The bald eagle dubbed ”Long Shot” lay anesthetized on a metal table as veterinarian Jeff Cooney assessed the injured bird’s chances.

It had been shot in the wing about four weeks ago, rescued two weeks ago and was in for a checkup Friday at the Deschutes Veterinary Clinic in Bend.

Cooney took hold of the damaged right wing, which curved up near the wrist bone where the steel shotgun pellets had entered. He stretched out the wing, felt for stiffness in the tendons and fractures in the bones, and moved it all around.

”We want to know what his full range of motion is,” he said.

Although the shots shattered two of the bird’s wing bones, those should heal, he said. But it is the flexibility of the bald eagle’s wing, and his ability to fly again, that will determine whether rehabilitators are able to release him back into the wild or whether he would have to be euthanized.

Catching the eagle

Bald eagles are listed as ”threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act, and although the government is considering delisting the birds, shooting or harming them is also prohibited under other federal laws.

But wildlife rehabilitators still find injured birds.

Sisters resident Linda Cotter discovered this one Feb. 10 while hiking with her brother in Dry Canyon, between Redmond and Sisters.

I saw him sitting up on a rock; I thought it was an owl at first, she said. He was looking right at me. He was huge.

They could tell he was hurt. He was hopping around and flapping his wings, but one didnt look right, she said. She went home and made some phone calls, and eventually reached Cooney.

Cooney, an instructor at Central Oregon Community College, had spent three years at the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota caring for hundreds of birds of prey. He now helps treat birds at the Sunriver Nature Center, and consults with people who need help caring for raptors.

On the morning of Feb. 11, Cooney, his two children and Cotter set out to comb the Dry Canyon area for the injured bird.

When Cotter spotted the eagle, the group herded him toward the car. Although he was hurt and severely dehydrated and emaciated, he could still run pretty fast and could flap enough to fly several feet, making him hard to catch, Cooney said.

We have to capture them, so its kind of like Crocodile Hunter, he said.

But eventually the bird tired, and Cooney approached him with gloves to him up and put him in a dog crate. He took the bird to the Animal Emergency Center, gave him some fluids, took X-rays and bandaged him up.

The bald eagle is probably about 2 years old, Cooney said, judging from its mottled brown and white feathers that havent yet been replaced by the characteristic white head.

And looking at the amount of healing that had already occurred in the fractures of the wing bones, and how thin he was, Cooney estimated that the eagle had been shot two weeks earlier.

The bird was starving; it literally had no meat on its bone, said Gary Landers, who operates the Wild Wings Raptor Rehabilitation center in Sisters, a licensed facility that takes care of injured eagles, hawks, owls, falcons and turkey vultures. While male bald eagles in this area are usually about 7 pounds, this one, which he called Long Shot, was only about 5 pounds.

Rehab and therapy

While the rehabilitation center mostly helps birds hit by cars or injured by barbed wire, gunshot wounds are the most common nonaccidental injury, Landers said.

Unfortunately Im getting more and more shot birds, he said. He estimates that about five shot birds a year come to his facility, and probably most of the ones that are shot are never found.

Its even rarer to have a chance to help a shot bird recover for potential release, he said.

For the past two weeks, he has been rebuilding the eagles strength, first feeding him boneless, skinless meat until he was ready for whole prey. Long Shot now eats like a pig, he reported.

But in addition to feeding him, Landers also has to do regular physical therapy with the bird. Depending on how the bone breaks, the wing can shrink so that it doesnt extend to its full length, making it difficult for the bird to fly.

I need to actually stretch that wing out and keep it moving the way a wing in flight would move, Landers said.

Because bald eagles are highly anxious animals and will easily hurt themselves, the injured bird is being kept in a small cage. But as he recovers, Landers will put him in bigger enclosures where he can test out his injured wing.

Eagle exam

When Long Shot had his checkup Friday, Landers laid him down on an examination table while Cooney slipped an anesthesia hood over his head.

Both men volunteer their time, and Deschutes Veterinary Clinic and the emergency center donate the space and supplies as well.

It took a while for the bald eagle to go under. The first few times Cooney tried to stretch out his wing the bird jerked around, so the vet raised the anesthesia level.

When he put in a tube to deliver the drug, the bird stopped breathing.

But Cooney didnt panic, or pause in his conversation. He simply unhooked the anesthesia tube and delivered a few short breaths into the tube until the eagles chest started moving up and down again.

Thats why its good to have a specialist treating the bird, Landers said.

He was extraordinarily talented when it comes to raptors; he is probably the best avian vet for 1,000 miles, Landers said.

Cooney dug around the hole made by the pellet, excitedly pulling out gobs of blackened, dead tissue that had built up in the cavity and could have caused an infection.

Im glad we found this; its all necrotic stuff, he said.

He took X-rays of the wing, and noted that the bone was healing in the right direction.

Look at that; its beautiful, he said. This guy is just zooming through the healing process.

But still, Long Shots name reveals his prognosis, which Cooney said is poor.

While the bone will be healed in a month or so, the wing shortening and possible deformation could prevent the bird from flying, he said.

If birds cant fly, they cant be released, Landers explained. While some education facilities take in bald eagles, most of them dont have room to take in additional birds.

Right now I have not found any location in the western United States that needs a bald eagle, he said

And if they cant be released, the majority of the birds are euthanized.

Its a heartbreaker, Landers said.

Protected birds

Bald eagles are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, which means that it is illegal to take the birds, said Nancy Gilbert, field supervisor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Bend. Take includes shooting, collecting, capturing, handling and moving the birds without a permit, and also protects their nests and eggs.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is considering delisting the national symbol, with a decision expected by this summer. But even if they are taken off the threatened list, eagles would still be protected under other laws, she said.

The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act as well as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which covers birds from eagles to robins, prohibit killing or taking the animals.

People convicted of shooting an eagle can be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars, and can also be imprisoned.

There are cases when it is pursued, but in many cases it will be difficult to try to find someone who shoots a bird and then leaves, Gilbert said.