Rehabilitation

Imping an eagle...not many understand what that means! Imp: as a noun this word is defined as " a mischievous child or a little devil or demon". But as a verb it means to "mend or repair" and specifically used in falconry to imp is to "graft feathers into a wing". This eagle had extensive feather damage due to feather mites. The mites leave characteristic angular lines of destruction as they damage the feathers, as seen in this first photo. (The feathers that are not damaged are ones that the eagle had replaced since we had treated her for mites.) As you can imagine, this bird could not fly...Read more

“We had to euthanize this raptor because the fracture was not repairable” … may not make any sense to those outside of raptor rehabilitation. So let us try and explain. The end goal/requirement of wildlife rehabilitation is to release the animal back into the wild. But it must not be released with any physical impairment that would make it either unable to hunt for its own food or be more vulnerable to injury or to a predator. If an animal is not releasable back into the wild we can occasionally place a bird in qualified institution (zoo, etc.) that wants the animal. But there are even...Read more

Please welcome Katherine Tate, B.S.,RVT. to the Soarin’ Hawk veterinary team! Katherine joined us in June of 2017. We had just started talking about the need for a vet tech when we received an email from Katherine inquiring if we had any openings. After reading her bio, we felt that the stars had aligned. We met shortly thereafter, offered her a job, and she accepted! Kat’s story: When I first started college 7 years ago I went into human medicine. I thought I wanted to be a Physician's Assistant. After 3 years, I realized that human medicine wasn't for me, but animal medicine was. I had to...Read more

Just a few weeks ago, 10 associates from the Walmart Distribution Center in Auburn IN dedicated their weekend in service to Soarin' Hawk. In response to our front page call for "more fish" they spent the weekend restocking our supply of fish while enjoying a day outdoors. Not only did they bring inthe fish, Walmart has a program that provides grants to non-profits, based on the number of hours that their associates donate to the community. The 83 hours contributed by these hardworking folks will provide Soarin' Hawk with a lot of fish and $1,000. Thank you Walmart associates and the Walmart...Read more

from the CLINIC - Bumblefoot by Katherine Tate, BS, RVT Bumblefoot is also known as Pododermatitis. Essentially, this condition is inflammation of the feet. Bumblefoot can be a management problem, but can also develop due to an injury. The cause of bumblefoot is due to the bird being in captivity for extended periods of time. This condition begins with the bird placing abnormal amounts of pressure to the feet. The unequal distribution of weight is due to inappropriately shaped perches, incorrect perch substrates, and enclosure layouts that cause the bird to injure the pads on their feet...Read more