seymourherald.com
http://seymourherald.com/news/2010/feb/02/local-vet-treats-hawk-caught-i/
local vet treats hawk caught in coyote trap
published: February 02 2010 04:31 PM
updated:: February 03 2010 12:00 AM
By Brooke Stevenson
brooke@seymourherald.com
Smoky Mountain Animal Clinic in Seymour treats an entire spectrum of animals, from three-week-old puppies, to wild hawks injured by traps.
On Tuesday morning residents brought an injured red tailed hawk into the clinic. It had been caught in a coyote trap off of Goose Gap Road.
Veterinarian Lisa Garren did not hesitate to take the hawk, and plans to take it home to her barn to nurse him back to health.
“We can’t keep him here at the clinic because of all the other animals,” Garren said. “He is really lucky his leg didn’t break in the trap.”
The hawk had landed in the trap, and suffered a laceration on to his left foot. Garren expects she will be able to free the bird in about a week.
“I’m going to feed him every day and watch him very carefully,” she said. “If I let him go too early I won’t be able to catch him and he won’t make it in the wild.”
Garren was also treating a three-week-old bloodhound puppy in the office on Tuesday.
“He is the runt of the litter and only weighs about two pounds,” she said while holding the puppy wrapped snuggly in a blanket. “He’s struggling a little bit, but we’ll try to get him through it.”
The clinic, which has an in-house lab, mainly treats cats and dogs, but Garren also treats horses and Veterinarian Susan Sterling treats llamas, goats, pigs and ferrets on occasion.
Staff at the clinic perform x-rays, ultrasounds, routine and emergency surgeries, and even acupuncture.
“Acupuncture is really neat,” said Garren. “It is actually pretty common in horses; I have performed it on horses several times.”
According to Garren, acupuncture can be used to treat anything from asthma to joint pain to gastrointestinal problems.
“It actually works really well, I have had good results with it,” she said.
Sterling is currently taking a course in acupuncture so she can perform it on animals in the clinic.
To find out more about Smoky Mountain Animal Clinic call (865) 577-4861.