Decide the fate of a seagull

[Chemical Ollie]

There is a half-dead seagull in my garden. It looked dead at first glance, but my mother poured water on it and it drank. I used a wet tissue to drip more water into it's mouth, without touching it. It drank, opened it's eyes and even raised it's head a bit.

What should I do?

EDIT: Don't vote above! It is to late. The bastard died only a few hours after I posted the thread and got it's head eaten by a predator. Now I'm only waiting for the virus it carried to break out and kill my family.

[Asher]

I bet it tastes like chicken.

[Boris Godunov]

Put it out of its misery.

[SlowwHand]

Is there an animal shelter, of some kind, in the area?

[MichaeltheGreat]

It may have been stunned by a collision with another bird, heat or something else, or it may be ill (and unable to fly now) due to disease, age or parasitic infection.

Monitor it for a while, see if it shows increasing signs of activity, or if it's just kind of barely there with no sign of improvement.

If it's drinking, that's a good sign in general. It may need food as well. Make sure it has beakside access, dribble some water to it like you did at first, maybe offer it some food the same way.

Birds tend to go pretty fast, so if it's responsive the way you described, that's generally a good sign.

[Chemical Ollie]

Oh, I forgot the picture of the semi-cadavera:

[Chemical Ollie]

I'm not getting along well with the Net tonight. Let's give it another try...

[SlowwHand]

You need some makeup application advisement.

[Chemical Ollie]

The pic shows the bird before it drank. It later opened it's eyes and moved it's head quite much.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Is there an animal shelter, of some kind, in the area?

I know a guy who takes care of rare owl species, but I doubt that he would care about a seagull.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Looks like a collision or fight injury. No way to tell for sure, and no way to tell if it has internal injuries, but if that and the fall to the ground is all that happened, it may have a decent chance.

Tachycardia is the biggest problem with avian traumatic injuries. If it doesn't conk itself out fairly quick from the stress, then you're just in wait and see mode.

Are there any tree-hugger type avian veterinarians where you are?

[Chemical Ollie]

The problem is, I saw a French-Swedish movie last night, that was similar to the American Movie "Outbreak" with Dustin Hoffman, but without a happy ending. There, a lethal virus spread from seagulls to both human and chickens and killed blindly and brutally. After feeding water to the bird for a while I suddenly recalled the movie and took a step back to think - AARRGGHH!!

[Boris Godunov]

Oh just kill the thing. One less flying rat.

[Bereta_Eder]

Do whatever you can to save it.

[TCO]

Alka selzer will help it get better.