Wildlife Hospital of Louisiana

11/07/2025

Communications team member Chris Jones captured Return to the Wild: A Triumphant Release—a powerful image that earned a Best of CASE District IV Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. The photograph reveals the breathtaking moment an eagle, rehabilitated by LSU Vet Med’s Wildlife Hospital of Louisiana, launches back into the wild.

Soaring directly over Chris, the eagle’s wings seem to embrace the Zoological Medicine students, whose care helped make its recovery possible. Featured in UPROAR magazine and across social media, this award-winning shot reflects the heart of LSU Vet Med’s mission to teach, heal, discover, and protect.

10/16/2025

This past weekend we released one of our ambassador birds, Waffle, who we’ve had the joy of working with for four years. Waffle first presented to the Wildlife Hospital of Louisiana in the summer of 2021 with presumed hit by car injuries of bilateral lens luxations and detachment of her retina making her non-visual. In 2022 our doctors had to remove her left eye due to increased pressure known as glaucoma. Waffle’s eye sight in her right eye was monitored with yearly eye exams with the hopes that she would be visual in that eye again. This August our team noticed that Waffle was able to navigate her enclosure and consider her to have regained sight. Dr. Renee Carter of the LSU Vet Med Ophthalmology team performed a thorough ophthalmology exam on her right eye that indicated she was visual! Our raptor rehab team began exercising her to ensure she had silent flight, landings, stamina, and was able to find food. Dr. Katie Bakalis, one of our wildlife residents, performed a pre-release eye exam that indicated that she was still visual. And on Sunday Waffle was released off of the levee in Port Allen where she was originally found! It was a bittersweet moment for the raptor rehab team but we are so excited to see Waffle thrive!

09/29/2025

This weekend the Raptor Rehab team presented at the National Hunting and Fishing Day event hosted by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation. We were so happy to see so much passion for Louisianas wildlife and so happy to attend! Thank you to everyone who stopped by!

09/03/2025

09/02/2025

We’re so happy to officially introduce Juno and Cypress! 🦉🦉Thank you to everyone who donated and voted!

08/18/2025

It’s time to start voting for your favorite names for our new raptor residents! Each $1 donation to the wildlife hospital’s raptor rehab team counts as one vote. To vote go to the Venmo shown and include the name you like best in the Venmo description! Voting will close Friday, August 29.

08/17/2025

Our Raptor Rehab team has two new ambassador birds to introduce! If you are part of LSU Vet Med, come stop by the courtyard this Tuesday, August 19, at 12:15 to meet our new resident Eastern Screech Owl and Barred Owl! Stay tuned for more information on names, voting, and how to donate!

08/10/2025

This weekend we had four wonderful pre-vet volunteers! They worked with our raptor rehab team, learning how to safely handle raptors, performing physical exams on birds, and helped out with cleaning! We are so happy and grateful that they could join us!

07/22/2025

The Wildlife Hospital of Louisiana has now surpassed 1300 cases for this year which is how many cases we saw in total in 2024. Just last week our team released 3 rehabilitated red tailed hawks and have already released two turtles this week!

The LSU Wildlife Hospital of Louisiana is proud to serve our community by providing veterinary care to Louisiana’s wildlife.

Our hospital is entirely funded by donations from the public, so if you would like to help conserve Louisiana’s wildlife and support the veterinary care we provide to our patients, please feel free to make a donation by following the link in our bio!

07/14/2025

06/19/2025

Today we officially saw our 1000th patient of the year. This is a 30% increase in the number of patients we are seeing this year compared to last year where we helped almost 1300 patients in total!

The LSU Wildlife Hospital of Louisiana is proud to serve our community by providing veterinary care to Louisiana’s wildlife.

Our hospital is entirely funded by donations from the public, so if you would like to help conserve Louisiana’s wildlife and support the veterinary care we provide to our patients, please feel free to make a donation by following the link in our bio!

06/08/2025

Happy to our resident Barred Owl, Waffle!

Waffle came to the Wildlife Hospital in the summer of 2021 as an adult. She had detached retinas and lens damage in both of her eyes. Over time, her right eye began to develop painful glaucoma, which ended with the removal of the affected eye. Currently, Waffle still has limited vision in her remaining eye, which makes her ineligible for release.

Waffle continues to serve as an amazing ambassador for her species and is affectionately known as the Queen of Raptor Rehab. We are happy to have her! So join us in celebrating her Gotcha Day! We love you Waffle!! ❤️🦉