Wildlife Mamas: I have a baby crow here

Quote:
Look up your local rehabber. Caring for wildlife can be difficult, and is deadly for the animal when that person doesn't know how to cre for it. they're not like cats and dogs.

Hope these contacts help.

Washington, Northwest region (Arlington)..... 360-435-4817

Kaye Baxter, Sarvey Wildlife Care Center
[email protected]
Specialty: raptors, general mammals, raptor flight cages, medical

Washington, Northwest region (Friday Harbor)..... 360-378-5000

Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehab Center
[email protected]
Comments: cover Skagit and San Juan Counties

ngton, Northwest region, Kitsap County (Bainbridge Island)..... 206-855-9057

Sandra Kay Fletcher (Director), Island Wildlife Shelter
[email protected]
Wildlife Species: all species including raptors but no large carnivores
THIS YEAR ONLY: no orphaned passerines or mammals, orphaned raptors OK

Washington, Northwest region, Snohomish County (Lynnwood)..... (425) 787-2500 ex.817

The Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)
[email protected]
Wildlife Species: all species
Comments: PAWS treats approximately 5000 injured and orphaned patients each year

Hi Kristin,

I'm wildlife rehabber - please feel free to PM me if you want to talk.

I can't believe that you couldn't find someone to take it. (not that YOU personally couldn't, but that there aren't any out there near you.) Where I work, we take everything as long as it's not a domestic animal. I realize that we are a larger facility than others but I don't know of any who don't take crows - just non-native birds.

Anyway, I would be extremely leary of trying to rehab it yourself if you are not working with a vet or a rehabber. Besides being illegal, you may be setting up the bird for a painful life if it's the wrong type of fracture or has healed improperly. It also may have metabolic bone disease from improper nutrition. It needs the right type of food, the proper wrap for the bone, and antibiotics to help it heal. You also have to make sure to have as little contact with it as possible or else it will habituate to humans (see itself as a human) and have big problems in the wild from that. Plus, you really need to flight-test it to make sure it can fly properly (with length and ascention) before releasing it and if it gets "better" visually, you won't have a flight cage to test it in. Otherwise you'd be releasing it to a possible slow and painful death.

Oh, and yes, blue eyes is a "baby" thing.

And the "break" could also be a foreign object like a BB pellet. It wouldn't necessarily fester unless it were very infected. But you'd need an x-ray to really tell what it was.

I'm glad it's alert and pooping but if it won't eat or drink then you don't have much hope for it. It's probably in pain from its wing and animals in pain don't eat.

Let us know what happens when you contact the rehabbers. If no one will take it, perhaps someone at my facility could give you some advice - we have some crow experts. Oh, and at our facility, baby crows go into foster care until they are self-feeding. If it's down and about, it probably has already fledged but at that age, parents are still offering it some food while it looks for the rest itself. We use 3 cc syringes to feed a liquified cat food/nutrient mixture.

"fx" is a standard abbreviation for fracture. The food suggestions sound good. They really like red fruits - so plums, cherries, etc. would also be good. We soak the cat food in water for 10 minutes or so to make it soft and easy to eat and digest.

Is there any vet nearby who might be willing to charge a smaller fee to at least examine it's wing so you know what you are dealing with? If it's just a strain with swelling, then cage rest is most appropriate. If it's a fracture, then the wing really needs to be wrapped with cotton gauze and then what we call "vet wrap", a flexible plastic netting type of bandage that's breathable. We do a figure-8 wrap on the wing so that it can't be bent. THis is usually on for at least 2-3 weeks. It has to be changed every week or so, or if it gets wet. And a small water bowl used to prevent wetness.

In the cage, make sure that the crow has a perch or two of a nice thick wood that matches the size of it's feet for gripping (3/4" diameter?) of branch or twig that you can find around your house. It should be attached across the cage so that the crow can perch without banging its tail feathers. You can do this by putting the ends of the twig through holes in the cage and taping them or finding a stick that's the same width as the cage and putting a little masking tape on each and and wedging it in. Put the food in a very flat pie plate or cake pan that the crow can walk through without tipping over.