Sedge has had a tough two days, he has had dreadful diarrhoea which for a chap who can't stand up is not fun, I went to the vets and got him some different medicine and he has been eating rice and chicken, but its still not great. I did 6 towel washes yesterday and ran out of space to dry the towels, only done three so far today.

Well Sedge did well in his first Hydrotherapy, I was worried as he is not a water dog. We took him to Hartpury to Cotswold Dog Spa and I have to say I could not fault them, they were patient and incredibly kind with him, assessed him on the floor and spent time with him and then put a jacket on him and two of them were in the pool with him. Two people with this tiny paralysed little dog. They spent some time on the ramp so he had his front feet on solid ground and then gave him three swims along the length of the pool, by the third swim he felt safer and did well. He then had a shower and shampoo and a rest before we took him home.


 

Late last year I bought two washing machines, one for the clinic and one for the house, I had got rather tired of doing the clinic and baby bird towels in my washing machine and then bumping into the occasional mouse head or tail in my own washing, not fun as you can imagine. The one in the Clinic which is not a hoover apparently works fine, no fuss, it just does the washing and the spinning regardless of how much or little you put in there. Not so the Hoover, it is a piece of crap to put not to fine a point on it, I have complained a number of times because generally it refuses to spin with monotous regularity. I have been told by the people who I bought it from that I have been putting too much weight in, I have however been told by the engineer who came to fix it that I have not been putting in enough weight. I don't want to have to weigh my damn washing, I just want a machine that will work, I don't want nine million programmes I want a machine that works, and this one does not. DON'T BUY A HOOVER Washing Machine!!

Sedge had his second laser treatment, we were disappointed that there was no improvement, he will have two more before we consider that this is not going to help. He has his first Hydrotherapy session tomorrow, unfortunately I

Sedge with his new blanket in the cart

have to go to Hereford for an eye appointment, so staff and friends will go with him, I hope he is not upset by water, I think he will be OK. Emma, Jimmi's girlfriend made a blanket for him, which he loves and as the weather is getting worse, it will be very useful. Ginny sent he two more coats, and I have just bought him a dog safety belt for the car as he has to travel to all these appointments. It is hard to see him like this for so long, and not know if he is ever going to get mobile again. I went on the internet and found a treatment that has worked in the US, and I emailed the lady on the site, amazingly and I was very touched, she emailed back, but sadly the drug is only any use in the first 48 hours of the injury, and no use after that. You would think there was something that could help spinal cords recover, or someone who could tell you what the chances are.

We now have two baby Verreaux's Eagles, the second one of the first clutch hatched at 7.30pm last night, Holly may come down off the cloud by the end of today, but I am not convinced that she will!!!

The first Steller's eggs has hatched and the second egg should hatching the next couple of days, it will be fun to watch on CCTV, you should be able to see it on the website, I hope! They will do a good job rearing as she is a great parent as is the male.

 

Hare is out and could have gone loose today but for the wind, Karis is close to ready, Fortina is back flying free and we have two more kites to add to the team, I hope to get them to six by May. My Hobby is flying beautifully, I am really pleased with her and my Red Kite is being awful to everyone except for me, which is a nuisance. The female Spectacled Owl is much improved and doing well.

 

The fire is alight and Sedge is happily lying in front of it, he does love a good warm fire.

 

Mark and I went to London on Wednesday, we were giving a presentation at the PAW meeting, which was held at Kew Royal Botanical Gardens. It was pretty foggy when we left and stayed that way pretty much all the way to Reading when it cleared, and then we hit London traffic. It took us three hours to get there and one hour 55 minutes on the way back!!!

 

It was pretty foggy yesterday, but cleared by lunchtime and we managed to get all the birds flown, and at the end of the day a school party from Newent School came up to learn about the

vulture project and the problems of diclofenac, shame the European Government doesn't seem to understand it! I had Neil and some of the bird staff coming to supper so just about managed to get ready for it. Sedge was very excited to have lots of people in the house in the evening. We had a nice meal and the dogs enjoyed the company. Neil kindly had a look at Sedge and felt that there was some hopeful signs of reflex response. He suggested that Sedge have some treatment from a practitioner he knows who does acupuncture and laser therapy, and he emailed her to ask her to contact me.

