Yorkshire Swan Rescue Hospital

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News for August to September 2007

The last few months have been a hectic few at the Yorkshire Swan Rescue Hospital. To date we have dealt with a fastly approaching 1,500 swans. You will see that our website has a new look to it, we will be keeping it updated weekly to bring you all of the news on our activities dealing with sick and injured swans.

This week has been as busy as ever with us heading out across the north of England responding to calls from the RSPCA, members of the public and other wildlife rescue organisations.

We joined Linda and Carol from the North East branch of YSRH to rescue two young swans from a river near Bishop Auckland. Both were suffering from angel wing on both of their wings. Angel wing is a disorder which causes the feathers on the tip of the wing to grow in the wrong way which prevents the swan from flying. One of the swans had been shot in the face and the other had necrotic bone on her wing. Both were brought into care and will be treated and released on private lakes when they are fit and ready.

We have had several calls passed onto us from the RSPCA this week including a swan who had crashlanded on the road in Selby and one in Beverley with a damaged wing. We also responded to a call from the RSPCA for a cygnet on a fishing lake near Thirsk with a large lump in her throat. She was rushed into the vets for an x-ray and had as suspected swallowed several fishing hooks and several lengths of line. As a result the cygnet had not been able to eat for quite some time and a large ammount of vegetation had gathered around the hooks and line. She will have to stay in our care for several weeks until the wound heals and she is large enough to be released back into the wild.

We responded to an evening call from a gentleman in Nottinghamshire who keeps an eye on the family of swans on his local canal. One of the cygnets had not eaten for several days and appeared to have a wound. By the time we got there it was dark but luckily we managed to encourage the family over with some bread and catch the cygnet in question. He had to come into care as he was very underweight and did indeed have a wound which once treated with antibiotics and skincare cream has begun to heal nicely.

The most horriffic incident we have had to deal with this week was that of a cygnet on the river Ouse in York who had been shot in the head. We responded straight away to the call and located the cygnet. He was in such a sorry state with puss seeping out of his eye and a large shot wound to the back of his head, He was covered in dried blood and the wound was still bleeding, how anybody could do such a thing is totally beyond us. He was taken into our vet Johanna the following morning and was given an xray. Luckily the pellet had passed through and not lodged in the brain as initially suspected. After his operation, he has be cleaned up and given a course of medication and hopefully his condition will improve in the following weeks. The York Press, BBC Look North and Callendar News all covered this story and Dan did a live radio interview on the BBC Radio York evening show. One of our volunteers Lawrence went down to the river to check that the rest of the family the cygnet came from and thankfully they are all unharmed. Link to Original news item

We received an evening rescue call from the RSPCA for a swan with fishing line in South Kirby near Pontefract. Julie and Faith rushed down to check on the swan and while they were there discovered a female swan with fishing line as well. We were able to go down the following morning and remove the line from both swans and release them straight away.

Other animals into our care in the last week; two ducks needing a home, a suffering rabbit with myximitosis which sadly had to be put to sleep to end it's suffering, a turkey (don't ask!) and a Kestrel needing a short rest and some food after flying into a window. He flew away into the skies once again yesterday morning.

As we finish writing this news update we have just received a call for yet another bird in Crofton near Wakefield suffering with fishing line and recieved a further call from Linda and Carol from the North East branch of YSRH informing us that they are trying to catch a swan suspected of being shot in the face on the river Wear in County Durham. Yet again an animal is suffering due to somebodys deliberate and cruel actions...

Dan & Joe
Founders, Yorkshire Swan Rescue Hospital

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