Bird’s eye view

AN owl found starving in the wild because it had gone blind is to be released again after having new eye lenses implanted.

The great horned owl, called Minerva, has undergone two hours of eye surgery and Dr Chris Murphy said she was in good condition during a follow-up examination.

Minerva was found in an emaciated condition in Madison, Wisconsin, in early December, after wildlife rescuers Sue and Jerry Theys discovered she had been sitting on a fence for three days.

Sue Theys, who caught the owl, said she suspected the owl had cataracts.

After a local veterinary surgeon confirmed the diagnosis, the Theys brought the owl to Dr Murphy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.

Dr Murphy used a pair of lenses designed by Murphy and made free of charge by Storz Opthalmics.

With Dr Murphy supervising, Dr Renee Carter and fellow resident Katie Diehl implanted the new lenses.

“To the best of my knowledge, this has not been done anywhere,” Dr Murphy said.

During the recovery, the Theys have been giving Minerva antibiotic eye drops three times daily and feeding her rats and an occasional rabbit.

In April, they will move the owl to a much larger flight cage and release live rats into the straw-filled enclosure to see if she can successfully hunt. If so, she will be released back into the wild.

Great horned owls are the largest owls in North America, with females obtaining a wingspan of five feet and weighing up to five pounds. They use night vision and an acute sense of hearing to find prey in the dark.

“She’s extremely feisty,” Sue Theys said.

“She can’t understand why we’re messing with her. She can see and she wants to take off and fly.”