Rfalconcam Forum

HOPKINTON —

 Dr. Margo Roman, founder of Main St. Animal Services of Hopkinton (MASH), was alarmed to find a fire truck blocking the driveway to her veterinary practice on West Main Street last Wednesday morning.

"I thought something was terribly wrong," she said.

Inside, she found firefighters and an injured bird. The truck was returning from a call and saw a red-tailed hawk dive-bomb into the fender of a car. They called police and animal control.

"They grabbed the bird and rushed it here," Roman said.

"We have such caring officers in this town," she said.

This time, Roman said, they went beyond the norm.

"That, to me, was amazing, overwhelming actually," she said.

The bird was in shock, eyes swollen shut, suffering head trauma. It couldn't hold its head up, seemed unstable, and rocked back and forth, indicating inner ear damage. Its wings and legs were bruised, but not broken.

Hopkinton's animal control officer initially planned to take the bird to Tufts.

"I asked him to leave it with me," Roman said.

Roman is a veterinarian who offers more than the standard fare, including homeopathic medicine. She was confident the raptor, whom she named Haiti, could be treated with less invasive methods than traditional medicine.

"This was an opportunity to show the possibilities," Roman said.

Care began immediately, starting with the herbal remedies Aconite and Arnica for shock, swelling, bruising and pain. Haiti's eyes were misted with lavender in water, which relieves pain, and oxygenated water, which speeds healing. The bird was given reiki by local practitioners.

Within 24 hours the swelling in one eye was reduced by 90 percent, and Haiti started accepting food and water.

The right eye, however, remained swollen shut so Roman continued flushing it with oxygenated water. In addition, Haiti was given oxygenated water to drink. All organs in a body heal faster when oxygenated, Roman said.

"Homeopathy is excellent for head injury and ozone therapy allows oxygen to pass into the blood brain barrier and brings down swelling. If you give the body ways to heal itself, it will heal itself," Roman said.

The "beauty" of ozone therapy, Roman noted, is it's inexpensive. For $100 you can treat 75 patients, she said.

Six days later, Haiti is almost fully recovered, eagerly eating beaten organic egg from a dropper and indicating by restlessness bordering on anger that the bird is ready for release. That will happen within a day or two.

The raptor's sex is unknown.

Why the name Haiti?

MASH participated in a fund raiser last Saturday for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) to benefit Haitian animals. More than 1.5 million animals were affected by the earthquake in Haiti and WSPA wants to raise $1.2 million to help those animals.

MASH raised $1,200 for WSPA by having clients write checks to WSPA rather than paying the veterinarians and technicians for their time. Roman challenges other clinics to do the same.

"The hope is that other veterinary clinics and animal care providers will do the outreach and donate a day at work to help the helpless animals in Haiti. The funds for WSPA will be joined together with other animal welfare groups," Roman said.

And she also hopes that the care brought to Haitian animals will include alternative integrated treatment.

To read more about Dr. Margo Roman, MASH and veterinary care, go to www.mashvet.com. To learn more about WSPA, go to www.wspausa.org. To learn about an educational program launched by MASH and its veterinary holistic care center, go to www.drdomore.com.

Roman wasn't surprised by the response.

 :wave:    :thumbsup:    :good post:

heartwarming :happy:

We had the opportunity to use oxygenated water several times with our cats.  Great for oral care.

Remember Haiti, the hawk that was hit by a vehicle??? Well...   :crying:

GRAFTON —  The euthanization of an injured red-tailed hawk has sparked a debate between modern veterinary medicine and alternative holistic treatments.

The hawk was rescued by the Hopkinton police and fire departments in late January after it was hit by a car, and taken to the Main Street Animal Services of Hopkinton for treatment. There it was named Haiti.

It was later turned over to a falconer, who was asked by the state Division of Fisheries & Wildlife to relinquish the injured hawk to Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. It was put to death last week.

Officials at the Cummings School said the decision to euthanize was made after weeks of observation and out of the best interest of the severely injured bird.

Meanwhile, MASH issued a news release saying a licensed veterinarian, Dr. Margo Roman, who it said has 32 years of clinical experience, treated the bird at MASH with homeopathic remedies and alternative therapies such as herbs, Reiki and ozone therapy.

“During the seven days at MASH, significant improvement had been noted and in Dr. Roman's opinion, more time was needed before a thorough evaluation could be made as to the destiny of the bird,” according to the MASH statement.

The hawk was brought to the Cummings School blind in one eye and functionally blind in another, said Tom Keppeler, spokesman for the Cummings School, adding that vision is key to the survival of a bird of prey, such as a red-tailed hawk.

“It was suffering, It was disoriented,” said Mr. Keppeler, adding that a necropsy revealed the bird had severe brain damage.

Veterinarians at the Cummings School campus treat more than a 100 red-tailed hawks each year, and the decision to euthanize was based on experience and three weeks of observing Haiti, said Mr. Keppeler.

“I think we made the right decision,” said Mr. Keppeler, noting that the school will soon release two rehabilitated red-tailed hawks back into the wild. “Our goal is to minimize the suffering of animals of all varieties as humanely and kindly as possible as we can, and sometimes that includes euthanasia.”

MASH, however, maintains the bird might have continued to improve with alternative therapies provided free by MASH. Those therapies would have included continued ozone therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

“Tufts Veterinary School maintained the attitude that if they could not help the bird, then no one should attempt to. Thus the bird was killed,” according to MASH. “Haiti the red-tail hawk was saved by the community of Hopkinton and this was a wrongful death that was committed due to the university's closed-minded attitude to integrative therapies.”

 :( :'(

For what it is worth, when caring for Rich, me, and our cats in the past, I have always followed the "combo" approach, meaning alternative treatments and traditional medical ones.  Meds are always my last option, but I will take the meds.  That said, I have a friend whose Dad practices the Laying-on-of-hands.  I've never taken up her offer, but I have added it to my arsenal of treatments.  I can assure you that if Bart wasn't so far into kidney failure, which made car transportation uncomfortable for him, I wouldn't have hesitated.  But I would have continued the medical route, too.