This is SNAKE, an adult bald eagle that came in to IBR this evening thanks to Tom Desomber, the WG&F warden in Tensleep. She was originally seen yesterday by a rancher as he drove down one of his roads. He figured she was just eating on a roadkill so kept on going. This morning she was still there so he called Tom to come get her. She had spent the night on the ground and he had to actually pry her feathers out of the snow, she had been frozen in.
Now comes the diagnosis. No bones are broken but it's possible she's suffering from lead poisoning. Because of their fish diet they can sometimes eat one that has a lead sinker or the like inside it. Lead is an accumulative poison so if she ate a piece years ago it is still in her system and is added to when any new lead is ingested.
To be on the safe side she has been started on medicine to counteract the lead while we wait for the blood test results from our state lab. She's in excellent condition, weighs 11.75 pounds which is a good weight for an adult female bald eagle. Now our fingers are crossed that this treatment was started in time.
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