Strix Needs to be Fixed

Working at the Hampton Bays Wildlife Rescue Center: November 9th

Today, at the Wildlife Rescue Center, a member of the Quogue Wildlife Refuge needed to undergo treatment. A barred owl, named Strix, had a wound on his tarsus, which needed to be treated, so he was taken to the Rescue Center. My mentor at the Rescue Center, Valerie, answered all of my questions throughout the process, and provided me with an in-depth explanation about how she was treating this wound, which allowed me to better understand the procedure.

First, the animal care specialists needed to get control of Strix, secure his leg, and unwrap his wound. After his wound was completely unwrapped, and he was secured under the towel, Valerie began to treat the wound with the necessary tools.

Once the wound was exposed, Valerie treated it by applying saline to the affected area in order to flush out any bacteria, and clean the wound. Once the wound had been doused in saline, Valerie allowed it to sit for a minute. After the saline had settled on the affected area, she dabbed over and around it with gauze. Next, Valerie applied a generous amount of triple antibiotic ointment to the wound in order to prevent infection.

After the wound has been cleaned and triple antibiotic ointment was applied, Valerie then dressed the wound with telfa and tegaderm. Telfa is a clear non-adherent gauze pad that is placed directly over the wound protecting it without sticking to it, and tegaderm is a medical bandage infused with petroleum used to keep the wound moist.

After the telfa and tegaderm are placed and secured over the wound all that is left to do is re-wrap the wound and make sure that the wrap is in place in order to prevent the injury from being irritated. They used a gauze wrap and a strong elastic wrap to secure the dressings that had been freshly placed.

Strix remained at the Rescue Center receiving treatment until his wound was fully healed, and then he was brought back to the Quogue Wildlife Refuge. This procedure was helpful to observe because I learned the process for dressing wounds correctly, and gained a greater understanding of general bird anatomy.