A wildlife centre assisted a poor owl that was discovered in appalling condition in his amazing recovery. Last month, the Pennsylvania-based Raven Ridge Animal Center declared that it had adopted a Great Horned Owl that had been saved from a manure hole.
The owl was in poor condition and had been stuck in the pit for at least two days, according to a Facebook post. It required multiple showers to remove the layers of caked-on manure that covered him, and he was weak and dehydrated.
Wildlife rehabilitator Tracie Young told The Dodo, “I knew it was going to be a long night,” noting that the owl was “subdued” in spite of the trauma: “He was worn out from his struggles.” The owl’s right eye was blood-filled and deeply red, indicating that it had also had severe eye injuries.
The bird had been unlawfully shot with a BB gun, as the rescuers discovered when they discovered a steel BB in his eye.
In a statement to People, Young stated, “We had to wait for the blood in the eye to be absorbed by the body, so that we could see if there was any permanent damage.” The body began to absorb the blood in the eye over the course of the following few days.
The owl required multiple washes, tube feeding, and fluid administration. The bird was affectionately dubbed “Stinky” by the rescuers since he had been discovered in a manure pit. The owl stayed extraordinarily strong, even though they knew it would be a difficult path to recovery.
As the rescuers assessed the degree of the eye injury over time, they found a miracle: the owl survived the shock without suffering any irreversible damage to its eyes or loss of eyesight. “I was taken aback by the outcome,” Young told The Dodo. “I didn’t think it would survive.”
Rescuers began referring to him as “Lucky” instead of “Stinky” after his astonishing recovery. In a matter of weeks, Lucky’s eye returns to normal, and he appears like a completely different owl. According to the wildlife centre, they want to return him to the wild in the autumn.