Dear Esteemed Colleagues,
My name is Angela Beltrani and I am a graduate student at Antioch University New England in Keene, New Hampshire. Before returning to school to pursue a master’s degree in Conservation Biology, I worked with birds of prey in New York and Alaska, both as a rehabilitator and an educator. During that time, I observed three cases of a previously undescribed disorder affecting juvenile Great Horned Owls that have long remained in my heart and in my head. I always knew that I had to find out more about this devastating illness.
Toward this end, I am focusing my thesis research on discovering if and/or how often raptor rehabilitators and nature centers have admitted fledgling owls of any species to their facilities with a certain set of symptoms. All three owls I cared for were very young (recently out of the nest) and were completely blind when brought in due to the presence of a white film or “cloudiness” in both eyes (diagnosed as cataracts). After a week or two, they all developed neurologic symptoms, including head rolling, a loss of balance, and an inability to stand or perch. All were euthanized.
You are all a great, untapped source of information on the illnesses and injuries that are affecting the birds of prey in the United States. Please share your knowledge and experiences with me to help shed some light on this disorder. Click on the link to the right entitled “Thesis Survey” to access a series of questions about your owl patients, and any other raptors that may have presented with similar symptoms, over the past several years. You will need to have JavaScript and Cookies enabled on your computer to complete the survey. Feel free to leave feedback for me on this blog, especially if you would prefer a hard copy of the survey or if you have any questions or comments on the survey. And, feel free to forward a link to this page to any other raptor people you may know!
Thank you for participating. I look forward to hearing from all of you!
Sincerely,
Angela Beltrani
P.S. Please participate in the survey whether you have observed the described disorder or not. Also, it is very important that you continue through to the very end of the survey and enter in your contact information. All the information you can provide will be useful in my study!
**NOTE: If you have any trouble with the survey, please contact me for assistance. Mac users may need to access the survey through FireFox for best results.
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Hi Angela-
My thought was that these cataracts in young, usually first-year, birds of prey was West Nile Virus, as their other problems were consistent and it seemed to me that WNV hit the youngest birds the hardest in 2007. Hope it helps.
Donna-
Thank you for the suggestion. My research has shown that cataract formation has not been observed in birds of prey infected with West Nile Virus, although, as you mentioned, all the other symptoms fit with the disease. Regardless, the first two cases of the disorder that I received occurred before 1999, the year that WNV was introduced into North America. The study I am currently conducting is geared to simply discover if any other cases of this disorder have been observed by rehabilitators in the United States. If I can obtain a large enough sample size, I may continue my research in hopes of learning the cause of the illness.
Angela
Your survey sounds like a worthwhile endeavor, particularly since I have run into something similar in my work with rehabilitation, and I’d like to participate. However, everytime I click on the link, I not only don’t get to the desired location, but I get kicked off the net. I’ve tried to decrease my safety protocals to allow more access for “cookies” to no avail. Can you help?
Jessica,
I have had several complaints about people not being able to access or complete the survey. I greatly apologize. If you send me your address, I will mail you a hard copy of the survey. abeltrani@antioch.edu
Angela
Hi Angela,
I do not know how much help I can be to you, as I just recently started working at the Sunriver Nature Center. What I do know is that we have a great horned owl that came to us with similar symptoms to the ones you described.
As far as I am aware, the owl came as a fledgling, found at the base of a tree. No one knows if the injury occurred during the fall, or if the mother pushed the owl out of the nest, or if he just fell.
He could not lift his head from the ground and had zero balance abilities. He was also mostly blind. After several treatments of steroids, he was able to lift his head and slowly learned to balance on a perch.
At this point, he is 6-8 months old and can sit comfortably on a three-foot tall perch. He has one eye that is still completely clouded over and the other eye, while appearing normal, does not track well and the pupil misbehaves. He exhibits head-rolling and does not preen. At this point he is, of course, completely imprinted but is able to feed mostly on his own. This must happen on the ground as he still cannot balance on a perch enough to eat with one talon up and one talon down. Perhaps his strangest behavior is an infrequent tendency to stretch forward, extend one wing, and emit a high whistling sound which has earned him the nickname, “Teapot”.
I don’t know if this will help you, but please feel free to contact me privately and I will do my best to get more information if you desire.
Thank you and good luck!
Sincerely,
Nicole Tripp
Sunriver Nature Center
Sunriver, OR