Ozzie the famous eagle back in the hospital

Bit by bit Monday morning, veterinarians Heather Barron and Molly Lien removed dead and infected tissue from a deep, nasty-looking wound on the right hip of the area's most famous bird.

After three months of rehabilitation for a pair of broken bones, then three months in the wild, bald eagle Ozzie, co-star of Southwest Florida Eagle Cam, is back at the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife on Sanibel, this time suffering from severe lacerations and a broken toe in each foot.

Ozzie showed up injured in a North Fort Myers backyard Sunday night; the homeowner captured him with a towel and called CROW, whose volunteers took him to the clinic.

"This wound was riddled with maggots last night," CROW head vet Barron said Monday during surgery. "That would have been problematic if he hadn't been found. But he's on really good antibiotics and pain meds, so he'll probably be fine."

Since the 2012-2013 eagle nesting season, millions of people have watched live coverage of Ozzie and mate Harriet as they raised their chicks in a nest on the property of DIck Pritchett Real Estate in North Fort Myers.

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On March 17, Ozzie was found near the railroad tracks at Van Buren Street and Palm Beach Boulevard in Fort Myers, injured and unable to fly.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers took the bird to CROW, where X-rays showed a broken left clavicle, which corresponds to the human collarbone, and a broken coracoid bone, which is part of the shoulder assembly and essential for flight.

During Ozzie's rehabilitation, Eagle Cam got about 200,000 hits a day, and Ozzie fans flooded CROW's Facebook page.

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After Ozzie was released June 17 at the Pritchett property, unconfirmed Ozzie sightings from around the county became common.

In a documented case, Ozzie was photographed Sept. 20 fighting with another male eagle near the nest.

That aerial combat might be the cause of some of Ozzie's current injuries, including his broken toes, Barron said.

"He was also reported to have been caught in barbwire, so that's a possibility," she said. "Given the distribution and number of wounds, it's possible that both happened.

"One problem is that some of the wounds are so old that bacteria has gotten into the blood. We're dealing with a really bad infection, but we see worse wounds than this every day that heal nicely."

Of more concern than the wounds are Ozzie's broken toes.

Ozzie injured, recovering at CROW

"He was already missing one claw, so he needed his other claws to hunt," Barron said. "How well he'll be able to use his remaining talons could be a limiting factor.

"There's not much we can do about his toes besides splint them. They've already begun to heal, so fibrous callus has started to form. We'd have to re-break them if we wanted to surgically repair them."

When Ozzie arrived at CROW Sunday, he weighed about one pound less than when he was released in June, indicating that he'd been hunting successfully for three months.

X-rays after surgery Monday showed no other injuries, and the overall prognosis for the 20-plus-year-old bird is good.

"He's a tough old guy," Barron said. "Man, I'm impressed with how well he does for an old guy with these kinds of wounds."

Ozzie will be at CROW at least three weeks, spokesman Kenny Howell said.