We are very saddened to report that the adult bald eagle suffering from lead poisoning died yesterday. He fought valiantly. Our volunteers worked tirelessly to provide the twice daily treatment. All of you were rooting for him and for us and we deeply appreciate it.
While I am extremely disappointed we could not save him, we learned a lot. And thanks to many of you, raised money for a blood level lead analyzer that will enable us to get quicker results and hopefully produce a better outcome in the future. On necropsy, we did find the very small piece of lead that ultimately took our beautiful eagle's life. Unfortunately it takes very little lead to kill them.
Here are two good articles to read- one on eagles with lead poisoning from the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota that will give you an idea of the broad problem of lead poisoning in eagles. The second article is about the source of the lead that poisons them. Please feel free to share these articles with your friends so we can help prevent lead poisoning in wildlife.
https://www.raptor.umn.edu/our-research/lead-poisoning
https://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/…/lead_poisoning_wild_birds_2009.…
We will have a display at our Annual Spring Expo May 13 at Franke Park about lead poisoning in eagles and what you can do to help.
Dr. Patricia Funnell, DVM
