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grace loves millet so much. if i walk in with a sprig she immediately runs and tries to start gnawing at it before i can even get it hung up
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Nov 1, 2023 01:10
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I feel so frustrated by how little parakeets are and the difficulty that makes first aid for them. Let’s get one thing straight. This sucks to say, but I consider Yellow in hospice care. She has two tumors, one almost certainly cancerous, gout, and a “dead” leg. Frankly, I’m amazed how far she has made it. But she just keeps on keepin’ on, and I’m here for her. Well, really it’s Blue, who quite literally spends his mornings puking into her. But her leg keeps getting worse, which means she keeps banging it open. It has happened a couple times, normally overnight. Well, today it just happened. Enough for blood to drop on the cage floor. I have parrot first aid powder, but the last time I used it on her the experience nearly killed her. I’m pretty sure it quit before I could notice. I DO NOT want to stress out her frail little body with interventions that aren’t needed. Which includes toweling. But I’m also not going to let her bleed to death. So I laid white paper towels beneath their perches, and if there are fresh blood drops she is getting toweled. I just hope it clotted on its own. The rest of her life is about comfort, including feeding her graham crackers from my hand. Which is the only way she will not flee my big claw. Didn’t mean to downer post. There just aren’t many places to talk about end of life parakeet care.
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Nov 2, 2023 01:34
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Yellow is lucky to have you loving her and keeping her safe. Would it be possible to try some kind of alternative powder delivery such as leaving a dusting of it in a place she's likely to put her leg in contact with?
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Nov 2, 2023 01:51
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What powder are you using? Can you use a more benign powder like flour or something? I know birds are way more sensitive, but we've used flour for our greyhound when he damages his fragile skin during his seizures
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Nov 2, 2023 02:33
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bee posted:Yellow is lucky to have you loving her and keeping her safe. Would it be possible to try some kind of alternative powder delivery such as leaving a dusting of it in a place she's likely to put her leg in contact with? You’re too kind, thank you. You gotta really get that stuff on there for it to have effect. DarkHorse posted:What powder are you using? Can you use a more benign powder like flour or something? I know birds are way more sensitive, but we've used flour for our greyhound when he damages his fragile skin during his seizures Standard parrot rescue powder, I don’t recall the name. The medicine isn’t the problem, it’s the delivery.
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Nov 2, 2023 02:57
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DarkHorse posted:What powder are you using? Can you use a more benign powder like flour or something? I know birds are way more sensitive, but we've used flour for our greyhound when he damages his fragile skin during his seizures I had this thought as well, as the local bird rescue told me that in an emergency you can use cornflour to stem bleeding on small injuries. However as birds have delicate respiratory systems I'd be worried about them breathing too much of it in by accident.
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Nov 2, 2023 03:02
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I purposefully didn't buy styptic powder for my birds because I've used it before when shaving to stop bleeding and 1) it stings really bad and 2) it's awful bitter. I got my girls a clay powder thingy to stop the bleeding. But yes, I 100% mirror your thoughts on budgie care, Captain Log. They're so tiny and frightful and it makes first aid or administering medicine such an awful experience for all involved. I feel like a cockatiel can be somewhat reasoned with? Budgies can't at all.
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Nov 2, 2023 15:24
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Ugh, Yellow was having a great day of not hurting herself. Then out of nowhere, she managed to do it again. I purposely spent most of my day in the living room, with their cage plainly in my view. I've been determined to figure out how she is hurting her leg, so I can eliminate the problem. But I'm also not forgetting what happened when I swapped around her perches and added to hammocks. She shut down, not leaving her corner for two straight days. Well, I figured it out. Her leg is catching where perches attach to the bars. But here is the problem - it's when she's moving horizontally. Up and down? No problem. But when she crosses from one perch to the others, specifically where her bad leg is facing the bars, she is catching it. Which is a conundrum. A smaller cage wouldn't eliminate the problem. Different perches, even if I ignore the problem of her shutting down, will not eliminate the problem. I've been brainstorming, and coming up with nothing. It's a Friday, which means my odds of getting through to the only avian vet in the state before Monday are slim to none. But he has something like close to four decades of experience, so I'll see what he has to say on the subject. Once I wake them up, she might be getting toweled so I can clean her up a little. But only if it doesn't send her into an absolute fit. God, I would feel different about the situation if she was just shutting down. But the absurd thing is that she is hurting herself because she is staying at least semi-active. I often think we see our animal's suffering through the lens of what makes us comfortable. Hell, I think sometimes animals get euthanized early, just because we cannot stand to see pain. But as long as she is fighting, I'll try to fight for her. But seeing blood every couple of days out of an animal which weights less than 100g is tough. Lord knows Blue has nothing but vomit and a positive attitude which would rival the pope's to help out. 
