Muse

I am no vet, but I am a human nurse and I think have put several vet's children through college... We had a cat who had a sudden change in color of the iris. It was caused by an incredible spike on blood pressure which forced red blood cells to leak from the tiny vessels in her irises. The eye color eventually returned to normal as the body reclaimed those lost cells, however it was a sign of a larger problem in her case (she was NOT at the vet but at home when this happened). She was diagnosed with extreme hypertension and remained on blood pressure medication for the rest of her life until she passed away at an unknown but certainly older age in November of 2013. The undetected hypertension caused other issues that eventually led to a decline in quality of life as well as contributing to her death. In our cat's case, it wasm not something that just spontaneously happened but rather a symptom of a hidden problem, however in your bird it sounds more like a situational event brought on the stress of being handled by this other vet. I would assume any large surge in BP in a bird could cause the same condition. Blood pressure is not a static value but is very variable (as it is designed to be) and an extreme spike can be the result of stress. I agree with BaileysPapa on the yearly blood work. I know people who don't but ours (for ALL animals in our care - not just the birds) have caught problems we didn't know existed and allowed us to treat problems before symptoms advanced to being apparent (and often irreversible). It's a small price to pay for that ounce of prevention that has proved over and over to us to be more than worth a pound of cure. As a nurse, I recommend a yearly full work up to all human patients as well because it gives health care providers a good baseline to compare in the event of something going wrong, if nothing else. This is true for human or animal. We do not trust out birds to any vets but their avian vets (board certified) and a vet that sometimes helps us out that has a very large flock of her own and lots of bird experience. We have a separate and very competent mammal vet for the cats and dogs but the birds really need to see someone that is familiar with them. UPDATE: About that yearly bloodwork - I just got another strong lesson in importance. My eldest feline, our first baby together, had her annual and the doctor called me with some concerning lab values. He recommended an ultrasound, which we had done on Wednesday, and found she has kidney disease. Had we not had this bloodwork done, we may not have caught this. It appears she is developing some hypertension, which is no surprise as the kidneys regulate blood pressure among other things. She's going back in a month for another BP check, and if this 3rd check is elevated, she will go on medication, probably for the rest of her life. The good news is, I have a consult pending with a holistic vet who is going to develop a diet for her specific to her kidney issues. I will have to cook her meals for the rest of her life, but I refuse to feed her the traditional toxin-laced, cooked from euthanized pets commercial "prescription" kidney diet. I am so thankful we had this blood work done. With Mama, the cat who had the bleeding into the eyes, the BP had remained elevated far too long and had done considerable damage to other organs, eventually leading to her death. I don't want that to happen to Gwyn.

Ray, I am so sorry for your loss. I know how hard it is. It's been exactly one year ago today...and I still feel the loss of my beloved boy every bit as deeply. It's so hard but we have to hang on to the good memories and wait for the day when we see them again. I truly believe we will. It sounds like the little Amazon fell in love with you. If it's one thing Rasa has taught me, it is Amazon's love when and who they want, and they love hard. The big, scary 'mate killer' bird is the most sweet and gentle love to his little Grey girlfriend. I hope that maybe you will decide to be that 'good home' for this Amazon and the love for that little Amazon. She couldn't hope for anything better, I believe. Maybe in that special way that birds seem to have, she knew that when she met you. Megan was the "mean" and "bitey" one at the store when we got Marden and their breeder confided to us he was afraid he'd never find a good home for her because she bit everyone who held her. Hard. But she fell in love with my husband and we took that chance. Three years, and a lot of scars later, I think she loves me, in her own way. Never llike she loves her daddy, of course. And not even as much as she loves Rasa. But the bites come less and less. And the kisses come more and more. I'm glad we took the chance with her. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Have you tried the 'nasal pillows' type? I've heard from some people that they feel less restrictive. I think the forceful air pressure adds to that feeling, especially if you are claustrophobic. It's not a pleasant thing to have to wear but the health benefits are huge if you have apnea. I agree with katana600 on asking them to lengthen your 'ramp up' time. The idea is to have you relaxed and asleep before the pressure gets high enough to where you feel your breath is being forced back into you. Some patients need longer time because they don't fall asleep fast enough. I hope you can get past this and continue using it. It really will make a huge difference in how you feel.

This made me cry. It's a touching story and I am so glad Felix had his happy ending with a family that "gets it". I wish more birds had stories like this. But sadly, that probably is not often the case.

Survey done.

A bit late... but Happy New Year to everyone!

