Recent casualties

During the last few days I have had three casualties.

The first was a young Magpie that someone had hit whilst driving into a local garden center. The poor bird had wedged in the front bumper. Staff from the center managed to ease the bird out and called me to see if I could help.

I took this Magpie in and on initial examination could find nothing obvious apart from a little blood on his body, he certainly had attitude ! He would gape if offered food but would also feed himself, which I encouraged.

After a few days cage rest and a spell in the flight area I was able to release him back into the wild.

A few days later another Magpie was spotted in difficulty on the side of a road. This bird was an adult and had a serious injury. I took him to Susie Vet who thought he could have been shot. He would never have flown again and the kindest thing to do for him was to put him to sleep.

A Gentleman asked me to look after one of his Canaries that he said had been attacked by another bird. This little chap had a large lump around the eye area. I started him on antibiotics and subsequently took him to Susie who drained the abscess but sadly he died later that day.

If a bird has an injury it has a better chance of survival if it can be treated as soon as possible. If it has been bitten by a cat it needs to be given antibiotics no later than two hours after the attack, if the bird has any chance of recovery.