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Nov 3, 2023 13:50
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Chaosfeather posted:Birds definitely have a broader light-field of vision, but also don't discount their ability to smell. I'm not sure about our individual parrots but I know a few birds have a pretty keen sense. Between your changing color and other liver symptoms, I'm sure you gave off a sicky look and odor and Sera was trying desperately to tell you about it. Probably also doesn't help that humans are much, much larger than they are, and any changes are probably very noticeable to them. Contrast to the unfortunate difficulty we have caring for much smaller creatures.
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Nov 3, 2023 14:10
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Hah! Posting here seemed to organize my thoughts. I've come up with an idea to make traversing the cage easier without moving any of the perches. I'll report back when I know if it works or not. Thanks for listening, friends.
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Nov 3, 2023 16:56
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These birds are so lucky to have all of you in their lives. They're all good birds. Between the stories I see here and my occasional recurring stress dreams about bird ownership, all I can reasonably do is watch all of you doing your best from the sidelines.
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Nov 3, 2023 19:49
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Funny that healthcare should come up so much recently because I just spoke with Sinbad on the subject. He's a medical doctor, among his many other accolades. (had to use Twitter because imgur said it couldn't do a video past a minute. Even then this only captures the back half of the discussion.) https://twitter.com/SinbadPosting/status/1720513010102600150
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Nov 3, 2023 19:52
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SuperKlaus posted:Funny that healthcare should come up so much recently because I just spoke with Sinbad on the subject. He's a medical doctor, among his many other accolades. (had to use Twitter because imgur said it couldn't do a video past a minute. Even then this only captures the back half of the discussion.) lol elon has restricted your bird twitter i love how many fun things sinbad has in his house
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Nov 3, 2023 20:08
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The brown box beneath where he's perched is a toilet!
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Nov 3, 2023 20:22
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SuperKlaus posted:The brown box beneath where he's perched is a toilet! loves it. alex has in the past few months made himself an outhouse. i bought a rope perch for the side of their big cage that’s next to the computer my so works at when home so they could sit there and be next to people. now every morning he comes out and races across the top of the cage to go down to the rope perch and poop. they really try not to poop in their sleep cage. mediaphage fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Nov 3, 2023 |
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Nov 3, 2023 21:11
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Tidy boy. Smart boy.
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Nov 3, 2023 21:23
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Oh lord, I apologize for not posting my update about Yellow and Blue's cage. It was a partial success. They have one of those double-level Vision brand cages, and I was able to take out the middle section to cut the height of their cage in half. I was terrified it would make Yellow shut down, but I didn't touch a single thing in the upper half of the cage when I "lowered" it. Lo and behold, they adjusted absolutely fine! The thing that wasn't a success was my plan to make the place where perches meet the cage bars un-snaggable with Yellow's bad leg. I took a long piece of thin, clear plastic and pushes holes in it where the perches met the bars. While it would create a shield to keep Yellow's leg from snagged, it also would have blocked her ability to use her beak for climbing. I'm currently staring at her while she moves, trying to determine if I could cut a groove in the plastic to reveal certain portions of the bars, keeping her beak holds free. She is still have occasional blood, but it's far less since I lowered her cage.
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Nov 6, 2023 14:26
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Yellow has such an indomitable spirit
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Nov 6, 2023 16:13
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Uh... I found a little guy at work today. He seemed exhausted and was desperately trying to eat the premature seeds of flowering grass. I work in an oil refinery in the middle of nowhere, how the hell he ended up where he did I'll never know. Managed to grab him despite him being flighted and I'm thankful he was as hungry and tired as he was or else he'd have flown off for good. It was the most stressful and emotional thing because I knew if I messed up or let him get away, he'd die for sure.   He's eaten, but he appears very sick. I've got him in the living room in my spare cage. It's a bit sparse but he has a high perch to sleep on (which is where he is now) and I'll start adding more perches over the coming days. I didn't want this added headache, and I especially didn't want to ever be forced into rescuing a bird because it means I have to quarantine them which stops me from letting my girls come out to spend time with me in the living room, which is what I look forward to every day.
