anesthesia (Philip, Dupree: school, costs, office)

[tunner]

Happy New Year to one and all! I'm hoping for some information about how to put a hawk to sleep temporarily- as in anesthesia. In the story I'm writing, Orville, a Red-tailed South Dakota hawk from Ziebach county breaks his leg and a rancher and his family take the hawk to a vet in Dupree - assuming there's a vet in that area. The vet, at first wants to put the bird out of its misery, but then at the rancher's daughter's urging, decides to cast the leg. How would a vet put a wild bird to sleep? Weird question I know, but there's gotta be a way. Thanks for reading this far! tunner

[Jammie]

Hi Tunner and Happy New Year to you, too! I'm not sure how they'd do it. Do you have a vet in the area that you could call and ask?

[tunner]

Thanks for the suggestion, Jammie. Interesting name, that! I could call one of the local vets, I suppose, but everytime I've talked to a vet about anything I've walked out of their office without a loved cat or dog, and a pretty much empty wallet. This message board, or whatever its called, is lots more fun, costs nothing, and who knows, maybe a doctor, vet, chiropractor, nurse, or anesthestic salesperson will respond. One of the cool things about writing is I get to find out all kinds of stuff I can't read about in the morning newspaper. Have a grand day! tunner

[ElkHunter]

It's funny. I went to vet school in limited classes for cattle. The ranch I was working for sent me to learn particular things. C sections on cattle. I used a syringe with 500 CC's of Philips vodka. Spinal block on a cow so I could do a C. Would keep her down for about 45 minutes. But then again, you don't want to lay a cow for more then 50 minutes. It'll kill her. So the Phillips vodka worked out great. Although, I don't know how that'd work on a bird. haha