The world's largest hospital for falcons in Abu Dhabi

The world's largest hospital for falcons is the place where the medical staff works miracles with the most unusual patients.

An unusual picture

A large white SUV stops next to the hospital building. The nervous person raises the patient from her seat and takes her to the waiting room, where she patiently waits for the moment when doctors can examine her.

Everything looks quite normal, except for one small detail: the patient's head is covered with a leather hood, and her legs are tied. But do not panic and call the police, because the patient is a female falcon.

Hospital for Falcons

This is a typical scene for the Falcon Hospital in Abu Dhabi, the world's leading veterinary clinic, which annually treats about 12,000 birds, whose owners care about them as full members of the family.

The hospital, which opened in 1999, looks exactly like any hospital where people are treated. Once the birds are inspected, they are transferred to a sorting room where the medical team weighed them and quickly identified the symptoms.

What happens in the hospital?

In non-critical cases, birds that still have a leather hood on their heads (it allows them not to panic) are placed on special potholes, on which they wait their turn. Falcons in critical condition immediately sent to the operating room, where a team of experienced professionals is in combat readiness around the clock.

They are always ready to conduct a complex operation, which can drag on for several hours. Later, sick birds are transferred to the intensive care unit or to the air-conditioned hospital wards, where they gradually recover and receive the guests from anxious owners.

X-ray for falcons

"This hospital works exactly like a human hospital," said Marguerite Gabriel Muller, an energetic German veterinarian who has been in charge of the establishment for more than fifteen years. "First, the birds enter the general inspection zone, where we find out what is wrong with them, and also determine whether they need any additional examinations, such as an x-ray or an endoscope, and whether it is worth sending them for surgery."

Some falcons in critical condition are placed in special incubators, which were originally created for children.

"What works for children usually works for falcons, since there is no special equipment specifically for falcons, so we have to get it from other sources," Mueller added. "That's why we love children here." The level of care that falcons receive here may seem superfluous for an outsider. However, in the UAE, where this bird is a symbol of national pride and tradition, this is not surprising.

"Falconers here love their birds as their own children," said Mueller. "And sometimes even more." She said that in the UAE in many houses the falcons have their own roosts in the guest rooms. In some cases, they sleep next to the owner's bed, and can also have their place in his office. These birds have their own passports, and those falconers who can afford it, buy falcon tickets for airplanes in business class.

Hospital tours

"In Europe and America, falconry is a sport. But here, in the Emirates, falconry has traditionally been seen as a way of extracting meat, "Mueller said. "Life in the desert was extremely difficult, and falcons were vital for the survival of Bedouin families."

Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that Abu Dhabi was so seriously invested in the creation of the Falcon Hospital, turning a dusty abandoned building near the city's main airport into a brilliant world-class institution. There are 107 people working in the hospital today, there is a private laboratory, a pet hotel, and a hospital for other pets.

Future veterinarians, students, laboratory assistants and rehabilitators can practice here. Patients from all over the country and from outside the country flock here, for example, from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. And recently this building attracts tourists. The hospital opened its doors for tours twice a day, in which visitors can see how medical procedures are performed, learn more about working in this hospital, and feed the falcons.

Now it is one of the most famous sights of Abu Dhabi. And one of the most attractive elements of this hospital is Müller herself, a woman who dedicated her professional life to falcons. She already worked with birds, when in 2001 she was invited to the Falcon Hospital, but she said that she initially could not win the respect of the hospital staff and falconers.

"It was an incredible feeling, I did not know what to expect," said Mueller, before setting off for the first operation in the morning. - The first two years were not easy: falconers did not want to receive me, as I was a woman, and even from the West. I brought a different kind of medicine to which they were not accustomed. It was also not easy for employees to have a woman as a superior. And when I came, I made changes absolutely everywhere: in medicine, in ways of treating falcons, even in the work process. "

Magic eyes

"In the end everything worked out as well as possible, but this was preceded by a long and difficult process," Muller said. One of the main improvements, she said, is an increase in the life expectancy of her patients from 12-15 years to 18-20.

This was achieved thanks to the fact that Müller motivated falconers to bring their pets to the hospital for regular examinations. Muller says that she is moved by the love of falcons and an inborn connection with the birds, which is vital for her work.

"When you look at these little black eyes, you feel magic," she confessed. "They're so attractive, so gorgeous."

"Working with falcons is not a standard eight-hour day, it's not standard veterinary work, because that's what passion needs to feel. You need to have a special feeling to understand what the falcons want, what they need. You need to feel this, and only then you can become a professional in this field. It's not a job, it's a gift. "