 

This morning I had to take Sedge over to Vets Now to see his surgeon and have the staple stitches

taken out. He still has no deep pain response, but Sergio also felt that there was more reflex response, particularly in the left leg, which I had noticed was slightly stronger (he could manage on three legs). He said there is a little hope and I drove home with Sedge, who was much more relaxed on the way back than he had been on the way there. The drive was dreadful both ways - thick fog for most of it and I was staggered at how many people were stupid enough to drive a) much to fast and b) with out lights on. I was very pleased to get home in one piece.

 

Jan, the lady who does the laser therapy phoned at lunchtime and came over and gave him his first treatment, he was a little concerned, but soon settled and almost went to sleep. He is a tired dog this evening. He has another treatment on Monday, so fingers crossed.

 

The birds all flew very well today, I don't think I could fault any of them and they are all loving seeing the sun again. Mark got Karis and Fortina out, so they will be back on duty soon. And I am really pleased so far with my new Harris Hawk, he is called The Thinker and is doing well. Oh and Holly's Harris Hawk Domino knobbled a duck yesterday, they really are particularly brainless at the moment. I mean it is pretty stupid to think about breeding on a pond where over thirty birds of prey are flown daily, not to mention the dogs, but to walk from one pond to another in the middle of a flying demonstration is asking for trouble and one of the drakes got it. So its duck for supper.

A cold easterly wind was coming up the field today, that means that the poor visitors are chilly watching the demonstrations, but that the flying is generally wonderful, and it was. All the falcons did well, as did the buteos, but the most exciting without a doubt was Benbecula, Pioneer's baby brother Steller's Sea Eagle. He was just having a whale of a time and so were we watching him. Holly videoed him on her phone and he was up for over three minutes, it was a joy to watch, mind you I was not quite so sure when Jimmi excitedly said at the end of the demonstration that he would have left him up longer but did not have the balls!

 

We got Hare out today, he would have loved this wind too, however he has to come back to his flying weight and needs one new tail feather before he can have his telemetry mount put on. We also have to completely imp the new Saker who has a dreadful tail.

 

Sedge is well, we put some wire mesh round the sides of the cart to make them higher and now he is able to stay in that all day and be wheeled around for coffee, lunch if we are outside and even down to the flying ground if it is not too cold. He seems to enjoy it and can stretch out

comfortably.

 

I can't work out if he is getting the ability to pee himself or I am getting better at helping him, it may be a bit of both. I would like to point out though that I rarely let anyone crap on me, and the last time was the executive director and the Board of directors at the South Carolina Center for Birds of Prey, and that was not through choice, but then they are a bunch of idiots anyway. Sedge on the other hand has done so at least three times in the last few days, however I can honestly say that I prefer him doing it!!! We are getting through about six to eight towels a day. And they are not coming to fix the washing machine until Friday, the only excuse I can think of is that a lot of them must go wrong!!! I have been told he will be turning up sometime between 8.00am and 6.00pm - now that is an incredibly useful bit of information. Don't you just love it!

 

Apart from the cold it has been dry - hooray, and spring is definitely abounding. Leaves are showing, birds are singing, bulbs are coming up and my Magnolia is going to flower for the first time.

 

 

Life is beginning to settle around Sedge, although I have to say it would have been a little easier if a) I had not forgotten to order heating oil so I have no central heating and no hot water!! and b) the bloody new Hoover washing machine worked. I have to say that the more technical these machines become, the less well they actually seem to wash. I wish companies would just make a bog standard washing machine that works and you don't need a degree in IT to get it to work! And of course this is the one time when I need one urgently. Luckily we do have one in the clinic, but taking stuff across is not exactly fun.

 

Thank you all who have brought towels, at least I have enough now that if I don't keep up with washing them it is not so crucial

 

Sedge is coping, he is very very insistent that he has to go to coffee time, I have been carrying him but thought of the little cart so he has travelled around in that and seems less stressed, he never did like being carrying even when well. What is odd is that he seems to be able to almost wag his tail and this evening while he was asleep in front of the fire (which he loves) his front legs were twitching and so was his tail. He still has no deep pain sensation though. Perhaps the tail movement is a good sign, we will wait and see.

