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Hi everyone, some of you may remember, my son has a Congo African grey, he’s a big guy. Ollie is his name. There was an accident yesterday and his foot was pinned by the weight of a heavy door. My son called me and sent me pics of the cut, which was difficult to see. It didn’t look to bad. Fast forward to last night at 9pm, my ex husband called and asked if they should drive him to the emergency hospital Tufts 2 hours away, I said I could say I hadn’t seen Ollie, so I went over and it’s bad..my first guess is he will lose his foot. I lent my car to my son who drove to the hospital last night. They admittedly Ollie to put him on pain meds and keep him comfortable until the Zoology team gets in today. The girl there told my son he had a compund fracture, the bone was sticking out, but it was probably too difficult to fix, it didn’t look good and he should probably be euthanized...to which my son told her to F#ck off. So we’re waiting until around 10 am to see the next step...please pray for Ollie..the bill for last night was $1500 to admit him... I can only imagine the cost of this, but you can't put a price on a loved family member. 😥

Hi y'all! so I have decided to go down the flight harness route. Tali still has clipped wings but once her malt is done I have decided to let her keep her wings so she can fly to me in the house. so I now have a harness to teach her to wear so we can still enjoy outings together. my problem is.. she's not big on being touched on wings or under wings. She loves to snuggle in the evenings under her blanket, and when she's chosez she loves a scratch under her chin and on her back of neck... She is willing to put her head into the harness to retrieve treats. How can I get her used to being touched around her wings? I think she remembers the breeder cutting her wings and she wasn't exactly calm and gentle about it. do you think I should worry about teaching her to be touched under wings? Or just focus on putting harness on over head? Once it's on over her head if I keep the treats up I can manuvour the rest of the harness inplace, I havent worked up to tightening it up snug to her body yet. any advice would be much appreciated thank y'all so much in advance 😊

Yeah it was a great little outing, kept it rather short, she met a few people with lots of questions... not many Greys in NZ 😏... and then we saw a dog that she insisted on maintaining a visual on at all times haha! But as soon as I saw her first yawn we turned around and headed home. She got a little fidgety with the harness as we were on the way home, but nothing major, a few sunflower seeds is all that was needed to distract her while I was driving. once we got home she had a very big sleep... haha! she gets very tired after experiencing new things and places. I think it's because she's only a baby.

Good for Tali! I'm pretty sure the Aviator Harness is what helped save my GreycieMae's life. When I trained her early on to wear her harness I would take her on daily bike rides down a trail to a duck pond 2 miles from our house. She must have ridden that trail with me 50-100 times at least. When she got out thanks to my idiot sister-in-law, I found her after two days sitting in a tree on that exact trail near the pond where we had been riding to together. I'm convinced she knew the trail and was waiting for me, especially since she called to us at the end of the second day in the dark after we had given up for the day and were headed home. I still take her to Home Depot/Lowes all the time in her harness. She's a store favorite, they love seeing her.

Yay! Well done you and well done Tali! Now you can have all sorts of fun adventures together!

Great job! You accomplished the goal quickly there, I know from reading the forums that many aren't successful this fast. Happy New Year

Nicely done! She adapted to it quickly! Enjoy your day together. Happy New Year!

First time in the harness.. so we went for a drive to the beach got a little fidgety on the way home but happy as 😊 oh yeah I cut my dreads off! Radical difference in appearance lol v

Kisses for Ollie. He's a spunky lil' booger.

Yes, a lesson indeed.

Well...I thought I would update....mostly as a teaching tool and a lesson to many of us. Ollie has been back to the hospital for an X-ray the end of November, they said he is healing very slowly, so 4 more weeks....well he went back last week for another X-ray...they said 3 more weeks. The reason for the slow healing? He got a bit spoiled when the injury happened, kind of stopped eating, so my son gave him his favorites..pistachios..well that’s all he wanted to eat for the past month of so...he’s not getting the proper nutrients in his Harrison pellets, thus slowing down the healing process the hospital said...so there’s a lesson in this for all of us.

Yeah I watched the DVD, he demonstrated on a macaw, Tali isn't quite are keen on physical touch as that macaw is haha! Like I said when she wants a scratch she loves it, when she doesn't she lets me know! She growled haha or ducks and weaves from me haha! Shes more of a " i like to be next to u or on ur shoulder/hand" type of grey who loves treats haha! I can get the harness on with her being a bit touchy around her wings but I don't want to cause more mental trauma by not addressing that issue.

