This morning I was driving to Jenna's house, and I noticed a little red screech owl on the ground on the side of the road. I pulled over to check on it, and it weakly flew up to a branch. He looked at me long and hard, and I could see that his eye was messed up. He was probably hit by a car. I remembered that a friend of a friend is a screech owl rehab expert. I called and got "C's" phone number, and called him. He told me that the owl most likely has a concussion, and that he has a 50-50 chance of survival. It is a good thing that the wings aren't broken. I shouldn't try to capture him because that would be more traumatizing to the fragile bird than helpful. He said that the best thing I could do would be to bring the owl some live food that couldn't get away so that when he is ready to eat, he will have something easy. He suggested worms, crickets or mice.
Later in the morning, we went to C&H bait shop and bought some nightcrawlers. We talked to our homeopathic doctor friend who suggested that we crush arnica and hypericum homeopathic pellets and lace the worms with the medicine. Jenna used her mortar and pestel to do just that.
I clamped the worms with clothes pins so they couldn't escape, laced them with homeopathic medicine for trauma and put them in a shallow basket.
Then Jenna and I drove back to the spot by the Laurel River where the owl was. I found the spot by remembering that it was by this sign.
He was still there, and I think his sillouete against the sky is beautiful. He watched me put the food down, so I hope he eats it soon.
I will check on him again tomorrow morning, and if he is gone, that will be a good sign. Good luck owl!
2 comments:
Be well owl! And thank you for your humane efforts, D and J!
I hope he makes it. I bet he will be the only owl to have received homeopathic treatment in WNC, and certainly one of only a handful of beings to have been administered homeopathic treatments via worms. If anything can help him I would guess that would be it, lovingly offered by you two. Beautiful pictures and a beautiful story.
I wonder why owls get hit by cars - maybe they are swooping down on prey in the road? My dad once recovered a completely intact but dead owl off of the front of an ambulance when he was working in the ER. It stayed in our freezer for quite some time and eventually was buried since we couldn't find anyone who wanted to do anything with it. That was before I knew you!
Post a Comment