Cat Caught Bird

[Kristal]

I have no idea what kind of bird this is.... I guess I don't really know my local birds.

My neighbour brought this cat-caught bird over, and s/he looks to be in rough shape. I have not tried to do any handling or poking around to assess injuries in case I do something wrong. This is a tiny and delicate, little being.

I put the bird into a cage and put a shallow dish of water near by... Her tail can move, at least (I guess I am thinking of the bird as a girl). I gently touched her tail as if grooming it, and she moved it back and forth afterwards. Her wings look intact, not mangled, as far as I can tell without spreading them. But I saw what looked like a broken leg as I was putting her down in the towel.

I am just leaving her be, for the moment. She must be terrified.

What should I be doing? Also, what type of bird is this?

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[Kristal]

Oh yes, and my neighbour thinks this is a fledgeling for some reason. I don't know if it is or not. We saw some of the more avid hunting cats up in the branches of a tree near by. She thinks they fished the bird out of a nest there.

[Kristal]

Ok, it seems like either a female downy woodpecker or a juvie hairy woodpecker.

She is moving around now, and can spread her wings and tail. I think she has at least one broken leg, though :( She cannot get off of the floor. Other than that, she is looking pretty bright eyed and alert. I put some berries, seeds and water near to her in jar lids and will let her calm down for a while now...

[pappy1264]

Sending this to Jodi, hopefully she can help. Get heat under half the cage, and you may want to cover at least three sides to help keep her quiet. Take the water dish out (for now) and offer some blueberries and grapes cut up.

[Kristal]

Yes, shock, right! Thanks, Pappy, doing that now.

[Best Life]

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[CritterMom]

Needs abx just like anything else cat-caught. Is there an avian rehab anywhere nearby that can get it the meds it needs?

[Kristal]

I put in a call to le nichoir. But they are not in the city. In fact, they are pretty far out of town, and I don't have a car... or even drive, for that matter.

Maybe they have a volunteer who lives closer to me. I will have to wait for them to get back to me to find out, though.

I do have some amox, 500 mg tablets. I also have an oral syringe left over from nursing the squirrels. She is probably going to wind up staying for at least the night. Should I be planning to give her a dose of ABs to quel the inevitable infection she will get from being bitten by a cat?

[Kristal]

There is a volunteer taxi service out to le nichoir from the local SPCA. That's still almost an hour from here, but there is metro service.

So I put the little bird into a well padded box and covered her just a little, and my nice neighbour (who brought her here in the first place) has kindly agreed to take her out to the SPCA... And I guess that is the end of the story for me. If all goes perfect, she should be on her way out to le nichoir by later tonight, and if it doesn't, by first thing in the morning. Here is hoping she hangs on :Love_Icon She started singing while she was here and moved off of the heated part of the cage, so she is looking good for now, at least.

[psychobird]

She needs medical help asap , her leg needs to stabilized very very quickly,
If her leg heals improperly which can start as early as 24 hrs after the fracture it could cost her her life, her legs need to be working perfectly, woodpeckers rely on them so much
Woodpeckers have these long sticky tongues, remove any fabric Or fleece from the cage
Line bottom with wood shavings and put a fat short log or 2 in there for her
Their tongues can stick to fabric and get all twisted and wrapped up and become necrotic
Offer small dish of water, mealworms and blueberries , being an adult sh probably won't eat any thing else, maybe some suet
Stay on the smaller side for a cage with her leg being broken and all and find a good bird Rehabber soon!

[psychobird]

Oh lol! I read the post earlier buy didn't have time to reply, looks like she is on her way! Let us know what happens!

[Kristal]

Well, it was quite a disappointing outcome. The bird died shortly after arriving at le nichoir. She was in very good shape when she was here, aside from the injured legs.

The woman at le nichoir really urged me to get the bird out to the SPCA asap and told me that if I did she would go to le nichoir that night. As it turned out, she was not even transported until noon the next day and spent the whole night in the SPCA with probably a lot of noisy dogs and cats. They don't give the birds any care while they are waiting for transport at the SPCA.

I guess 24 hours without any hydration combined with stress did it. Had she been honest with me about the time it would take to taxi the bird out, I would have dosed with ABs that night and given her a berry or something, at least, for the road.

Sucks.

[Twi_prime]

Sorry to hear it Kristal. You tried. :(