Too weak to fly, a mute swan lay in the reeds at Bluffer’s Park. When it was brought to the Toronto Wildlife Centre earlier this year, an X-ray revealed the cause: a fish hook was caught in its throat and a lead sinker was lodged in its gizzard.

Life-saving surgery removed both lethal obstacles. And the swan, which also had chelation therapy to flush the toxic lead from its system, fully recovered and was released in March.

It’s one example of how critical an X-ray is for doctors trying to diagnose problems in patients who cannot speak, especially when time is of the essence.

The ability to take X-rays is “absolutely essential,” says Dr. Sherri Cox, head wildlife veterinarian at the Toronto Wildlife Centre, a registered charity. “Our patients can’t tell us if their wing hurts, or if they feel pain when they put weight on one leg.’’

That essential diagnostic tool is in jeopardy as the centre’s X-ray machine, already second-hand when it was donated more than five years ago, isn’t working properly.

The centre, which admits 5,000 sick, injured and orphaned wild birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians annually, has just launched a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo with a goal of $24,750 to purchase a second-hand digital X-ray machine.

The current machine works only sporadically and that can create a “life-threatening situation” for the animals arriving daily, says executive director Nathalie Karvonen. “Some days it works and some days it doesn’t.” The machine can’t be fixed.

The Downsview wildlife centre, Canada’s busiest, handles more than 30,000 calls a year from people reporting creatures in distress.

With no government funding, the centre relies on individual and corporate donors for its $1.2-million annual budget — “and we’re still not meeting the needs of the community,’’ says Karvonen.

The centre would need five times its budget to totally meet the needs of all wildlife it is contacted about, she says.

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The wildlife centre hopes its first crowdfunding effort, via Indiegogo, will reach new donors.

The campaign offers incentives: for $25, a subscription to its newsletter. A $250 donation nets an X-ray from its archive. A $1,000 donation gives a donor a behind-the-scenes tour. And there are five spots for those who give $5,000 to accompany a centre team when it releases a healthy patient back into the wild.

You might get to watch a snapping turtle scuttle back into Grenadier Pond, as one did last year after it was found floating and weak with a fishing line hanging from its mouth. An X-ray revealed a hook stuck in its mouth.

Our patients can’t tell us if their wing hurts, or if they feel pain when they put weight on one leg. Dr. Sherri Cox Head wildlife veterinarian, Toronto Wildlife Centre

Or you might be able to watch a sandhill crane find its wings again, like one did in June near Shelburne, Ont., after it was brought in with leg injuries, including a fractured ankle.

Even with X-rays, the centre can’t save them all. One X-ray on the Indiegogo page shows an opossum’s head after a member of the public found it staggering around a North York garbage dump this year. Someone had shot 13 pellets into its head, causing three fractures.

The X-ray quickly showed that the problem could not be solved. The opossum’s pain was ended with a merciful euthanasia.