Kentucky is an adult male Grey-Headed Flying-Fox who was seen being attacked by a dog in a suburban backyard, then climbing up a tree. The dog in question was a staffie, so I was thinking this bat would be a definite euthanasia with a lot of horrible injuries, but the bat was covered in dusty soil (maybe had been in a garden bed) and didn't seem to have any obvious crush injuries, though his legs seem a little week.
Mostly bats attacked by dogs come off worst, but the only way a bat and a dog get to interact is if the bat somehow ends up low enough to get in the dog's territory. Often when I look at the bat there is more than the dog injury going on, but the reason the bat was hanging low or on the ground in the first place. But with Kentucky, I have no idea of his original issue - he had tears in his wings which had partially healed edges and a raggedy trailing edge on one side, with a shredded and blunted thumb claw tip. None of this adds up to me saying with any authority what his previous story was other than he'd been on the ground and his wing injuries predate the dog thing. The thumb claw blunting and splitting is often secondary to being dragged on a hard surface, or skidding along a road after crash landing, though it's usually bilateral.
Kentucky died on the way home - he may have looked fairly awake but he was on his last shreds of strength. I was surprised; I didn't think he'd make it ultimately, but I didn't think he'd die so soon.
I put some of the footage of me examining his body and puzzling about him after I got home, after the warning screen. If you're sensitive, stop watching after this screen.
RIP Kentucky
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