Barred Owl Rescued From Street with Severe Injuries

A barred owl was brought to a Virginia rescue center by a man who found the bird severely injured on the side of the road. Unfortunately, the owl did not survive.

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Rescuers at Blue Ridge Wildlife Center in Boyce, Virginia, said that the owl had to be euthanized this week after an infection had developed into sepsis. The owl was first brought to the wildlife center earlier this month after being found by a brewery. Jennifer Riley, a veterinarian at Blue Ridge, said that the owl was probably attacked by a predator because there were several puncture wounds and three fractures on its beak, wing, and leg.

Riley said that she was hopeful because the owl had been quickly brought in for help at the wildlife center, which gave them a jump start on healing its bones. The owl underwent a four-hour surgery, and things were looking up until the owl’s condition took a dramatic turn.

“It looked depressed,” Riley said. She said it didn’t want to eat mice, so rescuers force-fed it. The owl couldn’t keep the mice down, so experts thought medications could be causing sickness and stopped administering them. Several rounds of bloodwork and tests showed that the owl had an infection, probably from its leg fracture, and sepsis, which probably caused the gastrointestinal problems.”

Riley said that it is extremely difficult to recover once septic. They tried their best to treat the owl but it was already suffering from organ failure.

The necropsy revealed that there was dead tissue “in the heart and kidneys which explained why he was looking so bad these last few days.”

We thank Blue Ridge Wildlife Center for doing everything they could to save this owl.

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