AWESOME shots! What a gorgeous bird!

For anyone who would like to take a peek and see what happy little rescued budgies look like when they are flying around in a 7' x 9' aviary: http://mardensark.camstreams.com/ The picture is tiny, and not the greatest but the streaming service is free, which is what we can afford right now. At least folks can get a peek at the happy little birds. The cameras were my Christmas present this year (one in there - online and another not online for me to use to watch the 'bird room' and a third will be installed in the play room but it must be housed in a bird-proof enclosure). The camera is pretty cool. It has a mic and speaker, so I can hear (audio is not broadcast - sorry! we just don't have the bandwidth) and actually talk to the birds from my office.

Thanks to all for the kind words. I have cried many tears. In 11 days, it will be one year since I lost Marden. I still cry over him. He was my baby, my son, my cuddle-bird, the one who lived on my shoulder. Then came Jack. He was sweet and loved kisses and just wanted to hang on my shoulder. In many ways, he eased the pain of missing Mar with his love. 2014 sure was a rough year. I hope 2015 goes better. I appreciate the kindness and support of all the wonderful folks here. It really means a lot and helps more than you will ever know.

Very much so. I know he's better off. He's not in pain, nor blind, nor crippled any more. But the hole that is left in my heart is aching. He was a very special little guy.

Yeah, they often do not vet them, because of the low profit margin. This is why I boycott stores that sell live animals. Petco was caught years ago putting sick or injured small animals in a freezer to kill them rather than treating them.

As some here may know, Jack was a mitred conure. He came here with obvious issues. He walked with an extreme limp, he was blind in one eye, and his posture was contorted. On his first vet visit, Dr. Leonatti explained that his problems were the result of violent injury. Someone had hit him or thrown him against something hard enough to rupture his eye and shatter his leg. There were probably more long-healed injuries we were unable to see that affected his posture. Despite all this abuse and likely being in pain, Jack was the sweetest bird. He was almost completely blind. His ruptured eye had become infected back in August. We had him treated, and at that time Dr. Johnson explained that the eye was like a chronic wound - it was never going to "heal" and mentioned the possibility of removing the ruptured 'sac' that was formerly his right eyeball. Being a nurse, I knew this could mean chronic infections, and infections very close to and connected to the brain. The eye showed signs of discharge about two months ago and I treated it by lavage with sterile normal saline. It seemed to improve, but a few days ago, it appeared "gunky" (purulent). We decided to go forth with the surgery in hopes of stopping these infections. His surgery was scheduled for 9AM yesterday (12/30/2014). Unfortunately, Jack's heart wasn't up to the surgery. Just as they were bringing him out of anesthesia, his heart stopped. I am devastated. As hard as I try to be the "good mom" here and not play favorites, Jack was different. He was my "shoulder bird" - something I'd not had since Mar died. We bonded hard and I am once again left with a huge gaping hole in my heart. Goodbye my dear boy. At least now you can fly and see again, and you will never be in pain again.

UPDATE: Video of the ribbon cutting held on Christmas eve: Lots of little flying wings and happy budgies!

Merry Christmas!

We have a second opinion, and I think we may do further testing if the foster situation doesn't work out (no one's jumping to take 11 potentially sick birds so far). At this time all are in very good health, so I feel maybe Snowflake had something else going on. Or perhaps the symptoms were truly related to macrohabdus, which also causes crop lesions. We will continue to look for more information, and alternative ways to care for these babies without risking the entire flock. I just pray for the wisdom to make the right decisions.

So I kind of had the opposite experience... I have always loved dressing up for Halloween. I love makeup and special effects. We went to great lengths to set up a graveyard in the front yard and "haunt" the garage, complete with fog machine and lots of animated "friends". (Last year, we got 0 trick-or-treaters here so this year, being busy with Marden's Ark, we just didn't bother). I have to say, no matter how much make up I wore and how scary I tried to look - and even the contacts, the birds were unaffected. Not one 'fright', not one squawk, not one growl. Here's what I looked like: 2011 (before the contacts) That fright wig is home grown. 2012 (with contacts and really lousy 'mask'/appliance) So if the birds recognizes me and are not bothered by this appearance, that must mean I look a fright when I am *not* in costume, lol.

