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This smiling bright eyed Great Horned Owl came in from Spalding Animal Control. A mature male, he was found hanging in a barbed wire fence. Fortunately for him he was caught on the bottom strand and was able to stand. When they are caught on the higher strands they struggle and fight until they tear all the feathers and flesh away. This runt male, is very small as GHOs go, has been healing well and is headed for a flight pen.

Owls have very soft feathers that are easily snagged by the barbs on barbed wire. It is impossible to untangle the "mat" on this wire. The wire must be cut and the owl removed. When the owl is freed then the wire can be carefully removed. This guy was very fortunate and only lost a wad of secondary feathers. Most of the time we see large amounts of tissue loss and exposed bone that results in euthanasia.

Most owls are hunting hard now as the females are sitting on eggs. Some may already the members of the 2014 "baby" class hatched out.

Buckshot's wing

Compare this picture to the previous post and you can see improvement. The tissue is nice and pink and the wound is closing with good granulation. He is using his wings and has flown from the ground to a 6 ft perch. After detailed discussion with input from Dr. Gardner and Katherine Dudek at Chat. Nature Center, we are not comfortable releasing him until this wound is closed. This is very high tension area and is critical to flight. Dr. Gardner made a very good analogy in the discussion. She said "this is like cutting your finger across the knuckle. Everytime you bend it the wound opens up."

The second picture is another view of the same.

  

This is where we are. Thanks to those who have sent in monetary support. It is very much appreciated.

Thanks too to Becky Watts and pikecountytimes.com and Rachel McDaniel at the Journal Reporter for their excellent coverage of this case.