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Nov 6, 2023 16:42
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Oh dear... It's such a young one too. Poor thing. I'm glad you got him and I hope he's able to recover. Sorry about that sudden unnecessary stress. He's absolutely beautiful.
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Nov 6, 2023 16:51
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He was relatively well behaved but started acting up towards the end of the journey: kicking, struggling and nipping at me. But yes, he is a little baby and was so weak. I'm rooting for the little idiot but we shall see. He's not made a peep and has been sleeping heavily since he ate. I'm hoping it's just exhaustion and he's sleeping it off. If after 3 days he's still dumpy, I don't know what to do (there are no vets here). Gonna slowly turns lights off at 8pm and leave him with a nightlight on and hope he gets better each day.
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Nov 6, 2023 17:10
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Qubee posted:Uh... I found a little guy at work today. He seemed exhausted and was desperately trying to eat the premature seeds of flowering grass. I work in an oil refinery in the middle of nowhere, how the hell he ended up where he did I'll never know. Managed to grab him despite him being flighted and I'm thankful he was as hungry and tired as he was or else he'd have flown off for good. regardless of how things turn out, thanks for being there for them. if nothing else these days are going to be much nicer for him than starving outside. if you can, be to keep where they're at around 75F/24C. that way they won't have to struggle to produce more body heat and can use their energy to recover. definitely be sure to wash your hands after interacting with them or their cage/bowls. i'd even consider something like a hepa filter or corsi box (but i go a little overboard) if that's not a struggle.
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Nov 6, 2023 17:18
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Thanks for all the pointers, don't worry, I've covered all the bases because I am slightly (extremely) obsessed about my girls. I am deathly afraid of making my girls sick, so I don't touch him without washing my hands and changing clothes after. The living room has a HEPA filter on constantly and he's nice and warm by the window (thermometer shows a toasty 24.3 celsius) but not in sunlight. His cage is big enough to let him move in and out of the shade. He's gonna be kept by himself for a solid two weeks. I keep my girls' room around 22c as they're healthy. The main reason I took him in is because I didn't want him having an awful death alone and hungry. I'd rather go out with a full belly and a peaceful environment.
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Nov 6, 2023 18:08
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I'm so glad you found that bird and was able and willing to catch it and bring it home. Poor little creature; it flew so far into toxic nowhere-land to be discovered by a bird person...almost like it was meant to be. I hope the little thing recovers.
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Nov 6, 2023 20:22
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Qubee posted:Thanks for all the pointers, don't worry, I've covered all the bases because I am slightly (extremely) obsessed about my girls. I am deathly afraid of making my girls sick, so I don't touch him without washing my hands and changing clothes after. The living room has a HEPA filter on constantly and he's nice and warm by the window (thermometer shows a toasty 24.3 celsius) but not in sunlight. His cage is big enough to let him move in and out of the shade. He's gonna be kept by himself for a solid two weeks. I keep my girls' room around 22c as they're healthy. yeah i agree, i think even going in expecting that it's an admirable deed
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Nov 7, 2023 00:40
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Plastic Pal posted:I'm so glad you found that bird and was able and willing to catch it and bring it home. Poor little creature; it flew so far into toxic nowhere-land to be discovered by a bird person...almost like it was meant to be. I hope the little thing recovers. Same here. That sweet baby is so lucky you found him Qubee 
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Nov 7, 2023 08:53
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I am so very happy that little fella found you. No matter what, it is a very good thing.
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Nov 7, 2023 14:41
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 My girls aren't too happy with the new arrangement but they'll have to make do and I'll just pretend I'm on vacation with the every-so-often room visit to spend time with them. Little guy was slightly more energetic today, he actually moved away from things. I was replacing his food and water and he shuffled away in a somewhat lively manner. Good on him. I'm not interacting with him much as I want him to settle in and gather his strength. Once he's more vocal and active in the cage, I'll start befriending him.
