment. I have birds flying for bookings and I have birds flying to get them ready for the coming demonstration season.

The flying team has been changing. Corrie (European Eagle Owl)has been given a rest. He was due it but all the problems with the lead poisoning just sped it up. He will now spend the next 6 months relaxing, recovering and moulting. Bella (Barn Owl) has also been allowed to moult (drop out old feathers and grow in new ones) with Alba the other Barn Owl now flying. I have to say Bella has been a star. She was brought in to replace Dylan who had to be put to sleep last year. I was a little bit worried as Dylan was very good and always very reliable. Bella has been just as good and a bit more hyper. Anyway she is now being given a well earned break and it's Alba turn to fly. Alba is 7 years old this year and very different to Bella. The difference being she is alot calmer. Next up to be dropped from the flying team will be Pele (Harris Hawk). He has a 1 more booking to do and then I will allow him to moult over the summer. Mardy (Harris Hawk) is now flying and looking good after his winter break. Also Brel (Harris Hawk) is flying and it is all about getting him back up to speed at the moment as he is very unfit.

I have also been flying Uist (Lugger Falcon) who has been looking good. Next up on the falcon front is Bob (Gyr x Saker). I felt I turned a bit of a corner with Bob last summer so hopefully we can build on that and improve on this this summer.

The only other thing to mention is that I was doing a hawk walk over at Cameron House this afternoon and  Cooper (Harris Hawk) flew off. It was my fault. I had stopped to explain something and Cooper got bored and flew off. I thought no worries he will be just up ahead a bit. I called him - no sign. I walked down the path a bit and called - no sign. Time to get the telemetry out and track him down. I switched on the telemetry receiver to pick up the signal from the transmitter he was wearing and got that re assuring beep to tell me which direction to walk in. I caught up with him 10 mins later. He had lost sight of me and had started following some other people that he had come across. I think they were delighted to have a Harris Hawk join them on their walk. When I saw him he was getting a hard time from some seagulls and crows. I shouted and he came straight in. I went back to where I had left the guests and carried on with the hawk walk.

Time to finish up this entry. I am up very early tomorrow as I have got 3 hawk walks to do and a early start so a busy day ahead.

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