Published: January 24, 2007 11:57 pm      

TURKEY THERAPY: Local bird gets fowl treatment

TOWN OF LOCKPORT — Thomas B. Butterball loves the ladies.

The magnificent black turkey fans out and puffs up his feathers whenever pretty women come close. But lately, something has been cramping his style.

A mysterious kink in the bird’s neck has him receiving fowl physical therapy from wildlife rehabilitator Jacalyn Perry.

Sandi Pfohl, director of the Lakeview Animal Sanctuary, said she noticed Butterball’s injury after a visit with a 4-H group in Newfane recently. She took him to see Dr. Carl Tomaschke at the Seneca Animal Hospital, concerned that he might have swallowed something strange.

Instead, Tomaschke suspected Butterball had sprained his neck somehow.

“The veterinarian put him on pain medication and steroids,” Pfohl said. “He didn’t get worse or better.”

In addition to medications, Pfohl enlisted Perry’s help. Perry, who is a physical therapist assistant by day at the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, also runs the Association for Wild Animal Rehabilitation and Education.

She came over to the animal sanctuary on Saturday to start treatment on Butterball. After gathering the 24-pound bird from the barn behind Pfohl’s house, she took him inside for therapy.

“I did some stretching and massaging of the muscles to loosen him up,” Perry said. “I worked on his neck muscles a little bit. It seemed like he was feeling a little bit better.”

That’s a good sign for the gregarious turkey. Butterball, who is 3 or 4 years old, has always been happy to be around other people when he isn’t on the hunt for a mate.

In fact, that’s what he was doing when Pfohl first met him. She was having the dinner with friends Donna and Becky Boskat when she got a call from the Niagara County Sheriff’s department.

“They asked us to look at an injured wild turkey terrorizing the neighborhood,” Pfohl said. “All he was doing was fanning his tail, looking for a date.”

Butterball did have an injured toe, so Pfohl took him in. She said she was able to find his owners and got permission from them to borrow him for wildlife presentations occasionally. But when it came time to pick up the half domestic, half wild turkey, no one claimed him.

Most animals at the sanctuary are available for adoption, but Butterball isn’t one of them.

“Tom will be here forever because he’s just such a card,” Butterball said. “He’s just the most amazing bird.”

Now Butterball spends his days strutting around the sanctuary, occasionally visiting the neighbors and coming into Pfohl’s house. There is a female turkey at the sanctuary, but Pfohl said she seems scared of Butterball. She is hoping they will acclimate to each other eventually.

In the meantime, Butterball is finding happiness elsewhere. The bird doesn’t flinch when people approach him. Pfohl takes him to various educational wildlife presentations and petting zoos. Butterball’s next scheduled visit is a dinner for a local conservation society on Feb. 3 in Newstead.

He will not, however, be on the menu.

Contact Tasha Kates at 439-9222, Ext. 6241.