Everyone has heard the sad news that Jackie the bald eagle patient Bald Eagle 26-519 passed away today at Ojai Raptor Center. When I first noticed that her mate Shadow was doing all the chick feeding I thought something was wrong. Like many I thought she might be weak from having a second clutch and being an older eagle at 14 years of age. Average life span of bald eagles is 15-25.
When I heard news that she was rescued on the ground and ended up at Ojai Raptor Center I was relieved. We've known Ojai Raptor center for over 20 years and always refer birds of prey to them. They have a very knowledgeable staff. I knew that many raptor experts from around the country and world would be helping them with world famous Jackie.
Ojai Raptor did xrays, contrast CT Scans, bone marrow sample, daily blood draws, blood transfusion, gave medications. Her packed cell volume (PCV) fell below 6%. She had kidney inflamation and had anemia. Of course after she was taken into care many people were offering care and treatment suggestions. Ojai Raptor had to turn off comments for this reason. Some comments were not very nice attacking Ojai Raptor's treatment decisions. Since Jackie has died even more people are criticizing their care.
For this reason we did a State Information Act Request to the California Department of Fish & Wildlife to get a copy of the necropsy report and all related documents, data, image and files. They are probably doing the necropsy today if not tomorrow just like they did with P-22. As soon as we get this information we will post it here. It'll probably take at least 30 days. Hopefully this report and information will give us some answers and closure.
We'd like to preface this next paragraph by stating we are not bird of prey veterinarians. While we have rescued and treated wild mammals for over 20 years we are not avian experts. We have a protocol for treating ill and injured animals including wildlife. Here is that protocol linked below. Keep in mind when Jackie was first found on the ground she was dehydrated, emaciated and weak. She was instantly put in an ICU ward.
Some have criticized Ojai Raptor because of the many invasive tests they did some of which necessitated that Jackie be put under anesthesia multiple times which can be stressful and dangerous. They also criticized the fact that she was treated for illnesses which they were not 100% certain she had. She was given a few different types of medications for rodenticide poisoning, lead poisoning...before they had the results of the lead test.
We will have the necropsy report soon enough. We personally feel Jackie probably died of a combination of her age and have two clutches in quick succession while having to fight off other eagles in her territory. We doubt it's rodenticide because bald eagle's mainly eat fish then small mammals and other birds. The lead test already came back negative so it wasn't lead.
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