Riyan part 4: injured flying-fox has an x-ray

Riyan is a juvenile female Grey-Headed Flying-Fox who was found on the ground by a MOP (member of public), who safely scooped her up into a box and called for rescue. At first sight, little Riyan (from Ryan Park) had a serious closed head injury with posturing and jerky spasmodic movements. I didn't know how she was going to manage longterm, but she survived the first 3 days (surprisingly), and whilst there's nothing great about her condition, she's alive and kind of responsive (but confused and dizzy). I need to take her to the vet to get her eye looked at (I can see a visible ulcer on the surface), and get an x-ray done to check she hasn't broken her collarbone. Quite frequently a serious head knock sends the collision pressure through the head to the collarbones, and snaps one. This vet visit was specifically to get her eye sorted out, and secondarily, to rule out a clavicle (collar bone) fracture. Sandy the vet looked at her eye in the waiting room and said that there was a puncture injury in the middle of it, and the inflammatory response and location of the injury along with the ulcer meant that she was going to lose that eye. I didn't see the point in removing the eye quickly, just to rehab her further until we could see if she was possibly releasable and was going to recover from her head trauma, and to that end we worked out a plan to reduce the eye pain until we could electively enucleate (remove) the eye. Traumatic brain injuries are difficult to assess for future outcomes; you have to nurse them through the first week or 2 and then assess their neurological deficits, so the plan was to wait to see if she was going to recover, then remove the eye. But of course, all of that hinged on whether or not she had a clavicle fracture, because that, combined with the head injury and the eye injury meant she wasn't going to be releasable. I was surprised when she did have a clavicle fracture; I wasn't really expecting it; I wanted to rule it out, not rule it in. Bugger. So she was euthanased without being woken up; it was a bit unexpected. RIP little Riyan; I miss your quiet presence in my daily life so much. As usual, huge thanks to Summer Hill Village Vet, who is always willing to see our batties; thanks Sandy for the expertise and use of facilities. Tolga Bat Hospital takes donations for our batties. Tolga is an awesome place in Far North Queensland, which has charity status. By sending donations to them, they get a percentage (and deserve every cent) and they can allocate money to me for batty expenses without it becoming part of my income stream (which makes tax time difficult). https://tolgabathospital.org/donate/ Mention Megabattie or Meg in the PayPal message box and the money will find its way to me. If no message box appears, please email Jenny to tell her that the money is for me. IMPORTANT: If you pay through the PayPal Giving Fund, can you please email Jenny with the AMOUNT DONATED and the name under which you have donated, OR just forward along the PP receipt. The Giving Fund doesn’t charge any fees (so the bats get more money) but PP doesn’t itemise out the amount, they just send a total every month, and we don’t know if the money is for Tolga or for Megabattie. Here’s Jenny’s email. [email protected]