Sprite
Sprite, the juvenile Ring-billed Gull, was brought to the WHS wildlife hospital suffering from a broken wing.
It seems that Sprite had taken what was probably her first flight from her nest in downtown Milwaukee and was struck by a car! Both the radius and the ulna (the same pair of bones we have in our forearms) were fractured. It didn’t look good for Sprite. But fortunately, volunteer orthopedic wildlife veterinarian, Dr. Holly Pollard-Wright, was willing to do surgery to repair Sprite’s broken wing.
Rehabilitating Sprite
Dr. Pollard surgically placed stainless pins in Sprite’s wing to hold things in place until they could heal.
The surgery went well and in a few weeks the pins were removed. Sprite spent some time indoors in our wildlife hospital, but eventually moved to our outdoor flight habitat for exercise.
Sprite received daily physical therapy from Elizabeth from WHS Wildlife staff to work the “kinks” out after surgery and become fully flight-capable. The therapy was successful and a Wildlife Animal Care volunteer took Sprite to the Lake Michigan shoreline, opened her carrier door and watched the young bird soar out over the Lake.
