hveusnthbrige

So I'm moving in sometime likely soon with my friend. I've got Mirek and the 2 tiels. She loves ferrets and wants to get one badly. She knows however that I have the birds first. To my knowledge ferrets kill birds without a second thought... is this true? Anyone have birds and ferrets in the same home?

Oh I'm not in school right now. I'm trying to make money for school which is in 3 weeks. I spend nearly all my time working. :pinch:

He's fine now. Eye problems all gone. He no longer is keeping it closed and only now I noticed it but he was sleeping quite a bit more with the eye problem. On an unrelated side note; I don't see it worthy of its own topic.. I am pretty sure he has started to produce noises and reactions to some noises. For example I always kiss him on the neck and make kissing noises and he will make several similar sounding sounds in succession. He also does it when he thinks he might get kissed. It sounds kinda like light, soft laughing. Also I greet him with "hello" often and find myself saying it upon returning to the room. My Mom and I both seem to notice a small reaction to saying hello out of the blue unexpectedly. Yesterday I got a very obvious result while watching tv. He was drifting off into a nap and the tv went quiet for a bit. Then suddenly the next scene in the show had someone say hello; he jumped awake instantly and made a big "Ooooohhhh-aaaaHHHhhh" noise. Maybe it was my surprise or maybe the daddy effect but it sure seemed like he was responding. The sound he made had the essentials of the word beyond any doubt. So there's no guessing that he is certainly attempting to communicate.

I can attempt to look through my collection of books for an official value. Yet all things considered, looking up the temperature range of the area they are native to: the rain forest in Africa, would make the most sense. As for myself, I go based on the status of the plumage an the respiration. If the feathers are fluffed out and he's all tucked in, its likely too cold. If he's got his feathers flat and all put away like he's scared, and usually accompanied by panting, he's too hot. Also, birds use their feet to cool off or keep warm much like a dog pants or a human sweats. Body tucked down on the feet is cold obviously and standing high with the toes spread is hot. On hot car ride I will bring a spray bottle and give them a light mist. I make sure to get under the wings and nearly soak the front of the wing where the heavy veins are. Furthermore spraying water on their feet cools them off most effectively.

Alright Lidia, sounds like a good idea there. My breeder sells baby feeding supplies and I need to go tomorrow to get the tiels little toes filed. I'm sure he could show me what to exactly do. I think the most powerful factor with allowing him to accept the meds easier is the fact that hes still so young and immature. I'm so close to not needing to have to towel the oral part. He just doesnt quite stay still enough while on his perch and the vet didnt give me much of the Aunt Jamima stuff to waste. I'm glad you guys are enjoying reading the details of what I'm doing. Likely it will help to better the know how of all, and if I'm doing something wrong someone would likely notice.

Ahh it's not a problem ever guys! I'm glad the people on the forum are interested in learning about these things. I knew I would have to deal with this type of problem someday... just not during the second month he was home! As for administering medication, toweling him for both the topical and oral meds is required. One might believe the eye drop to be more difficult but it really isn't. I just tightly hold him with his head exposed then get a drop started and wait for him to stop moving, then drop it. Most of the drop seems to just fall off. Then I realize I screwed up and did the right eye and flip him over to do the side that actually needs it on the left... done that twice now. :pinch: Vet said if I mess up though it's ok as there's a slight chance the infection could ride his toenail to the other eye, that type of situation is prevented this way. The oral med, I'm not familiar with syringe feeding and I dont want to aspirate him so I just dribble it in front of his tounge into his lower beak. He shakes his head and some flings out. After about 2-3 hours his poop clearly has the red dye in it so I know he swallowed it. My Mom now calls him the $3,400 parrot... He was the $3,200 parrot on Saturday, but Sundays vet bill got tacked on to the running total. Right now the $7,000ish dog is still winning.:lol: 14 years old to make it to 7 grand and 3 months to get halfway and 5 to 6 times the lifespan... we might just have a new race leader. My family has strange games.. I wonder how much money is secretly on my total... :blink: Oh I forgot, I was gonna add on a link to the UofG's Vet college practice: http://www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/ This is the actual vet practice I go to: http://www.petsandvets.ca/avianexotics.shtml My vets, Alison and Marco at this location are responsible for Mirek. They both informally teach at the OVC. Fantastic people!<br><br>Post edited by: hveusnthbrige, at: 2007/08/14 04:44

If anyone knows the name 'University of Guelph', they know this is the absolute best veterinarian college in the world, hands down, no argument. So when their vets make a claim about my Mirek... I believe them to the fullest. My vet is very experienced with birds and in particular he knows much about Greys. What he is not familiar with is a Grey that doesn't bite. I can quote him, "That's the first Grey that hasn't tried to bite me!" Mirek not only did not bite him, he never even tried to bite the vets hands; this is what impressed him the most. A few times he held on to his skin for balance but he knew already what that difference was. I'm so lucky to live only a 2 minute drive from the UofG's small animal clinic. Truly a fantastic stroke of luck for any aviculturalist in the area. As for not washing out his eye lid for possible contaminants, we decided on that together. To do that he would need to be tightly toweled and gassed to sleep and would prove very stressful for him. He only scratched his face every 2 hours abouts, so we knew this infrequent itching suggested there was nothing stuck in there. Plus I'm not made of money and spending $180 to very likely solve it 99% as the vet said or $450 to absolutely solve it was my choice. Plus if there is something in there, the exam and medications I already paid for will not need to be re administered. Looking at him now tonight, he is back to normal keeping his eye open regularly with only 3 drops applied. The puss buildup on his lower eye lid is gone and the cornea no longer seems glassy. The swelling is still present but you can only tell by looking straight at his face and comparing it for a couple seconds to his healthy eye.

