CROW Saves And Releases Bald Eagle Injured By Gunshot

On March 6 of this year, an American bald eagle was shot and wounded by an unknown assailant in Lehigh Acres.
With the combined help of a concerned citizen and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, the bird was captured and brought to CROW, the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife on Sanibel. At CROW, X-rays showed that the eagle's wing was broken in two places and that shot still remained inside the bird. Initial diagnosis was that it would be difficult for the eagle to recover from the wounds and a return back into the wild seemed improbable at that time.
But the CROW medical team went to work and performed surgery on March 8 to place an intramedullary pin in the fractured right radius and remove the shot still lodged inside the body. The bird recovered well from the surgery, was eating by the next day and continued to receive pain medication for the next 12 days. The bandage covering the injured wing was changed on days three, seven, and 14 after the surgery and the pin was removed on April 1. The eagle was moved from the ICU area of the CROW Clinic to a small outdoor enclosure on April 6, then to a small flight cage on April 17, flying short distances. On May 20, the eagle was doing well enough to be moved to a large flight cage and by early June was flying extremely well. 
On Sunday, June 12, the eagle was transported by car to Lehigh Acres where it was released back into its natural habitat. This is the fifth bald eagle admitted at CROW this year and all have been successfully released back into the wild.  Island Sun