On Wed, 3 May 1995, Chris Maack wrote:

> In response to the question of whether cat bites/scratches on birds that
> "get away" cause the birds to die soon thereafter: in bird rehabbers
> experience, yes, quite often. We have gotten birds retrieved by cat owners
> who had no obvious breaks in the skin and appeared to be recovering well for
> 3-5 days, then suddenly keeled over. If we have given the bird antibiotics
> promptly after its cat encounter (i.e. within hours) and it was big enough
> to receive the antibiotics by injection (robin sized or larger), it has a
> pretty good chance of recovering. Right off the top of my head, without
> going through our histories, I think about half our cat-got birds die.
>

Chris - was there any sign that the birds that keeled over after 3-5 days
died of an infection? What you describe (no broken skin, "healthy"
appearance for a few days and then keel over) seems consistent with head
trauma, too. That is, a cat might pick up a windowbanged bird, which dies
several days later from the head trauma, no fault of the cat's staph
infected claws and teeth.

Chris Hill
Seattle, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu