Surgeons Save Owl

From left: Donna Rascoe, Dr. Leslie Mailler with the Oatland Island Wildlife Center, Dr. Daniel Brogdon and Leanne Jennings perform cataract surgery on a barred owl at the Savannah Animal Eye Clinic on Monday. (Hunter McRae/Savannah Morning News)

Cataract surgery is performed on this barred owl at the Savannah Animal Eye Clinic on Monday. (Hunter McRae/Savannah Morning News)Cataract surgery restores owl's sight
Coastal Empire
Jenel Few | Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 12:30 am | (see enhanced version)

Procedure spares Oatland Island's Barred Owl from certain death

When cataracts developed in the one good eye of a partially blind, single-winged barred owl at Oatland Island Wildlife Center, it seemed as if his rough life might come to a tough end.

"Birds of prey that go blind don't eat or drink; kind of like when a falconer puts a hood over a falcon's head to keep it calm," said Lesley Mailler, Oatland Island's animal programs supervisor.

"He wouldn't eat, move around his habitat or drink."

But this owl will be up and eating mice in no time thanks to surgery performed Monday by veterinary ophthalmologist Dan Brogdon of the Animal Eye Clinic in Savannah.

"Any animal can get a cataract," Brogdon said. "Normally we see them in dogs where it is hereditary, but in wild birds it's due to injury typically."

Oatland Island's male barred owl was hit by a car in the 1980s - a common fate for many of these native Georgia birds that hunt rodents feasting on roadside trash.

The collision blinded the bird's right eye and his right wing had to be removed. For more than two decades he lived a comfortable enough life in his Oatland Island habitat, but he was always in the shadow of Wahoohoo, the center's beloved female barred owl used in the interactive children's exhibits and field trips.

He never even got a name.

Then a few weeks ago the blind, nameless bird stepped into the spotlight.

A keeper tried to feed the bird and noticed his behavior was aggressive and his left eye looked cloudy.

"Normally it's a non aggressive animal, and we knew something was wrong," said Oatland Island Director Chris Gentile. "He must have only been able to see shadows, because he acted like he didn't know if we were coming in to feed him or if it was a predator."

They took the owl to Brogdon, the only veterinary ophthalmologist in the region. He saw right away that the owl had cataracts.

Humans with similar vision loss might get glasses or contacts, but Brogdon said surgery was the only way to prevent the beautiful brown and white speckled bird from going blind. He offered to do the procedure for free.

Monday morning, Brogdon put on green hospital scrubs and a surgical mask and went to work.

It was a routine, but delicate 45-minute procedure in which the owl had to be anesthetized. Brogdon has done the procedure 15 times before on birds of prey from zoos.

"I make a small incision, and with a $50,000 phaco-emulsification machine I can go in with a needle, break up the cataract and aspirate it out," Brogdon said. "Once the cataract is out, he'll be able to see and he'll eat again."

The owl will have to spend a few days in isolation for eye drops and observation but will return to his habitat exhibit in a week, Gentile said.

The surgery will save the nameless owl's life.

"We ought to call him Lucky," Mailler said.