When I bought the avatar harness, it came with a CD, which was extremely helpful. Perhaps there's a youtube video explaining how to get your grey used to being touched. I know that the CD went through that process.

He has that spunky look which bodes well for his recovery.

Wow, if looks could kill... better to look po'd than pathetic though! Ugh to $35 a week.

Oh my gosh, that look! 'Get this contraption off me NOW!'

That last pic: "someone is gonna pay when I get out of dis". Ollie, I can't wait to see pics when you are all better and kicking some tail with that leg of yours.

Just an update : Ollie had his first checkup and bandage change. Here's today's pics! The cone of shame which he manages to chew has to be replaced weekly.. $35 for one.. 🙄

Hoping Ollie gets well soon.

Ollie is being a good sport with his collar of shame but there is no shame and soon it will be a thing of the past, get better quickly.

Sweet Ollie. He's such a handsome dude that no wonder he doesn't want to wear such an ugly cone of shame.

Haha! Funny little tantrum! He's adorable! Poor little dude looks likes hes recovering well

Poor Ollie! It is so sad to see them just sitting there when they are usually so active. The good news is it will pass! When Timber was at his lowest point healthwise, it was heart wrenching to see him huddled on the towel in the floor of the hospital cage. The recovery is worth the downtime, though Ollie might not agree with the cone of shame

Here’s a video of Ollie. He is expressing his distaste at the thought of putting the cone of shame back on him after a couple of minutes of relief! AD816E9F-C6C8-4149-97F3-61DA3B2F5722.mp4

Healing can take time but he is one special bird and so fortunate to be in your family.

This is heart wrenching. Ollie is strong and resilient. He is very intelligent and will adapt to his recovery. I am so sorry for all of you going through this with him. You have done a great job adapting his environment for his best recovery. He is a handsome boy and in good hands.

Thank you

Oh no, poor sweet thing. I just want to go over there and cuddle the heck out of him. Hope he heals quickly and that he's back to being his old self very soon.

Poor baby 😥

Here is Ollie’s modified cage. The woos is covered with soft towels and soft perches arranged for him to rest against. I baby sat him today, he just s sits and rests his beak on the perch. I fed him apple and brought his water bowl over for him to drink. He’s very quiet abs sleeps a lot...probably the meds...

OMGosh poor Ollie! Im interested to see pictures of him in a cone of shame and with his new ramp. I hope he recovers well, and quickly! Gosh if anything happened to Tali I would be an absolute mess!

I didn't realize one of your sons had a grey but I hope Ollie does well in recovering from his injuries.

Glad the surgery is compete. I hope he recovers quickly and well!

Well, Ollie had surgery yesterday. They said it took longer than expected. He has 2 pins in 2 different places on his leg & a bar. He has the cone of shame on so he wouldn't pick, but he destroyed it so they put a bigger one on him. He won' eat, so they are feeding him intravenously....He is on opioids & anti inflammatory meds. He will most likely keep the pins & bar in for about 2 months, then he goes back to have those things removed. My son can go get him around 4 pm today, the Tufts Hospital is about 2 hours away, so I personally wont see him until Friday. We hired a friend carpenter to make a ramp to his cage as Ollie likes to go in his cage by climbing himself at his will. He was clipped for the first 11 years of his life, he can fly now, but he is very big & heavy grey so it takes alot of effort & he's quite clumsy. He also made a full size shelf to fit the cage, which my son will pad so Ollie can get around from food bowl to water bowl etc. I will try & get a pic & post it. I will update then.

How's he doing today?

Good news to start my morning! It was shocking to see "euthanasia" even mentioned. As Greywings said, even if they had to amputate the foot Ollie would have adapted quickly and could still live a full life.

Even one footed birds can have a very happy life, they adapt better than we do.

Glad Ollie isn't going to lose the foot or his life! We've had some close calls here too involving doors. Can never be too careful.

Me either! Although I don't encourage bad words..I was proud of my sons comeback to her! Even the vet said that was inappropriate & completely wrong to say. Hopefully that employee will get a talking to...you don't say that to someone until & unless a Dr has seen Ollie.

This is such great news! When I read they were discussing euthanizing him, I just couldn't believe that.

Thank you! The vet just called, they said they can fix the break, a bar with pins for several weeks, then eventually removal of it. She also said that if a Bird is going to break a bone, it will always be their foot, its the most delicate & easily broken bone on a bird. So surgery tomorrow, then home to recoup. the cost will be just over $2000, xrays, blood work ,sedation & the operation.

Oh my! Prayers for Ollie and for provision for the cost of his care.