It's been a roller coaster ride this week. Last Saturday I went to feed Apache and everything was fine. He jumped to his perch and waited for me, hopped to the fist, and then caught his frozen chick that I tossed. I then traded him a quail for the chick as normal and left him to eat his prize.

I returned on Sunday and found that Apache didn't eat his quail. It's been hot, so I wasn't too concerned. I had been letting him self regulate and he had been holding his weight at ~900g. He hopped to his perch and we did his normal feeding routine.

When I returned Monday, Apache had not eaten the quail from the day before. I was now concerned! Not eating 2 days in a row is not normal for him. I weighed him and he had lost ~100g. His breathing rate was normal at less than 25 breaths/minute and everything looked fine except for him not eating. I put him in his box so I could make the 2.5 hour drive to a vet that knows falconry birds well. Throughout the day Monday his mutes began showing green color in the urates. Asper was the main concern.

The vet looked him over and drew blood to send off. Everything looked fine when examined. The x-rays were clear for asper, fecals were clear, and there didn't appear to be any major concern other than not eating. I took him home and he would eat small amounts (10-15g). I began feeding him small meals every 2hrs to try and maintain his weight. Once the blood work came back it showed a high white blood cell count and low red blood cell count. The signs looked like possibly avian malaria, so we began treatment for that.

Yesterday, during his first feeding he regurgitated his meal. I loaded him up and made the 2.5 trip back to the vet knowing something was really wrong. Twice on the way he lost his balance and "passed out" in his box. I removed the perch from his giant hood so that he was standing in his box. Upon arrival, we initially thought it was low blood sugar. I left Apache with the vet knowing if something happened at my house, there wasn't anything I could do and we had already exceeded the knowledge of our local vet. The vet called me later that evening letting me know that symptoms progressed and it looked neurological. Signs were definitely pointing to West Nile. He began treatment for West Nile at that point.

Unfortunately, Apache did not make it through the night. The vet is currently doing a necropsy, but it looks like he succumbed to West Nile virus.

Apache was definitely my favorite bird I've ever flown thus far. I will fly a goshawk again someday and will attempt to raise it the same way I raised Apache. It sucks that things ended like this and I watched my bird and hopes for this next season go down the tubes so quickly. Sometimes this sport really know how to kick you in the crotch. High emotional highs and low emotional lows...always hoping for the next epic flight.