Friday Rounds: Common Goldeneye healing from mandible injury

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Photo by Isabel Luevano

This winter, our San Francisco Bay center has received into care a few injured Common Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) — beautiful diving ducks that winter in the open inland waters of our area.

This male Common Goldeneye was brought to us emaciated with a laceration underneath its mandible, rehabilitation technician Isabel Luevano reports. The injury created a piercing which caused the bird’s tongue to fall through it, rendering this animal unable to eat.

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Our staff veterinarian, Dr. Rebecca Duerr, sutured the wound, and now the bird is “eating fish like there’s no tomorrow,” Luevano reports. The goldeneye is recovering in a pelagic pool and needs to both gain weight and heal its wound before it can be released.

Below, a photo of another Common Goldeneye cared for by our San Francisco Bay center earlier this season (photo by Cheryl Reynolds).

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