Caring for a injured bird the cat brought in the house?
Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at
4:39 pm
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Filed under: Cat Furniture
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Please do not handle the bird, and do not feed worms.
You need to find a wildlife rehabilitator that takes songbirds – and you need to do it ASAP. Cats have a bacteria in their saliva called Pasturella, which is deadly to birds. The bird will need specific antibiotic therapy or it will not survive.
Wildlife rehabilitation is typically FREE to the public.
Please use this link to locate a rehabber in your area:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contact.htm
If you cannot find one on the list, try searching Yahoo! or Google for "wildlife rehabilitation" and your country, state, or territory.
Other resources to locate rehabbers may include your local humane society, animal shelter, DNR, DFG, ASPCA, RSPCA, RSPB, or Audubon chapter.
I would add a lamp nearby to raise the temps near him, as birds have a superhigh metabolism. Other than that it sounds like you are doing a great and thorough job of caring for your new patient. If there is an animal rehab center nearby, you could contact them. In my town, there is a vet that works with a local rehab center pro bono, so it couldn’t hurt to check.
You can try and force feed a few mealworms to him tomorrow, if he still wont eat. Gently hold him securely in your hand, and try sliding part of a mealworm in his beak. He will continue eating, once the eating reflex kicks in, after the mealworm is in far enough. It is important that he gets some food in his belly, since their metobolic rate is so high. Mealworms are available at almost any petstore.
What you are doing now sounds just fine. sparrows can learn how to talk too (Y). Maybe google some more info. Any bird with torn flesh shouldn’t be released or near other animals, even other birds. they would pick at the wound.