{"id":424019,"date":"2026-01-23T01:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T01:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/424019\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T01:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T01:17:07","slug":"x-rays-reveal-sea-lion-had-2-bullets-in-head-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/424019\/","title":{"rendered":"X-rays reveal sea lion had 2 bullets in head \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A sea lion rescued from Ballona Creek earlier this month is recovering after treatment for a bacterial infection, a process that revealed this wasn&#8217;t the first time the animal had brush with death.<\/p>\n<p>During initial exam skull x-rays, the team at Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles determined the sea lion had two bullets in his head.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sadly, it is not unusual to find sea lions that have been shot by humans, highlighting the prevalence of violence these animals face,&#8221; the Care Center said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/marinemammalcare\/posts\/pfbid067LTJZ3Fm8FUnDDCzNexs8dJrRZA6H76XGx2B16yz45uakuCzjD7DVFacYepeMWLl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook post<\/a>. &#8220;Many die, but some, like Confetti, survive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Confetti, the Care Center&#8217;s first patient of the year, was rescued Jan. 5 from the creek, a channeled stream in southwestern Los Angeles County. He tested positive for leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that affects the kidneys that can be fatal if not treated.<\/p>\n<p>Blood work also revealed liver problems.<\/p>\n<p>Confetti received medications and fluids to help with dehydration.<\/p>\n<p>After a few days, Confetti showed some improvement and started moving around. By day seven, he chased and ate live fish on his way to recovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sea lion rescued from Ballona Creek earlier this month is recovering after treatment for a bacterial infection,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[5830,79,201],"class_list":["post-424019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals-and-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}