A sad end to the week, as the following extract posted by the Berwick Swan and Wildlife Trust in the local paper makes clear.

“A little cygnet came in recently from Eyemouth.  It appeared to have injured its leg, as it was unable to use its left leg at all.

The bird was x-rayed and the vet thought that perhaps one of the parents had trodden on it.  There were no broken bones, so a sling was made to hold the cygnet comfortably without putting pressure on the injured leg.  It was to have ‘hydrotherapy’ which basically meant letting it have a swim in a bowl of water two or three times each day.  Kay took the little mite home with her at nights to give it the swimming lessons.  She noticed that its head and neck when resting was held to the side, folded very much over its back.  This seemed to get worse each day.  A couple more days after this it was unable to use its right leg.  The next day the poor thing died.

The vet did a post mortem which showed no physical damage but after checking with residents looking out for the swans in Eyemouth we were told that this particular cygnet ‘moon-gazed’. This leads us to surmise that the cygnet had neurological problems right from hatching.

A sad end for the poor wee thing but there was nothing anyone was able to do to help it.”

Berwickshire News. Thursday, June 19th 2014