04/09/2026
🦉 A Heartbreaking Reminder of the Hidden Dangers of Rodenticide
We received this Barn Owl yesterday from a large farm in Loudoun County. When the owl arrived at our center, we saw that he was thin, barely responsive, and his mucous membranes were incredibly pale.
Because rodenticide bait stations were being used on farm property, we immediately became concerned about possible rodenticide exposure and rushed him to Blue Ridge Wildlife Center (BRWC) for emergency veterinary care.
Sadly, despite everyone's swift efforts, the owl died very soon after arriving at BRWC. 😢
The bloodwork results were shocking.
His PCV (packed cell volume), which measures the percentage of red blood cells in the blood, was just 8%. A normal PCV for a raptor is approximately 30–55%. An 8% PCV represents severe, life-threatening anemia.
His total solids were also extraordinarily low at 1.0, indicating that the proteins normally circulating in his blood were profoundly depleted.
He had no fractures, open wounds, or broken blood feathers that would otherwise explain such profound blood loss.
And then there was the most significant finding:
His blood sample would not clot. Healthy blood with normal clotting factors should clot within about two minutes. Even after an hour, the owl's blood sample had not clotted—and it still had not clotted the following morning.
Taken together— the proximity of rodenticide bait stations/boxes, the severe anemia, inability of blood clotting, pale mucous membranes, and the profoundly low total solids/PCV—the veterinarian was confident that anticoagulant rodenticide toxicosis was responsible for his condition and death.
Anticoagulant rodenticides interfere with the body's ability to produce the clotting factors necessary to stop bleeding. A poisoned animal can suffer internal bleeding that may not be visible externally.
Barn Owls and other raptors are incredibly valuable natural predators of rodents, but when rodenticides are present in the environment, these predators can become unintended victims.
Rodents don’t often just enter these bait boxes and die inside. They enter, eat a some of the rodent poison, then can easily exit the boxes. These poisoned rodents then wander around outside, where a raptor or other predator can prey on them – and those predators become poisoned as well.
We understand that controlling rodents can be a real challenge, particularly on farms. There are, however, safer non-toxic approaches. Exclusion, sanitation, habitat modification, and trapping can all help reduce rodent populations while minimizing risks to wildlife.
We cannot change what happened to this beautiful owl - But we can share his story in the hope that it helps people understand how rodenticide can move through the food chain and affect the wildlife around us.
We will be sharing more soon about ways to manage rodents without rodenticide.
Thank you to the finder for getting this barn owl to us so quickly and to our colleagues at Blue Ridge Wildlife Center.
