Norfolk's baby eagle admitted to hospital, dining on mice

An eaglet born a month ago at the Norfolk Botanical Garden and which was removed from its nest Thursday after a growth was spotted on its beak, has been admitted to the Wildlife Center of Virginia.

The young eagle has won an international following since it was born, featured as it has been on the Internet via the Garden's "Eagle Cam," a joint venture with WVEC-TV.

The center, an internationally-acclaimed teaching and research hospital for wildlife and conservation medicine located in Waynesboro, is the only facility in Virginia licensed to provide extended care to Bald Eagles.

After arriving at the center Thursday evening, the bird was assigned a patient number – 08-887 – and was given a preliminary examination by Drs. Dave McRuer and Mark Ruder, the center said Friday.

It weighed in at one kilogram and, except for the growth, was in good condition.

The concern is a soft tissue mass on the left side of its upper beak.

"The eagle was given fluids and antibiotics and was fed three mice – which it ate vigorously," said Randy Huwa, a center spokesman. 

The center's veterinary staff took radiographs of the eagle Friday afternoon and it was taken to Fisherville on Thursday evening where it will get a CT scan at Augusta Medical Center on Saturday. 

A biopsy from the tissue mass was sent to the Southeast Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study center at the University of Georgia. Results from that biopsy are not expected to be available until next week, Huwa said.

Eagle Cam viewers were able to watch live Thursday as the eagle was removed from its nest for examination by Dr. Jonathan Sleeman with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

He said he was concerned that the growth had gotten larger than when first noticed earlier this month by observers and a photographer. Sleeman said he is concerned that the growth may impede the baby's ability to breathe from its left nostril.

The eaglet is now being housed in a fake nest in a small enclosure and will be fed a mixture of cut-up mice and fish, two to three times daily.

It is the 14th eagle admitted to the Wildlife Center this year. Last year, Huwa said the facility cared for 36 Bald Eagles, a record in its 25-year history.

As for the baby's parents, officials at the Garden said people need not worry.

The adult eagles may hang around the nest for several days, but should soon move on, said Steve Living, a wildlife biologist with the Watchable Wildlife Program of the Va. Dept of Game and Inland Fisheries.

"Once they're acclimated to the fact that they don’t have any young, they'll resort to their normal, end-of-nesting season behavior," Living told WVEC-TV, adding they'll likely stay around the Garden.

This pair first built a nest at the Garden in the fall of 2003. They've successfully raised one baby in 2004, two in 2005, three in 2006 and three in 2007.