Dakota’s Recovery

After three and a half weeks, the first thing Dakota wanted to do upon returning home was to take a safe, warm nap surrounded by familiar faces and voices.

He was brought back to the center immediately where staff did an initial exam discovering Dakota had lost close to 30% of his body weight and was severely dehydrated. His mouth and skin were pale and dry. Once safely in a small enclosure in our Intensive Care Unit with his closest handlers nearby, he fell asleep from exhaustion. He was home, but not yet “out of the woods.”

Starvation is an injury we see all too frequently, all year long. Sadly, if a raptor is severely emaciated and dehydrated its body may have already shut down and be past the point of recovery. It is most common for young raptors to have difficulty finding food their first winter even without debilitating injuries. When an animal’s body is deprived of food it begins by consuming its stores of fat. After the fat stores are all used up, muscle begins to deteriorate and soon thereafter their vital organs will shut down. Once the organs begin to slow down they can not process food and calories like they normally would. For this reason patients that come to us emaciated, like Dakota, are given only fluids for the first several days to encourage healthy recovery of those organs. However, as mentioned before, sometimes a patient comes to us too late. Their body and organs are past the point of recovering and they may not make it their first night at our clinic or pass after just a couple of days later. This fear was a reality for Dakota. For the first week of Dakota’s recovery he was monitored through the night by the dedicated staff at the center to make sure he would make it through his body’s toughest battle yet. His vet made it clear to staff that even with the best of care, any of his first few days back could be his last.