From The International Owl Center
Alice the Great Horned Owl had her annual checkup at The Raptor Center today. Since she is retired and doesn't go anywhere anymore, this 7- hour round trip is her big adventure of the year. She's almost 28 years old, and has arthritis and cataracts (maybe some of you can relate). In this photo you can see the yellow part of her iris is also impacted by age, so lots of black specks show through.
The other owl staff get an on-site vet visit later this month, thanks to The Raptor Center's mobile clinic. Alice goes there, though, to get the highest quality radiographs to monitor her arthritis and other age- related issues.
Thanks to all of our wonderful donors who help make it possible for our owls to get excellent vet care.
From a June 2023 post:
Alice the Great Horned Owl got her bill and talons trimmed (coped) today. Since she has gotten much more owly with age, we try to minimize how often we do this awful thing to her. Of all of our owls, she is by far the most difficult to cope, between putting up a fight and screaming bloody murder. She should feel much better now that it is done (and we do too!)
You can see Alice's age by the dark flecking in her yellow irises. In person we could also easily see the milky color of cataracts clouding her lenses to some degree. She doesn't get around like she used to, and is on cosequin for cats for her arthritis. She is 26 years old now, still with no lack of self confidence!