 

The weather was just lovely today and we were busy, it was lovely to see so many members and photographers and Clive got a couple of great shots of Killigrey my Hobby who flew superbly this afternoon, as did Tai Pan. The weather makes such a difference to us all - humans and birds. We have a pair of wild Little Owls that live around the Centre, they get incredibly vocal in the afternoon, it is wonderful to hear them. They bred in the side of the Kite Barn last year, I am hoping Jimmi will put up a proper box for them this year.

 

I am just getting our Savigny's Eagle Owl going again, Coll, the picture is his mother as a baby! I am hoping that he will have grown up a little this year. Tiree is much better than last year so it may be the same for Coll.

Sedge is home, people have been great and lent me wire dog boxes for him, so he is in one right now. It is heart breaking to see him unable to walk and obviously not understanding why, but we shall see. If anyone has any spare old towels I could do with some. We went through all our old ones that we use for the birds, late last year and had to throw some away, and of course needless to say now I could do with them.

 

I am pleased to say that the female Spectacled Owl looks much much better, she is sitting up and looks bright eyed. You can always tell when a bird is getting better as it gets harder to give its medicine!

 

It was a grey start, but the sun is coming out now, so hopefully the more cheerful weather predictions will be correct, which will be lovely.

 

We have a Hawk Day today, so life is getting back to normal. Carl Jones is bring over another Condor egg, from sunny Wales so it will be lovely if it is fertile and we have another baby Condor, they are wonderful birds. The Turkey Vultures have been mating as well, so spring is definitely about. Talking about vultures, Chris sent me this lovely picture of one for my birthday, how anyone can think they are ugly defeats me. All the chicks are doing well back with their parents in India and so we are delighted with how that trial went.

 

Oh and want to hear a mindlessly stupid thing, the EU government - Italy and Spain in particular (Spain is the stronghold for Eurasian Griffon Vultures and Italy has a programme to help Egyptian Vultures) have granted a license to sell Diclofenac as a veterinary drug. I would love to know what complete and utter moron put that one forward and which also complete and utter morons allowed it to happen!!! I suspect bribery from drug companies personally.

 

Here goes for another day.

Well I started my birthday early today, but it was a good start. To add to the worry with Sedge, our female Spectacled Owl did not look well about four days ago, as it is always difficult to judge if they are ill or in egg lethargy at this time of the year we checked her over, but left her until the next day. By the end of the day there was no improvement so we phoned Great Western Exotics, Holly spoke to Tom who is very good and eventually after reassessing her we decided that pancake day or not, we should take her over there. Holly and Adam offered to go, they got back at 2.00am!!

 

The Spectacled Owl had an egg that was malpositioned and it was not coming out, however Tom managed to extract it (in bits) without operating and she was OK. Well sort of OK. She has been on antibiotics, fluids and metacam, she looked reasonably OK by lunchtime, but after her second treatment of fluids she went backwards and seemed very stressed. We decided to leave the third lot until later in the evening and Adam Holly and I gave her more meds and fluids, I have to say I was surprised she was still alive at that point. However this morning at 5.45, she was still with us and managed the fluids and meds better, let us hope she makes it. Adam had to leave early so it was a good time to get her done, Holly returned to her bed in her flat and I fed the dogs, had some breakfast and took them for a walk round the field.

 

The top part of the wood has been cleared, we had a lot of the scrub trees in the hedge come down, so we have pollarded the hedge and at a later date we will lay it like the one at the lower half of the wood. It looks very clear and the view is better, the remaining trees will do better and we want to plant a whole load of wildflowers in there.  So I put some more brashings on the fire which was still alight and came to start work.

 

I am taking Sorrel to have a blood test to see if she is ready to mate as we hope to have puppies from her, this will be the fourth attempt. Shasta got married officially on Wednesday! Then later today I think Sedge is coming home. He still had no deep pain sensation yesterday, but as it is just a question of waiting now (I hate waiting!) if the urinary catheter has come out and we can manage to help him pee he can come home. So a kennel has to be got ready this morning and a bed, I have bought him a memory foam bed, I hope he likes it. I suspect it will almost be tougher having him here, but if he is happier that is fine.

