(Header photo credit: Ryan Bourbour)

A mature, female barn owl was brought to the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH), University of CA, Davis with wounds on both of her eyes and her head, and with air under her skin (“subcutaneous emphysema”). These types of wounds are very common with trauma-but we could not ascertain how this barn owl got the wounds. Our veterinary crew teamed with our Ophthalmology Service at the VMTH and performed multiple surgical procedures on her eyes over several months to attempt to clear her vision.

While barn owls utilize hearing primarily for tracking their prey, nonetheless we will not release an owl with impaired vision in both eyes. After several months of surgically removing the scar tissue from her eyes, our ophthalmologists felt her eyes had healed enough for her to be released. The rehabilitation team worked diligently alongside the medical team to prepare her for release with conditioning her in a confined flight cage until they felt she was in good enough condition to fly and hunt on her own. Our long-time volunteer Larry Guenther released her on his last evening of volunteering with us, as he left to take a new job- a fitting tribute to both Larry and the barn owl alike!