Wedge-tailed eagle with broken leg undergoes surgery in Sydney

A wedge-tailed eagle is recovering after a delicate operation to repair a broken leg at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital in Sydney. See the surgery video.

When Klaudia Douglas began her early morning farm duties on her family’s property near the Tuross River, she was greeted with a rare sight – a massive wedge-tailed eagle with a broken leg.

Seeing the bird obviously in distress Ms Douglas, 17, quickly called for help, devastated to see one of their local family of eagles hurt – despite a fear of birds.

Vets at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH) working on Tuross to repair his broken leg.

The eagle is placed under anaesthetic before the operation. Picture: Richard Dobson

“He was struggling, flapping around and trying to fly – it freaked me out a little because he was the size of my kelpie,” she said.

“I’m seriously not a bird person, I can do cows that weigh nearly a tonne but wont go near a bird, I won’t even go near chooks.”

“Straight away I rang my mum, I couldn’t leave him there I felt really bad for him because he was all wet and cold”.

Dr Stephen Fearnside (centre) operating on the injured eagle named Tuross. Picture: Richard Dobson

Tuross the wedge-tailed eagle after having surgery done on his broken tibia. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Since the eagle, now named Tuross, was living in a nest on Klaudia’s farm he was trusting of the teenager, but as soon as the rescuers from Wildlife Rescue South Coast arrived he mustered up all of his energy to give them a good chase, wary of the new people.

Rescuer Amara Mohan immediately noticed the massive eagle had broken his leg, and after three hours of struggling he was finally captured and taken to SASH for a tricky operation.

An X-ray showing the pin and plate put in the eagle’s left leg.

A pin and plate was put in his left leg, a delicate operation on such a small tibia bone.

Ms Mohan said that after the exhausting surgery, Tuross is healing well at Raptor Recovery Australia.

“He is really bright and alert, he’s using his leg and putting more weight on it now,” Ms Mohan said.

Ms Douglas hopes all going well, Tuross can be returned to her family’s property.

“I’ve done a lot of strange things on the farm but chasing around a wedge tailed eagle is one of the weirdest, but we’d love to see him back,” she said.

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Originally published as Wedge-tailed eagle with broken leg undergoes surgery in Sydney