#vet practice

This is Mabel, she was found on the side of the road with a limp paw. After doing some x-rays, we found out she had a fractured elbow. This is her after about 2 weeks with her splint now off!

This juvenile woodie was brought to the practice, unable to fly almost gotton by a cat. On physical examination the wrist of the right wing felt swollen and hard, it was likely broken. We did an x-Ray to examine the bone and yes, very much broken. I’ve included a picture of the x-Ray. A clear fracture to the radius and a hairline and oblique fracture to the ulna. It’s clear also by this x-Ray that this was an old wound and already started to heal itself.

Now this Woodie is never going to be able to fly again, but considering this wound is closed and has already begun to repair, our vet agreed that a suitable environment with another rehabber would be sufficient. In most cases with broken bones, especially in Wood pigeons, unfortunately the kindest thing is euthanasia. Think about the surgery, the pain and the rehabilitation the wild animal would have to go through, even with a chance it may not give them their flight back. Along with this, wild animals get stressed easier, they won’t understand you are trying to help. We thought long and hard for this Woodie and was able to give him a secure but open place with other pigeons to live out the rest of his life. Many people I have heard say that Vets don’t understand wildlife and do the easiest thing and euthanise them. That’s not always the case, believe me, you must think about the animal, it’s welfare and what kind of life it is going to have. Fortunately for this pigeon, we were able to offer it something better, but sometimes it’s kinder to let them go.

*SENSITIVE PHOTO*

We had this little guy visit the practise this afternoon. He’s a frequent garden visitor of a lady in the area that wanted to get him checked over.

We put him under anaesthetic and removed all his ticks and gave him some treatment for the fleas. He had been so itchy that around his mouth and his little paws were so red! We applied some flamazine cream to the affected areas and woke him up.