This beautiful male Canvasback was found bleeding from his neck in Milpitas, CA, after being attacked by an unknown predator. The rescuer took the duck to our friends at the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley in San Jose, CA, who cleaned his wound and started him on antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and pain medication. They then transferred him to us because of the severity of the wound.
Despite the horrible neck wound, he was able to hold his head up pretty normally and did not have any obvious evidence that his spine, esophagus, or trachea was involved, which gave us hope that the wound had a good chance of healing well. Our staff carefully cleaned and bandaged the wound, preparing him for surgery on the following day. The injury affected over 50% of the circumference of the duck’s neck, with substantial muscle and jugular vein damage, but our experienced veterinarian was able to remove all the damaged tissue and close the wound. We are happy to report that this gorgeous boy is now living in one of our outdoor pelagic pools and is on the road to recovery—which includes eating LOTS of krill! We will continue to monitor and care for this bird until he is fully ready to be released.
One of our core programs at Bird Rescue is the Wildlife Rehabilitation Services Program. Bird Rescue operates two full-time wildlife centers in California and one turn-key facility in Alaska. While our Alaska center is only available for emergency situations, our San Francisco Bay-Delta and Los Angeles wildlife centers take in injured and sick aquatic birds year-round. Our facilities specialize in treating wounded, sick, oiled, and orphaned aquatic birds with the goal of releasing them into the wild once they are recovered.
For more information on the work we do at Bird Rescue, visit our website. For an inside peek at what goes on in our outdoor pools, check out our birdcam! For questions about this post, please email Bird Rescue at clinicfiles@bird-rescue.org.