So the vet visit today went smoothly. The vet was terrified of Mirek biting him but was rather surprised by his behaviour. He said that was the most well behaved parrot he had ever dealt with, no biting, no screaming, no drastic panicking while being toweled and manipulated. He was asking me, what I did to make him act this way and remain calm while being handled! Also when he weighed Mirek and found him to be 451 grams, he immediately thought the bird was severely over weight as he's used to about 390-400 average in a Grey this size. To his amazement he found no fat and was rather impressed by how toned and muscular Mirek is. So I'm feeling rather flattered by all this praise from my vet lol. As for the eye, it does have a mild infection. Besides being one of the most common minor problems associated with birds he treats, he says it is caused by something like food getting on the eye, and allowing bacteria to localize before the bird has a chance to clean it off. In about 1% of these cases the debris will become lodged behind the eye lid and will need to be removed before the infection can be cured. For visual symptoms, his eye was slightly inflamed, continually being kept closed, the inner lid was bright, deep red and excessive scratching around that side of the face. The vet also stained his eye and then used ultraviolet light to check for scratches in the cornea but there was nothing wrong. For treatment in the affected eye I was given Ciloxan 0.3% which is an eye medication mostly for infants. 1 drop every 12 hours for a week. Second I need to give him 0.36 cc of Baytril antibiotic orally at the same time as the drop. The oral med is quite powerful smelling and is strongly flavoured of strawberries. It should be cleared up in 1 week and if isnt then likely theres a piece of junk under his eye lid which will have to be removed.

I'll try to take him in today. Depends if the avian vet can be there. He's content and making lots of noise as usual and right now its obviously nothing critical.. my other 2 have nothing wrong with them as neither is favouring their eyes so it's not an epidemic. He needs to go for a 1st check up anyway so might aswell give him the 2 for 1 deal. I did some researching through my books and on the net; its likely the treatment is adding something to the water. Plus a decent disinfection of his cage and stuff he touches often. On a regular basis I soak all their bowls in bleach solution every 2 weeks and scrub their grates at the same time. I'm confident all will be well in a few days. I can't help but love my flying money graveyard. He's dumb as a post right now being so young but just so entertaining to watch and spend time with as he matures. Now I just have to teach him to do my class work...

It's now apparent that Mirek has an infection in his left eye. He acts normally, eats normally, and there's no other symptoms. He's been keeping it closed for the last few days and this morning upon waking he has a small line of puss collecting. I thought initially he had fallen while playing and dinged his eye off a lower perch. Here comes another expensive vet visit... Anyone ever had to deal with this before? Eye drops I'm guessing.

Yes Dan, the pysch poster really does make him dizzy!... I think. I dunno.. He likes chewing the edge of it. And for the record its genuine, made from black velvet and black light reactive colours. It's even dated for original printing in 1975. Maybe when Mirek's half grown up he can invite over his girl buddies, I'll get him some Christmas lights and shag carpet. Ooo a lava lamp, and I'll show him how to use my dimmer switches and put on some mellow ambiance music. Then I'll kick him out and change the locks. Ha. Dblhelix, ya balsa is pretty soft. But he attacks the stuff like crazy. If you get the little thin sheets they break easy but the thick pieces seem to entertain him quite a bit. I've little experience with his chewing as I've only had him nearly a month now. Thus I grabbed a piece of bass wood, thats the smaller shorter piece in the picture. It's about the same hardness as mahogany or spruce. I have those colourful 2x4 slice toys too which he readily destroys but it takes him much longer.

That one was about $11 CD. I like the balsa wood because harder wood seems to make him loose interest faster since he isnt 'winning' the chew war. Balsa however gets ripped up pretty fast and keeps him entertained for quite awhile.

When you work at a hobby shop you encounter large pieces of balsa wood that nobody seems to buy. A smart hobby shop worker then waits patiently for the boss to leave and then, claims that giant block in the name of his wooden objects that are otherwise perfectly fine the way they are now.. not chewed. Needless to say Mirek took no time in second guessing this ridiculously excellent over sized chewing festival and got to work on it in seconds. I give him 2 weeks for this mammoth to disappear. My wager is... get another one when hes done. But no chunk of balsa wood no matter how big can win him over for a green bean. He was eating zucchini and cherry tomatoes yesterday quite happily. He also now eats banana willingly and as always still deeply enjoys raspberries and blueberries.

Here's some random picture of Mirek! This is his main cage. Don't want the Tiels getting jealous and they have certainly not lost the spotlight.. My favourite bird is prolly Pinkie, the darker cockatiel. He's just the right amount of affection and independence. This is where the crew goes when I take a shower in the morning. They all get a drenching shower at least once a week. Other times is just getting the humidity from sitting on the shower rail. Usually while up there they all take a nap in the sauna steam bath. Seems like they all deeply enjoy it. After a humid shower event they always have such soft feathers and seem to preen differently. Most noticeably Pinkie preens quite violently most of the time. After or during a steam shower he preens far more calmly and slowly... unless he's being attacked by April for a head preening. :lol:

That's fabulous you've got her home. I like the name too.:cheer: