Surgery scheduled

Our hit by car great horned owl which came in the wee hours of the morning the other day is finally standing and eating on his own. Until today, we had to force feed him because he was so weak. Force feeding means we have to run a tube down his throat and pump him full of pre-digested food. We have to use this technique because if the food were whole, he would expend more calories trying to digest it than he would get out of it. This way, the food is pre-digested and easily converted to useable calories for him. We have to very slowly introduce solids so the birds digestive tract can handle them. By the time Monday rolls around, he should be strong enough to endure the anesthesia required to repair his wing.

Meanwhile, we received a generous donation from the owl's finder with the following note:

Glad to see the updates on the blog about the owl! THank you for all you do, and please pass along our thanks to Dr. Davis. I realize this is only a drop in the bucket. My son and I will be selling some unneeded items on eBay and hope to donate again soon. THANK YOU, again. Blessings to you!

To her and her son, I would like to say Thank YOU for caring enough to help! We appreciate your generosity and creativity in raising funds for us. I hope more people will follow your example. We will be applying these funds towards our "Build A Better Bird House" so we can add some outdoor weathering areas to our large flight conditioning pens.