I found a herring gull, lying on it's back on the side of a road, this was at 2:30 in the morning on friday, it is 14:00 on saturday at time of writing. I pulled over to see if it was dead, but it turned out it wasn't. It tried to escape from me, but it fell on it's chest and didn't make any further attempt to get away. I checked it for fractures, but wings, legs and neck are fine. I would simply have snapped it's neck for it's own good if there had been fractures. As it seemed to be doing alright, I brought it home. I have now been almost force feeding it for a while. (putting food into the beak, then it eats on it's own)
I wonder, because the speed of the car must have been quite low when it got hit; if there is a chance that it might be suffering from internal bleeding or a concussion. I haven't seen it eat voluntarily and it seems to be sleeping proportionally a lot for being a bird. The bite isn't as strong as on an adult bird, but then again, this bird is only just changing it's coat to the adult colours, which to me puts it's age at 3, possibly 4 years old.
It seems to be on the route to recovery, as far as energy goes, it is now walking around in it's enclosure, but it doesn't seem to want to fly at all. I brought it out to my garden yesterday, but it didn't try to take off, just walked around for a bit.
If you don't know what could be wrong, I would love to get some suggestions as to the quantities of food and water a bird of this size requires.
I am hoping for a quick reply, as I don't feel that I have adequate facilites or time to keep a bird of this size or upkeep in my spare time.
Thank you for your time.
ArcticViper