Well, I guess I was way too happy about the cages coming in... One of the budgies that were rescued locally, little Snowflake, died on Monday, Dec 1 after being ill for the past couple of months. We had a necropsy done and I got the results this week. The findings, while officially "inconclusive" went on to mention crop lesions that were "consistent with PDD" (Proventricular Dilatation Disease, aka Macaw Wasting Disease). Unfortunately, PDD and macrohabdus basically cause the same symptoms - the bird will eat normally but fail to thrive, losing weight and basically wasting away (hence the name). Snowflake was being treated but not responding appropriately to treatment and she exhibited these symptoms, so this makes it possible that she did have PDD (caused by avian bornavirus). So this week, we took the remaining seven from that cage in to be tested. At the doctor's suggestion, we aggregated blood from all birds into one sample, and they also submitted choanal and cloacal swabs of each of the seven. The vet was extremely kind in how they billed this and the whole thing INCLUDING seven FULL (very thorough!) VET EXAMS only came to $300! I love our vets! The sad part of this is that these birds will now never seen the aviary we've worked so hard to provide nor the enclosed porch outdoor flight. The vet feels they should not be mixed with other birds. The disease is devastating, and the risk too great. And testing is not 100% reliable for this disease so they could test negative and still be carriers of the virus. We have decided to try to find permanent fosters for these birds -including all the birds in that quarantine which means also two cockatiels and two parrotlets. They came from unsanitary conditions so the vet advised that potentially all could have been exposed, as the virus is likely transmitted in droppings and there were a LOT of accumulated droppings. Any fosters will have to be birdless and remain birdless. I am not sure how easy that will be to find. By doing fostering instead of adoption, we could still cover vet care and it would be at our discounted rate. I want to see to it that these birds are taken care of. Sometimes I wish I'd just hit the lottery so we could just build them their own room and aviary. I just don't want to see them spend the rest of their lives in tiny cages. I will figure something out, no matter what happens. Please pray for us.

I did a search of the forum and couldn't find this, but has anyone given their parrots chestnuts? Raw or roasted? Thanks, Dee

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me Three cockatiels two African grey's [ATTACH=CONFIG]25838[/ATTACH] and a Conure in a bare tree. [ATTACH=CONFIG]25837[/ATTACH]

The male of a pair of parrotlets. They are such shy little things. The normal grey 'tiel. He also has not been 'virtually adopted' yet so he has no name. Ariel - a Fischer's Lovebird. She's in love with my husband. Anna, one of our special girls. She was evidently "born that way" according to the former owner. Despite having only part of a beak, she eats well and is very healthy. Snowflake, RIP 12/01/14 - she battled a macrohabdus (aka Avian Gastric Yeast, formerly called "megabacteria") infection for a couple of months before it finally got the best of her.

Jack - a mitred conure who was abused, either throw against something or hit with something with enough force to shatter his right femur and rupture his right eye. He has a little trouble getting around, and cannot hold food in his foot while he eats so treats have to be held for him. He's very sweet. His favorite things to say are "Gimme kiss" and "love you" usually in between nips, lol. Very gentle nips, though. This is one of the cockatiels. We believe he's older, at least he looks it. No name yet, as he's not been 'virtually adopted' (sponsored). Budgies. LOTS of budgies. Rasa - he came to us from a woman who was considered just having him euthanized because he viciously attacked her, flying at her face. I convinced her that he'd be fine here and he has been. He's fallen in love with our baby girl, Megan, who is a Grey. Love truly is colorblind. I bought the substrate tonight and tomorrow will work on putting it down and maybe even get brave enough to crack open the pallet of cage parts. I am here by myself this week, so we will see how it goes.

We got our delivery yesterday (Friday 12/5) of the two 5'x7' Centurion walk-in cages with 1/2" bar spacing. They will be combined to make a 5'x13' flight for the ever-growing budgie population. So far we have a flock of 24 from the hoarding situation in VA, a flock of 8 surrendered locally - of which we lost one who had been battling with a macrohabdus (aka megabacteria, aka Avian Gastric Yeast) infection for a couple months now. Then we took in three more together, then another solo budgie. We also have one on the way from VA whose owner passed away suddenly and the family member taking care of her affairs was going to put him down because he didn't want him. And with the one we took in first, that makes a grand total of 37 budgies! We have to lay down some kind of substrate on the floor as there is carpet (yuck!) in that room right now. Once that is done, we can put the cages together (hopefully in a day) and the little birds will be FLYING! Yay! Hubby is counting on his bonus this year to pay for screening in the porch for outdoor flights. Progress!

Happy belated Hatch Day, Corky.

Happy belated hatch day, Dorian!

Did it look anything like this: ? That's what Rasa does when he gets a shower.