 

The weather is set to improve! Hooray, that will cheer up the birds too. Actually they have all been flying really well despite the weather. My Hobby was excellent yesterday and Kalyke the day before was also very good, bodes well for the better weather. Hare will come out soon and some more of the kites, so the demonstrations are really coming on again.

 

There is a remote possibility that I might not be the most patient person in the world, I really do not appreciate waiting. For example I loath poor service in restaurants,  and have been known to walk out after ordering, but before the meal because I don't like to wait too long.

 

All this stuff with Sedge is a waiting game and I understand all the reasons why, but that does not make it any easier, particularly as there is nothing I can do for him but wait. Not pleasant.

 

Esteban Gonzalez-Gasch is the vet who operated

Little does he know he will have to have hydrotherapy if he  gets better and he does not really like water!

on and treated Sedge, he phoned this morning and there is still no deep pain sensation, but he thought there might be a tiny response in his leg, nothing that was discernible, but just a tiny hope. And we are hanging on to that hope. Sedge is now having his meds aurally, and although he still has a catheter, he is eating and doing OK. Its only just over 48 hours since the operation and so it is very early days, we are aiming at two weeks before he has no chance, but he will manage before that we are sure.

 

I finally plucked up the courage to phone the NFU to make sure he was insured, and thank God he is, only to the tune of £2000 but that is a huge relief and I hope to sleep a little better tonight. But the more amazing thing is the comments, and donations that people have made, over £1200 now in the kitty for him, I told the vet and he was staggered. I was very tactful and did not say, now you have to make it work!!

 

Many people have phoned or emailed to offer help and encouragement, which is just wonderful and makes this difficult time more easy to bear because we know that so many people care. I suspect if he does pull through he will be very spoilt!!

 

It was a nice day and then a nasty one and then a nice one, cold though. The birds all flew well and I managed to get Mark's merlin Megstone done as well as my Hobby Killigray. They both flew very well and Tai Pan (Barbary Falcon) was excellent and Kallyke was just amazing. 

 

The top section of the wood is now pretty clear, although getting the wood out has not improved the state of the field. It is lovely to be able to see through the wood to the fields beyond. I long for the late spring when the leaves are out. The baby vulture is doing well and I am pleased to say so are the ones that we returned to parents in India, which is very satisfying.

 

The wild daffodils are starting to show, spring is thinking about coming although today it was pretty damn cold here.

 

Thank you all for helping with Sedge, I will keep up the information I promise.

 

jpj 

Well after a beautiful day weather wise yesterday, today was rather more miserable and it's grey and raining right now. We managed to do one flying demonstration outside and Benbecula was amazing, flew brilliantly, if you have not seen him - male Steller's Sea Eagle, he is worth a visit just to watch him! The Luggers have laid which is a very nice surprise and Dawn Run has her first egg too.

 

The vet phoned from Vets Now this morning, Sedge was OK, he was being a little vocal so they reduced the very strong pain meds, there was still no pain response, but it is early days yet, only about 14 hours after the operation so it could not be expected yet. I did say I was not expecting miracles until Thursday but I did want one then please! We believe in miracles here, nothing like them to cheer one up.

 

I just phoned now (early evening on Sunday) to see how he was and he is settled and sleeping, he has eaten a little but has a catheter in because he can't pee. He was trying to walk this morning which he is not supposed to do, so we continue to wait and hope for him.

 

In the interim period my friends and staff have been putting things on Facebook and unbelievably people have already donated over £800 towards his care, I can't even think about it without crying, its just amazing and we don't even know if he is going to make it. He is however a particularly special dog, he sits uninvited on people's laps, he waits by the entry gate to welcome people, he chases the house martins who laugh at him because he is never near and we miss him hourly.

 

 

Have to be positive about things though, think positive thoughts and he will get better. So we are thinking ahead, his bed is ready for him and we are looking at hydrotherapy for him to get things working again if we can. Someone has already offered to help. We also have two people who are vet nurses locally and they have offered to help as well, I suspect if he gets home he will be very well looked after.

 

Don't forget its Pan Cake day on Tuesday