From Blackland Prairie Raptor Center
Springtime means people are using fertilizers on lawns and flower beds. Fertilizers, whether synthetic or organic, contain many chemicals that can be harmful. Please be mindful of fertilizers and the damage it can do to skin. If you use fertilizers, please water the fertilizer into the ground. This method creates a beautiful and safe yard.
Springtime also means baby birds and fledglings often spend a few days walking and standing on the ground. If a bird stands on fertilizer it burns the bird’s feet and hocks, often resulting in sores so severe that the birds are no longer able to walk. Birds with the worst burns are absolutely devastating as these can burn down to the bone.
We don’t like to take young birds away from their parents, but fertilizer-burned feet need medical attention. This Eastern Screech Owl came to our raptor clinic with burns on its feet. Our clinic staff cleaned the wounds and applied topical medication. Then the feet are wrapped to help the wounds heal and will be rechecked and rewrapped over several days. The owl will wear medicated booties until these burns heal.
Yes, fertilizers can be a skin irritant due to the concentration of chemicals. Obviously it depends on the fertilizer; most likely this owl stepped in a water-soluble chemical fertilizer, as they tend to be quite concentrated and are placed on top of the soil so they can dissolve a little bit every time the plant is watered.
Unfortunately people often dump more on the soil than plants really need (the ol’ ‘if one application is good than twice as much is twice as good!’ crowd that also drives doctors crazy). At usual application rates and spread the fertilizer should, in most cases, be too spread out to be much of a problem, but obviously a giant pile of it…