Weekend Releases!

     This past weekend we released two patients that have been with us for over a month: A Herring Gull and a Mourning Dove. It is always a great thrill to release patients after a long recovery.

     The Mourning Dove, who had been with us since late January, came to us with a neck twisted ninety degrees to the right side. This torsion of the neck made him unable to stand or eat on his own. Many birds suffer a twisting of the neck (called Torticollis) after a sudden head-on impact (typically with cars or windows). This is typically not a permanent problem, but takes some time for the neck to straighten out. When we admit birds with this problem, we make them as comfortable as possible while the torsion slowly heals. We must forcefeed all of these patients, as they are unable to feed themselves.
     After some time, the dove was finally able to right himself and began to stand and eat on his own. His head was no longer tilted. Once we were sure that he was stable, he put him in a large outdoor aviary where he would be able to fly and get acclimated to the outdoors again. After about 10 days of being in our protected aviary, we decided he was flying well enough to be released! We thank the compassionate donor that brought this injured dove to us, and wish him luck in the upcoming Spring!

      The Herring Gull was admitted to us on February 5th. A concerned couple found him while walking on Jones Beach. He was not moving, and both of his wings were hanging on the ground. We took the gull right away to get X-rays, and discovered he had not one, but fractures in both of his wings. This poor gull had really been through a lot! We suspect he was struck by a car.
      We were instructed by our veterinarian to keep him in a smaller enclosure while his wings healed, because any excessive movement of the wings could impede proper healing of the wing. After a few weeks, we moved him into a larger enclosure, and started giving him daily baths where he could bath and stretch his wings after a long period of inactivity. We also started putting him outside for the day in an outdoor aviary. His wings seemed to have healed well, as they were no longer hanging and were back in the proper position! We started to test flight the gull daily. His first few test flights did not go so well, which was to be expected after a long period of inactivity. Much to our delight, things changed yesterday. We tested his flight in our large, open 'recovery' room, where he flew around the room and was able to gain height. We decided that he did not need to be with us any longer, and released him later that day at a beach with many other gulls!