Post by Avatar of Shibby on Dec 6, 2007 2:30:36 GMT -5
Over the past week I almost lost my Red Tail, Bertha. It was very scary. I’ve worked for three years to get my first bird, and I almost lost her. I’ve just gotten the ok from the vet, Dr. Moore to begin my training again. I don’t want anyone to have to see their BoP were I saw mine so I’m going to share my story.
Bertha’s trap weight was 1157g (grams). After a twenty four hour period she had dropped to 1057g. I determined this as her ‘true weight’, accounting for what ever food she had eaten before I acquired her. After eighteen days (November 19) I had her down to around the twenty percent mark of 826g. We were out side flying on a creance, and I was going to introduce the lure. I was keeping in close contact with my sponsor over the weight and responses of the bird, and I was told to not go below 775g. Two days later I had her down to 785g, and I chose this day (November 21) to introduce the lure, because I knew that a cold front was due that night. I introduced the lure with an entire quail breast attached, and fed her up on that. Accounting for the amount of food, and the cold front I was predicting that her weight would be around 850g. The front rolled through and plummeted the temperature from the mid seventies of that day to the high thirties in the night.
The next day I took her out of the mews and weighed her and discovered that she had dropped an entire 100g over that night! That was one seventh of her body weight and this sent all kinds of alarms ringing for me. The bird was still acting normal in behavior, but I knew that a weight loss of that much was not good. I instantly called my sponsor and a few other falconers to see what I should do. I was told that with our temperature drop that it wasn’t that big of a deal, and that I should keep her inside and feed her up slowly over the entire day. So I did that.
Over the next six days her weight was very irregular. On the fifth day from her rapid drop I had fed her up an entire quail and her weight only increased 25g the next day. At this point I realized that this had gone outta my control and I needed to get her to the vet. I took her to Dr. Moore on the afternoon of November 26th, along with a bag of six of my home grown quail. At this point I was thinking that she must have had some kind of internal parasite that had gotten outta hand with her low condition.
The next day in the evening I received a call from one of the vet techs asking if I wanted to come to the hospital and visit Bertha. Without thought I said yes and would be there as soon as I could. I arrived at the vets and learned that she had an entirely different condition that what I had though.
She had a classic example of midwinter anemia. Midwinter anemia is brought about by starvation of the bird during training. By not feeding her regularly the metabolism will draw upon protein from the body (muscles and blood) to get fast energy. This use of protein leads to anemia. The use of the protein will lead to a loss of rapid energy resources and impairs the body from working right. Mainly meaning; muscle being ate away, dysfunctional metabolism, and dehydration.
Dr. Moore gave her a forty to sixty chance of survival. Death would be from mineral deficiency or kidney failure. Bertha remained under the careful and close care of Dr. Moore for four days. Afterwards she was released under my care and I was given vitamin supplement and told to keep her inside and well fed. I returned this evening (December 5) for a check up, and was told that she was ready to begin training again.
Basically I learned two key points. The first being always feed some thing to the bird even if it is washed meat to the bird to keep the metabolism working properly. The second is to not be so dependant on the scale. The scale only shows her weight and not the actual condition of the body. The keel needs to be felt to make sure that conditions are good. A fat bird with little muscle mass can weigh the same as a skinny bird with high muscle mass. The conditions of the birds are not the same though.
Bertha’s trap weight was 1157g (grams). After a twenty four hour period she had dropped to 1057g. I determined this as her ‘true weight’, accounting for what ever food she had eaten before I acquired her. After eighteen days (November 19) I had her down to around the twenty percent mark of 826g. We were out side flying on a creance, and I was going to introduce the lure. I was keeping in close contact with my sponsor over the weight and responses of the bird, and I was told to not go below 775g. Two days later I had her down to 785g, and I chose this day (November 21) to introduce the lure, because I knew that a cold front was due that night. I introduced the lure with an entire quail breast attached, and fed her up on that. Accounting for the amount of food, and the cold front I was predicting that her weight would be around 850g. The front rolled through and plummeted the temperature from the mid seventies of that day to the high thirties in the night.
The next day I took her out of the mews and weighed her and discovered that she had dropped an entire 100g over that night! That was one seventh of her body weight and this sent all kinds of alarms ringing for me. The bird was still acting normal in behavior, but I knew that a weight loss of that much was not good. I instantly called my sponsor and a few other falconers to see what I should do. I was told that with our temperature drop that it wasn’t that big of a deal, and that I should keep her inside and feed her up slowly over the entire day. So I did that.
Over the next six days her weight was very irregular. On the fifth day from her rapid drop I had fed her up an entire quail and her weight only increased 25g the next day. At this point I realized that this had gone outta my control and I needed to get her to the vet. I took her to Dr. Moore on the afternoon of November 26th, along with a bag of six of my home grown quail. At this point I was thinking that she must have had some kind of internal parasite that had gotten outta hand with her low condition.
The next day in the evening I received a call from one of the vet techs asking if I wanted to come to the hospital and visit Bertha. Without thought I said yes and would be there as soon as I could. I arrived at the vets and learned that she had an entirely different condition that what I had though.
She had a classic example of midwinter anemia. Midwinter anemia is brought about by starvation of the bird during training. By not feeding her regularly the metabolism will draw upon protein from the body (muscles and blood) to get fast energy. This use of protein leads to anemia. The use of the protein will lead to a loss of rapid energy resources and impairs the body from working right. Mainly meaning; muscle being ate away, dysfunctional metabolism, and dehydration.
Dr. Moore gave her a forty to sixty chance of survival. Death would be from mineral deficiency or kidney failure. Bertha remained under the careful and close care of Dr. Moore for four days. Afterwards she was released under my care and I was given vitamin supplement and told to keep her inside and well fed. I returned this evening (December 5) for a check up, and was told that she was ready to begin training again.
Basically I learned two key points. The first being always feed some thing to the bird even if it is washed meat to the bird to keep the metabolism working properly. The second is to not be so dependant on the scale. The scale only shows her weight and not the actual condition of the body. The keel needs to be felt to make sure that conditions are good. A fat bird with little muscle mass can weigh the same as a skinny bird with high muscle mass. The conditions of the birds are not the same though.