On Sunday we had a swan brought to us by the police, from Antrim.
It appeared to have a badlt broken leg. We do not do any veterinary treatment involving anaesthetics on the first day or 2 after coming in as we have found to our sadness that the stress the bird is already under can cause it to not wake up. So the vet administered the usual pain meds etc and it came back to us for a 2 day rest. ON Wednesday morning it went to the vet to get an xray.
The vets were hopeful that the leg could be splinted or pinned in necessary.
After taking the xray the vets was shocked by the image. His knee was completley dislocated, all the nerves and ligoments in there where torn and irrepairable and it also looks like its been that way for some time. It certainely wasn't a recent injury.
sadly a swan could never survive with only one leg. They are too heavy and the legs are set so far back that their balance would be completley wrecked so we had no choice but to say goodbye to him.
What is really sad is that swans will pair for life and he was an adult male in gorgeous breeding conditons so there probably is a female somewhere in the area that is now alone.
Here is the xray they took. Our vets were very good in letting us have borrow the xray to show what happened. You can clearly see where the two bones are seperated. Very sad outcome but we can't save them all..
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