Veterinarians for famed Big Bear bald eagle Jackie, who was found sick and on the ground weeks ago, still don’t know what’s wrong with her.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Chris Eksteen, executive director of the Ojai Raptor Center, where she is being treated, described everything that has been done to diagnose her condition.
She has undergone repeated physical examinations, comprehensive blood work, advanced imaging, toxicology screening and a blood transfusion, he said. As of Friday, test showed Jackie was still anemic, and an elevated white blood cell count suggests that she is experiencing inflammation or an infection. Jackie’s red blood cell count also remains low.
Saturday marked two weeks since Jackie was taken to the Ojai Raptor Center. Despite the cautious optimism about her slow recovery, Eksteen said there are “still many unanswered questions in this very complex case,” he said.
Jackie and her longtime mate Shadow captured the attention of a global audience through a livestream of their nest that showed their soap-operatic efforts to hatch and raise their babies. This nesting season, the pair raised eaglets Sandy and Luna who successfully fledged.
When Jackie was rescued from the shore of Big Bear Lake weeks ago, she was underweight and disheveled. Video footage showed her sparring with two younger eagles.
That encounter is probably what left her grounded, Eksteen said, but it is probably not the cause of her underlying malady. It appears she had been sick for some time before she was found on the ground, he said.
“What we are seeing suggests she has been sick for a long time,” Eksteen said.
Wildlife medicine can be very slow and painstaking, he said. Since the patients can’t tell you what’s wrong, it becomes a long process of ruling out diagnoses one by one, while providing supportive care and watching how the animal responds.
Recovery could take weeks if not months, he said. Veterinarians will continue to monitor Jackie’s blood and white cell levels and are expected to test her for signs of contamination from less common heavy metals. However, those test results will only be available in several weeks.
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