Arrow successfully removed from rescued goose

BARNSTABLE – The injured Fall River goose that was retrieved from Cook Pond Wednesday after having been shot by an arrow has successfully been operated on, but remains in critical condition Thursday.

According to Dr. Priya Patel, the medical director for New England Wildlife’s Barnstable center, the 45-minute procedure to remove the arrow had been touch-and-go, with the animal’s heart rate dropping to zero at one point during the surgery.

“Due to the incident of him crashing, we had to wake him up a little,” she said.

“At one point the patient’s heart-rate did crash under anesthesia, but we were able to do a sort of goose CPR,” said Zak Mertz, executive director of Mass Wildlife’s Cape Cod branch. “He is in rough condition, but he is still with us and we are monitoring him.”

The injured goose was caught Wednesday after nearly a week of evading capture by local animal control officers. The goose was shot through its breast by the arrow, but Mertz said the injury had only affected muscle and not any vital organs.

“Frankly, the arrow had to come out because the wound from the arrow had become larger and larger over time,” he said. “He was working the arrow as he swam around and flew and that had torn a larger hole in the pectoral muscle.”

Though she’s done similar procedures in the past, Patel said this was her first time having to remove an arrow from an animal. She said her patients more commonly need to have fishing hooks and lines or pellets from BB guns or airsoft rifles removed from them.

Thursday’s surgery also revealed that the wounded goose had been shot by someone once before. Mertz said an airsoft pellet was also found lodged in the goose.

Patel and Mertz said the goose will require at least two weeks to go through a regimen of antibiotics as well as several more weeks of recovery for the wound to heal.

“He is in critical condition, so this is a guarded prognosis,” said Mertz. “We are trying to be cautious about our outlook.”