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It was still a critical time in her young life, but she did make it through the night. She was kept in an incubator to maintain her body temperature. We started feeding her that next day. She was fed with a puppet to avoid imprinting on us. Those first couple of days she lost weight which was not unexpected. By day three she was starting to gain weight. Her diet was controlled so that she did not gain weight too quickly. Ideally we were looking for about a 5-10% of her body weight gain per day. For instance, if she weighed 200 g then we didn't want her to gain more than 10-20 g that day. (Table of her weights). She grew rapidly and we were pretty sure she was out of the woods. Since this was the first lappetfaced vulture hand reared in the western hemisphere, every day was a learning experience. Days 25-40 were especially trying as her weight gains fluctuated all over the board. She was checked by the vets and it was determined that she had a heart murmur. She was taken to a cardiac specialist, which she disliked immensely, especially when the EKG clips were clipped to her wings.
The heart murmur was caused by a bacterial plaque on her heart which was treated with antibiotics. The heart murmur disappeared after that. Since she did have to receive antibiotics daily, it was decided that we would no longer feed her with the puppet. We felt it necessary for her to see us in a more positive light, i.e. food provider, because everything prior to that where she could see us had been negative, i.e. vet. 
Also around this time she began learning how to cast. Birds of prey will regurgitate any undigested body parts, such as bone and fur, from the food they eat. This undigested material comes out in a pellet or cast. These casts are normally fairly dry and do not smell when expelled. Trouble was, she was regurgitating a very wet, foul smelling material. After much discussion with the vets we decided that it was probably just a cast with too much water in it, but not before putting her back on antibiotics just in case it wasn't that. After cutting back on the amount of water we added to her diet, her casts came out normally. Once casting was accomplished she was well on her way to becoming a juvenile lappetfaced vulture. She continued to thrive and grow.(Growth weight graph). As one of her primary keepers, I formed a special relationship with her. There were only a few of us that she would allow to come into her enclosure without adopting the typical vulture posture, which is basically one of "get out--this is my area".
She was very good at intimidating people who didn't know her into leaving her enclosure. She was also very good at shredding hoses, and you had to be careful when cleaning her pool. If you didn't keep an eye on your hose as you cleaned, you would all of a sudden lose water pressure as she bit through the hose. Their beaks, afterall, are meant for ripping and tearing. When the time came for me to move onto another institution, saying goodbye to a bird that I had nurtured and cared for from the moment she was hatched was a very difficult one.
There are many birds that I worked with at Dallas, and many other types of animals prior to and since that time, but none have left such an indelible impression as Oricou. To have participated in her rearing was the most incredible thing I have ever done. It was trying and stressful, but most of all, rewarding. Hopefully her species will continue to not merely survive but thrive.