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Nov 7, 2023 15:06
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Sounds like a plan. Although you could theoretically start the befriending process as early as you feel comfortable. I'd probably want to wait too, though. They say a longer a bird 'settles', the harder they are to tame but... we don't know this guy's history at all! I don't have photo evidence but Dijon let me open up a bunch of pin feathers on his cheeks the back of his head!
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Nov 7, 2023 16:14
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I had a back alley bird doctor come pay a visit, I've used him in the past. He's just self-taught but isn't actually a vet. I think he has a huge passion for birds, though I've seen some of his vids online and I don't agree with certain things he does (mainly operating on a bird and removing a fatty tumour without proper anesthesia). Anyway, he came and examined the little guy, immediately said he's got crop impaction. Spent a good minute massaging the area and told me all I can do is give him clean fresh water with vitamins and liver tonic, and provide him access to food. I'm hoping the impaction clears up but honestly, I am not feeling optimistic. I'm going to massage the crop myself every few hours to try and help the little guy get through this but he's practically skin and bone.
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Nov 10, 2023 09:05
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No matter what happens, he's in a safe place where he's being cared for and that matters so much. I bet even being able to hear your girls is such a comfort to him.
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Nov 10, 2023 10:25
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He looks like such a wonderful doofus in that first photo. Hope he pulls through, but at least either way now he's probably having the best time of his life.
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Nov 10, 2023 13:01
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I've played that exact scenario out in my head so many times... I've almost bought and kept an empty cage just in case I found a lil budgie out in the world and needed to keep him and hopefully find the owner. Thank you for keeping him safe!
redgubbinz fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Nov 11, 2023 |
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Nov 10, 2023 14:34
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As I've learned, again and again and again, sometimes even tiny birds are resilient. When they go, they will go. But in the meantime, don't give up hope.
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Nov 11, 2023 14:19
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I'm not that surprised that budgies can apparently just do a cat and fly into your life like 'Hi! You have a bird now!'
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Nov 12, 2023 06:11
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I have a friend who ended up with a Hahn's Macaw, because it just flew onto her balcony one day. She figured that it was an escaped pet, but no one contacted her to claim it as their own so she kept it. Luckily she was already a bird person so it chose the right balcony to land on.
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Nov 12, 2023 10:11
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The reason I even started loving budgies was because when I was 8 or 9, a budgie flew into the neighbors yard in our small rear end town. We spent the entire day trying to get him down and eventually succeeded. He became their pet. He was very cool
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Nov 12, 2023 15:18
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Yeah it happens. In another world I wouldn't have Sinbad because the lovebird that flew into our yard around the time I was looking for a pet bird would have let us catch it.
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Nov 12, 2023 16:18
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I think the little guy will pass either tonight or tomorrow. I've been massaging his crop to try and dislodge this bloody impaction but no luck. He's just slowly withering away. He still moves, eats, drinks, but it's a losing battle. The back alley bird doc is going to come round tomorrow to try and remove the foreign object but honestly, without proper equipment, it doesn't seem possible that we will succeed. I don't want to put the guy through all this stress and fear for a very low chance of success. The bird doc said we can use a tube to try and fish out the object but honestly, it seems lodged in there and I do not have any confidence that we would achieve anything other than creating undue suffering. I would happily pay hundreds for a proper avian vet with the facilities to operate on this little guy, but there's nothing available here. I hope he passes gently in the night, I think that would be best for the poor nugget. Whilst I held him today, he was just completely out of it. I was brushing his hair and doing my best to preen his little pin feathers. He barely reacted other than to fall asleep. When I put him back in the cage, he wasn't even able to make his way off my finger. I think calling off the bird guy's visit tomorrow is the right thing, even though it makes me feel terrible... I just can't in good conscience subject an animal to the ordeal of having people trying to fish out an object from it's crop with a near zero chance of success. It breaks my heart thinking about what could have been though. I think he would have had such a lovely life with our little gang. Qubee fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Nov 12, 2023 |
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Nov 12, 2023 17:07
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i’m sorry you have to go through this but his last days should they come to pass will be so much less stressful thanks to you and your dutiful care. 
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Nov 12, 2023 17:41
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