This article was written by the Johannesburg Wildlife Vets.
On 30 September, we admitted a very special patient — Vincent, a Verreaux’s eagle owl (previously known as the giant eagle owl).
Vincent was found on a reserve after being hit by a car. He was initially taken to Onderstepoort, where he was stabilised, before being transferred to our hospital for further treatment. Vincent had suffered severe head trauma as well as a serious injury to his left eye.
Thankfully, Vincent made an excellent recovery from his head injuries, but unfortunately his eye was another story. We called in specialist veterinary ophthalmologist Dr Lo-An Odayer, of Oday Vets, who performed an ocular ultrasonography. Her final assessment was:
“The diagnosis for the left eye was panuveitis with associated hyphema and retinal separation, secondary to trauma. A rupture of the pecten was also suspected. Given the severity of these findings, the prognosis for vision in the left eye was considered hopeless. The right eye was assessed as normal and fully functional.”
Our initial management goal was to make the left eye comfortable and to resolve the inflammation. Despite our best efforts, the eye progressed to end-stage uveitis, specifically phthisis bulbi — a shrunken, non-functional eye. While this condition is usually not painful, it can lead to secondary complications.
In small animals, one such complication is entropion (inward rolling of the eyelids), which often necessitates removal of the eye. However, eye removal was not a simple option for Vincent. Removing the eye would permanently alter the shape of his facial disc, which is critical to an owl’s survival.
An owl’s facial disc acts as a passive sound collector and amplifier, much like a satellite dish or a person cupping their hands behind their ears. Its unique feather structure channels sound waves with incredible precision towards the ears — an essential adaptation for hunting.
While most birds with vision in only one eye cannot be released back into the wild, owls are the rare exception. They hunt primarily using their extraordinary hearing and can cope remarkably well with vision in just one eye.
To prevent future entropion — which would likely have occurred only after release, when we could no longer intervene — we elected to surgically close the eye permanently. This delicate procedure, called a tarsorrhaphy, involves removing the eyelid margins under general anaesthesia and suturing the eye closed. Importantly, the nasolacrimal puncta were preserved to allow normal tear drainage — a detail Dr K took great care to ensure during surgery.
Vincent went on to make a full recovery, eating us out of house and home and flying beautifully in his flight enclosure — never once showing the slightest indication that he had vision in only one eye.
On 29 November, Vincent was released exactly where he belonged — back into his known territory.
The release video was undoubtedly one of the best moments of 2025 for our team – see comments for video
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Picture: Supplied