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Imagine you’re a vulture. You didn’t migrate with your family unit, and you’re alone. You’re hungry. It’s very cold outside - below zero - so your wings don’t work, so you can’t fly to locate food. Roadkill is covered in snow and frozen, and you haven’t had much to eat. If you don’t find food soon, you’ll die. So you walk. And walk. Through the snow. Through the cold. You.walk.
After a while, you come upon a gut-pile left by a hunter who field dressed a deer he had shot. You’re so hungry. You eat. And eat. And eat. And you feel better. For a while.
A day or so later, you feel dizzy, and start to have trouble walking. You struggle to find shelter, but your legs aren’t working right. Finally, you can go no farther. You collapse in the cold, sub-zero snow. It’s so cold. So very cold. And you drift into an accepting sleep.
Suddenly, you hear voices. Humans! You can’t move. Can’t hide. You feel yourself being lifted out of the snow. You are terrified, but you can’t struggle. Can’t get away. You feel the almost-warmth of something wrapping around you, and you sleep again.
This was a true story.
On January 20, Turkey Vulture 2024-0009 was brought to Soarin’ Hawk, starving, nearly frozen, and suffering from severe lead poisoning. X-rays showed that she had ingested over 20 lead shotgun pellets, which were breaking down in her digestive system and killing her.
We warmed her up, but she was unable to hold her head up, so we placed her in a supportive towel that kept her upright, and she relaxed a bit, and slept.
We knew that it would be very expensive to try to save her, and that she had been through so much trauma that even our trying would not guarantee her survival, but we had to make the attempt. It was, after all, a human who had poisoned her.
A vet removed 12 of the lead pellets from her gizzard, but 8 pellets had already entered her GI tract, and were inaccessible. The vet said they would pass naturally out of her system, but her condition was very guarded.
Her body had absorbed a lot of lead, and that lead needed to come out. She needed chelation therapy, special medications and treatments, and ongoing tests to track her blood lead levels to help her recover.
Turkey vulture 2024-0009 had been through so much! She survived near-starvation and being nearly frozen to death, and still miraculously came through a surgery that, in her weakened state, should have killed her. We believed she wanted to live, and we weren’t going to give up on her! We purchased all she needed, and were ready to begin treating her. But her ordeal had taken too much out of her, and she died. We had so much hope for her! Now, the hope has turned to sorrow. With some of the birds we rescue, we know right away that we can’t save them. But we believed that getting the lead out of her, along with her desire to live, would help her fight the poison long enough for the treatments to work. We knew she could die, but we truly believed that - because she had overcome so many obstacles - we could save her. Sometimes all we do just isn't enough.
Vulture 2024-0009's surgery and post-surgical care, including chelation and therapies to monitor and remove the lead in her system, cost over $2000, and we are now faced with trying to replenish that cash so we can help other birds. If you are able to help us replace some of the costs for her treatment, please click here.
We greatly appreciate any amount you can donate. All donations are tax deductible.
PLEASE hunters, please switch to non-lead ammunition, or clean up after yourselves. Leaving a gut-pile full of lead shot kills more than you aim to.
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