The Wrong Side of the Fence

This summer a Canada Goose gosling was brought to PAWS Wildlife Center with an unusual injury. The young bird had been found in Seattle painfully pinned beneath a chain-link fence. Apparently, as the gosling attempted to squeeze underneath it, sharp points on the fence penetrated his skin. The more the gosling struggled the more the points dug in, leaving him completely trapped. A caring citizen who saw the bird's plight cut the fence to free him and brought him to PAWS. A portion of the fence was still sticking out of the poor gosling's body just behind his right wing when he was admitted to the wildlife hospital.

PAWS' wildlife medical team first took radiographs of the gosling to get a better look at the size and shape of the piece of wire penetrating his small body. It was fairly large and deeply embedded. With the bird anesthetized, PAWS Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. John Huckabee skillfully and gently removed the fencing, then cleaned and dressed the wound. The gosling had a pronounced limp for several weeks after the wound healed. There had been some muscle and tissue damage that still needed time to resolve. During almost two months of care, the gosling grew into a beautiful subadult goose and retained only a barely noticeable hitch in his walk from the ordeal.

On July 30, PAWS Naturalist Kevin Mack released the goose with three others of his kind who had received care at PAWS. After a moment's hesitation, all four birds entered the water together and swam away. They appeared excited and alert as they took in their surroundings and realized they had returned to their home in the wild.