From New Mexico Wildlife Center
Long-eared Owl 26-21 was reported to our center after being found on the ground in Santa Fe, unable to fly. Upon admission, our team quickly noticed something was wrong. Do you see what looks off about this owl in the photo?
If you guessed an eye injury, you’re right! This owl is suffering from a corneal injury and corneal ulcer, most likely the result of a traumatic event such as being struck by a vehicle. At NMWC, we’re fortunate to have the resources and expertise to get creative with treatment plans. In this case, our hospital team elected to use serum eye drops. Serum eye drops are made from the blood of other animals-here, we used dog and goat blood (with a special thanks to one of our interns for donating their pets’ blood!).
Serum contains many soothing and healing properties that most store-bought eye drops lack. These drops are highly effective at promoting new cell growth, relieving dry eye symptoms, and reducing pain and inflammation. As an added bonus, they can be stored in the freezer for up to six months.
Our hospital team is hard at work doing everything possible to support this patient’s recovery. While this owl will most likely require the removal of the compromised eye, the serum drops are helping to relieve discomfort in the meantime. Fortunately, many owls are excellent candidates for one-eyed releases, as they rely heavily on their exceptional hearing to hunt. Numerous studies over the years have shown that owls released with a single eye can go on to live successful lives in the wild. In order to ensure that this bird is capable of hunting with one eye, we will test its hunting ability with live prey and monitor very closely. Our prognosis is still heavily guarded since this bird arrived only a couple days ago, but our fingers are crossed!
I had forgotten about this until I saw this post! I forget if it was at my clinic or at the rehab conference, but I recall someone talking about how they regularly collect blood from their dog to use for things like this, and the dog knows the routine and it didn’t bother it and it actively participated when it saw the supplies come out.
Thank you, puppies, goats, and others, for supplying important items for the care of others!
Interesting! Good luck LEO21!
That’s a fascinating treatment. I hope they can save the eye, but I realize it’s a longshot. Still, it sounds like they can still thrive in the wild with only one…
It never ceases to amaze me what rehabbers can do for some of these animals. Sometimes the wildlife folks have to get pretty McGuyver-esque with DIY solutions.
Many owls have ears off axis from each other, which gives them a shockingly accurate 3D acoustic image, so as long as their ears still work properly, they can often use their hearing to compensate for the lost depth perception. As long as they can verify it can hunt properly in a flight pen, they can often be released again.
Wow. Nature is amazing…
I thought I’d be bored with owls well before 3000 posts, but I’m still learning ever more about them. There is so much to our world that we could never have the time to truly understand. I’m glad we all get to learn about some of these things here together.
He sacrificed his one eye in the well of wisdom.
Well I hope Long Eared Odin here learned something from this whole thing! 😜
Misleading headline.
Maybe a smidge, but their contributions were crucial to the owl’s treatment. 😇
I still hope you learned some neat stuff!
