Chapter 155 Poisoning
Xu Ying quickly bandaged the serval's wound and said to the vultures, "What's wrong, my friends? What happened?"
The largest vulture landed on a rock in front of her and paced back and forth anxiously, its wings half-open.
[Webmaster Xiao Xu! Hurry! My child. My child is dying!]
Xu Ying sensed the fear in Vulture's tone.
Counting the days, the vulture sister has been incubating the eggs near the rescue station for so long, the vulture babies should be hatching by now.
Xu Ying's heart sank suddenly.
She went to check last week and found that the three eggs in the vulture's nest were all normal. Why did they suddenly fail as soon as they hatched?
"Quick, take me there."
Xu Ying stroked the bandaged serval and said goodbye to it: "Don't touch the bandaged area for the next few days. Protect yourself!"
The flock of vultures took off immediately. Xu Ying jumped onto the dune scooter and followed the black figure in the air.
The car bumped along the rugged Gobi Desert, raising a cloud of dust.
When Xu Ying arrived near the vulture's nest, the scene before her made her gasp.
The nest was littered with eggshell fragments. A soggy young vulture huddled in the center, its breaths so shallow that the rise and fall of its chest was barely audible. Another egg had cracked, but the chick inside had clearly died. And the third egg was still quiescent.
The elder vulture was anxiously nudging the younger vulture with her beak, making a low, whining sound. Seeing Xu Ying, she stepped back, her eyes full of pleading.
[Stationmaster Xiao Xu, please save my child.]
"Don't worry, let me see."
Xu Ying carefully picked up the little vulture. It was much lighter than a normal chick, with sparse feathers and an unhealthy grayish-white beak.
Xu Ying pursed her lips into a line and quickly used her toolbox to check its vital signs - weak heartbeat, low body temperature, shallow and rapid breathing.
"When did it hatch?" Xu Ying asked Brother Vulture.
[Shortly after you left the shelter.]
The eldest vulture replied, his voice trembling, [It barked a few times at first, but it grew weaker and weaker. The other child didn't make a sound at all.]
Xu Ying nodded and made a quick decision: "I need to take it back to the rescue center. It needs professional treatment, and I can't help it here."
Brother Vulture and Sister Vulture have already regarded Xu Ying as their partner, so of course they choose to trust him unconditionally at this time.
Xu Ying carefully placed the little vulture into a special insulated box on the motorcycle.
Although the vulture's nest was not far from the rescue station, Xu Ying's heart tightened with every bump, for fear of hurting the fragile little life.
When the white building of the rescue station finally came into view, Xu Ying drove the last section of the road almost at a sprint speed.
Once inside the shelter, Xu Ying connected the little vulture to a monitoring device and then prepared warm water and nutrient solution. The only sound in the medical room was the rhythmic beeping of the equipment.
Brother Vulture and Sister Vulture squatted in the rescue station, not daring to breathe, their eyes fixed on the child on the hospital bed.
Xu Ying gently examined the little vulture's beak with her fingers.
The following day, the condition of the little vultures was sometimes good and sometimes bad, which made Xu Ying unable to sleep all night. The two vultures also suffered from insomnia with her, could not eat, and their feathers lost their luster visibly.
The little foxes have no interest in playing these two days. They gathered around the baby vulture's bed, knowing that the baby is sick and may not survive.
Two days later, Xu Ying suddenly discovered that the little vulture's beak had become abnormally softened.
She immediately communicated the situation to the vulture parents.
“It’s soft beak.”
Xu Ying frowned. "It's rare, usually associated with environmental toxins or genetic defects. No wonder it's so weak."
[Can it be cured?]
The two vultures' voices were filled with undisguised worry.
Xu Ying frowned. "It needs to be fed with special nutrients. I'll call headquarters to see if they have any. If they do, I'll bring the little guy over!"
She quickly called the headquarters. After receiving a positive answer from the headquarters, Xu Ying breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly took the incubator and drove a motorcycle to take the vulture baby to the rescue station headquarters. She also did not forget to bring the unhatched vulture egg.
Xu Ying judged that there was probably something wrong with this nest of vulture eggs, and judging by the severity of the problem, they were probably brought in from the womb.
But she had given Sister Vulture so many physical examinations, and Sister Vulture was in very good health.
This time the situation is really tricky!
After communicating with Zhuo Yi at the headquarters about the baby vulture's condition along the way, when Xu Ying arrived at the headquarters, a rescuer had already come to pick her up and took her to get nutritional supplements.
The syringe pushes the nutrient solution little by little and feeds it into the baby vulture's mouth.
After feeding the baby vulture, Xu Ying was persuaded by Zhuo Yi to go to the cafeteria for lunch. Xu Ying had only eaten a piece of bread mat since she woke up before dawn.
However, when Xu Ying came back after dinner and pushed open the door of the medical room, the scene in front of her made her heart sink to the bottom instantly - the heart rate line on the monitor fluctuated violently, and Fu Qiuhua and two assistants were surrounding the vulture baby's incubator to provide emergency rescue.
"What's wrong?" Xu Ying rushed forward with a trembling voice.
How come Professor Fu was alarmed?
"Sudden respiratory failure," Professor Fu Qiuhua replied briefly, his hands moving constantly. "Go prepare for intubation!"
The next half hour felt extremely long to Xu Ying.
She assisted Fu Qiuhua with various first aid measures and watched the little vulture's palm-sized body struggle on the brink of life and death.
When the curve on the monitor finally stabilized, everyone in the medical room breathed a sigh of relief.
"It survived." Fu Qiuhua took off his mask and smiled tiredly, "But the situation is more complicated than we thought. In addition to soft beak syndrome, it also has congenital problems with its respiratory system."
Xu Ying gently stroked the little vulture's head and felt its weak breathing.
The next day, a batch of special medicines arrived at the headquarters, one of which was suitable for use on the little vulture.
But the treatment with the specific medicine was not successful.
The little vulture had a strong reaction to the medication and briefly fell into a coma. Xu Ying and Fu Qiuhua took turns watching over him, adjusting the dosage and trying various complementary therapies.
On the third night, Xu Ying suddenly made a discovery while looking through old case records.
"Professor Fu!" She rushed into the medical room, holding a yellowed file in her hand. "Last year, the 017 Rescue Station rescued a poisoned peregrine falcon. The symptoms were very similar to those of the young vulture!"
Fu Qiuhua quickly scanned the file. “Are you saying the baby vulture’s problem might be a genetic accumulation of toxins?”
"The older vulture may have been exposed to some kind of environmental toxin for a long time, which was passed on to the younger vulture."
Vultures have strong physical resistance. For adult vultures, these toxins may not be a big deal, but for newborn vulture babies, it may not be the case!
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