Greater Roadrunner Temporarily Paralyzed By Spinal Injury

The following story about a greater roadrunner was shared with us by Wild Friends at Best Friends in Utah.

Wild Friends received a greater roadrunner in early September that was hit by a car. When he arrived at the wildlife rehabilitation center, he was completely paralyzed and only able to move his head.

X-rays did not show any breaks, only some inflammation on the right wing. He preferred lying on his right wing, so the blood pooled to that side. We assumed it was minor spinal damage and treated it with the proper medication to help with any swelling and pain he might have. He was placed in an incubator with oxygen and subcutaneous fluids only. There were no open wounds, so we did not give him any antibiotics.

After a few days he was able to move his wings enough to squirm a little, but he still was not able to move his legs or tail. He was also unable to eliminate waste without stimulation, and he showed no interest in food.

Roadrunners do not tend to eat what is not moving, but he could not move enough to catch anything. Tube feeding was our best option at this time, and he received EmerAid IC Carnivore three times a day with prescribed gabapentin. The process took so long our rehabbers were concerned he was not making enough progress, if any at all, but they never gave up hope.

After three weeks of physical therapy and tube feeding, he could stand and was able to eliminate waste on his own again. He finally showed interest in mealworms and other insects offered to him. One of the last things to come back was the use of his right foot, as it often knuckled under his weight, so he tried not to put too much pressure on it.

He finally graduated to a larger cage outside of the incubator. Catching him to move him was no small feat. Even though he was not as fast as he could be, he was still much faster than his caregivers! (meep meep).

Once he started standing on his own, he got more vocal and could often be heard clicking his bill to warn his rehabilitators to stay away. As fast as he was, he still sat down after running and his tail leaned more to the right. However, he was very good at hiding, often unseen even to the caregivers who knew he was there. His rehabilitators sought him out and exercised him in the aviary so he could build up his leg muscles and endurance.

After another month of self-physical therapy as he ran around in our large 100-foot flight, he was physically capable again and able to be released back into the wild.

After giving his rehabilitators a runaround to get him out of the aviary, he only left behind his zygodactyl foot pattern and his perfect poops. His rehabbers were very excited every time to see these poops, especially after three weeks of having to stimulate him, even though they smelled worse than your average urates.

The roadrunner now runs free in southern Utah, highlighting the perseverance of not only our wildlife rehabilitators, but of the wildlife itself.