Friday, Jun. 19, 2009

Injured hawk faces uncertain prognosis

By Drew Foster, Herald staff writer

Patty Jones comforted her injured passenger on the drive to Benton City.

"We're going to get you some help," she said reassuringly.

Her words soothed, Jones thought, as her passenger's dilated pupils seemed to retreat.

Jones stayed positive.

Her passenger was a juvenile red-tailed hawk found by her co-workers at Frontier Trading LLC in Pasco early Thursday. Jones thought the bird suffered a fractured wing. Melanie McKenna, a veterinary technician at Sunrise Veterinary Clinic, treated the hawk.

Her early prognosis was grim. "I'm afraid it's not going to be a good turnout," she said.

The hawk's wing appeared to be fractured at a joint near the wingtip as if it hit a telephone wire or car, she said before thoroughly examining the bird. Roughly the equivalent of a broken wrist -- something a human easily recovers from -- the fracture likely would lead to the wing being partially or totally amputated.

But the results of a Thursday morning X-ray proved otherwise.

"The X-ray did not show a break," McKenna said Thursday afternoon. "It does have a pretty ugly infection. We're going to try treating him with antibiotics and ... see if we can give it a go."

If the infection doesn't spread to the bone, McKenna said the hawk may once again take flight.

Whatever the outcome, McKenna said Jones and her co-workers did the right thing.

"If (someone) finds an injured wild animal of any kind, there are places they can call," she said.

McKenna specializes in treating birds of prey, which is why the hawk was taken to Benton City. If someone finds an injured bird of prey, McKenna urged them to put it into a cage or box and cover the opening with a towel to block light and limit the bird's sight, the creature's most powerful sense.

"Everything in a bird of prey is visual," she said. "If we were in a room with very loud music all the time, and it was music you didn't like, it would be very bothersome to say the least."

The hawk spent Thursday in a towel-covered cage in the clinic's back room. During the first few hours, it sat with eyes wide, mouth ajar and tongue straight -- signs of distress, McKenna said.

As McKenna held the hawk to her chest -- it was still woozy from gas inhaled before its X-ray -- she touched its skinny breast and noodled its weakened talons. Despite its state, the hawk retained a wild, powerful beauty.

Surrounded by dogs lazing on the ground or sleeping in kennels, the bird began to acclimate as the day wore on. "We gave him some fluids and he's gotten quite a bit perkier," she said Thursday afternoon.

The hawk's fate will be up to veterinarians with the Raptor House Rehabilitation Center for Birds of Prey in Yakima, where representatives were could not be reached Thursday.

McKenna said the bird will remain in the Sunrise Veterinary Clinic for several days to be monitored.