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Sunday, June 6, 2010

Welcome!

Share Hello everyone and thank you for visiting my blog. What is A.V.E.S? A.V.E.S is the Spanish word for avian creatures, also known as birds. The abbreviation stands for "birds flying in good health" in Spanish. It is hopefully going to be a rehabilitation center in the Dominican Republic that will ensure that the critically endangered Ridge way's Hawk does not become extinct, while at the same time rehabilitating other birds of prey in need around the island. It is going to be a free service to everyone and will run heavily on grants and donations. If you are interested in donating please click on the paypal button to the right of the post and set your amount, remember that even a penny can go a really long way. That being said I hope you enjoy this blog and thanks again for dropping by.

Rouge

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This is Rouge, our first ever raptor in the center. He is a male Red tailed hawk that was shot on his left wing and was brought to me to see if I could set his wing back into place. As soon as we received him we made sure we had all the proper safety equipment before we started to handle him. After he was hooded I carefully inspected his wing and found that the bullet that was used was a deer slug and it had snapped his left humerus in half. I carefully put his wing back into its proper position and my team of helpers help me immobilize his wing with vet wrap. Once he was all wrapped up, we prepared his cage which is a 10x6x8 for him. Once inside I took the hood off and while he was looking around I exited the cage and we left him alone to reduce stress on him. The next day I came by with a fresh quail and released it within his cage but he did not pay attention to it. On the second day I released the same quail and he grabbed it with amazing speed. After that he was eating normally and we would vary his diet which included quail, chicken, day old chicks, rabbit, and small rodents. After a month with his cast on, we went in and hooded him again to assets his wound. To our relief it had completely healed but the bone did not set right, it was overlapping its self by a little bit. We had a brief meeting and decided that it would not affect his flight much if we were to recondition him and teach him to fly again. Once he was back in his cage he was flapping, jumping, and flying around like crazy but we noticed that his left wing looked rather awkward and so that is why he is still with us today. He has become an ambassador to his spices which means that he will be used for educational purpose to teach the public why he is so important to our ecosystem and what they can do to help.

If you would like to see more birds rehabilitated please donate so than we can have the supplies and resources to properly treat these birds seeing as there are no veterinarians that want to service them because the are scared of them in our area. In years to come we will become a full fledged rehabilitation center but it will take time and for now your donations are more important than ever. Thank you for your time and I hope you have a great day.