Char

Thank you Janelle for the info about the pin.

I got a grin from the floating head. Lol.

She is talking up a story this evening. Apparently I have to get to the store and buy some chicken and corn.

I just went through this same situation and just got my baby back this past weekend. How long did you have them and how long were they away from you. My reunion has gone better than I could have hoped and I am sure your's will too. Keep us posted.

This has happened to me a couple of times with Whisper and I thought I would share. If your bird seems to be suddenly afraid of you and aggressive for no reason it could be the clothing you have on that is spooking them. She had been fine and then the next morning I approach her a she backs away and fluffs up. I leave her alone and come back in a little while and when I ask her to step up she beaks me hard. This goes on for most of the morning and I notice that when my boyfriend walks up to her she acts normal. I remembered another time she acted like this and I was wearing a paisley print shirt with circles on it that could look to her like animal eyes. I looked down at my pajama top this time and sure enough it had a very similar pattern to it. Changed clothes and she was fine. So, the next time you can't explain the behavior take into account what they are seeing when they look at you. I can also happen with glasses, hats ect.

She is talking more last night and this morning. Still making those ear splitting sounds she learned from the other birds though. I am now receiving kisses again too. Love those birdie kisses.

The vet did not recommend doing it. Risks, complications, pain and stress. He has her best interests at heart. He personally had everything to gain. (money) and nothing to lose by doing it. The break was in the joint and complicated. I trust his decision and advice.

Wow he is beautiful!

Thanks everyone for the encouraging words. So far it is as if she never left. Like it was just a one week vacation. The only difference is that the large vocabulary she had seems to have been replaced with chirps, beeps and alarms. She learned these from the other birds that were in their home. Their birds did not talk but made these sounds instead. I am hoping that as time passes and she no longer hears them she will stop. I am talking to her all the time saying a lot of the phrases she used to say hoping she will remember them.

I would be happy to ask him but unfortunately he is in Louisville Ky and I am now in Alabama. I was very fortunate when I lived in KY to be only an hour away from the only Board Certified Avian vet in KY. Unfortunately there are just not enough of them. The best we can do if we are not lucky to live near one is to seek out the most experienced with avian that we can find and be willing to drive some. There are not any certified in Alabama but there is the Northern Alabama Bird and Cat Clinic only 40 minutes from me. I asked Dr. Vaughn about this clinic when I was there on Saturday and he knew the vet and said she is good. I guess that is the best I can hope for. If anything really bad ever happened or I needed a second opinion I would not hesitate to drive to Ky if I needed to but I think this will be okay for routine check ups and such. One thing I think I would ask is "How many times have you done this?" I know that when Dr Vaughn told me he had done it thousands of times then I sure felt reassured.

Update over in the grey lounge.

I am happy to have her home. I have apologized to her a million times for giving her up. I really did believe I was doing the best thing for her at the time. I tried to hang on to her as long as I could. I was traveling for work and I would get home late after being gone for 12 hours at a time. When she started plucking that is when I knew how much she was suffering. This couple were friends of a friend and already had a CAG and a Tag they had for many years. Both their birds were flighted, someone was home all day with them and they got plenty of attention. I think the problem started when they had the baby and their priorities shifted. they had a loss of income that was making things difficult for them. They told me they feel so bad about the damage to her wing and they trusted their vet friend who told them nothing could be done for it. I told them their mistake was not calling me as soon as it happened. I would have gone then and took her to the vet. Of course I did not get reimbursed the $450 for the vet bill either but I don't care about that. I would have found the money somehow when if first happened.

I just wanted to throw my two cents in here on the anesthesia. Whisper was given anesthesia before her x-ray this past Saturday. I asked the vet if it was necessary. He said yes, and there were some risks but he had done it thousands of time and had never had a single incident. I felt confident in his abilities and experience. She recovered very quickly. It was over in just a few minutes and she was perching within minutes. He said the new generation of anesthetics are purged through the body through breathing and leave the system very quickly. I feel that it would have been more of a risk and stress for her trying to hold her in place than to have the anesthesia. He said that is the only way he would do it and I trusted him.

Original post here http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?199778-Whisper-is-coming-home. I am going into more detail than necessary here in order to share info that might be helpful to someone else. On Saturday morning I drove 5 hours to pick Whisper up. They remembered that it had been 3 weeks since the accident rather than 2 weeks. She had her stuff ready and Whisper already in her travel cage waiting for me so I didn't get to interact much with Whisper at this point. I had to hurry anyway to get there in time for her appointment. I then drove a little over an hour to Louisville to the Avian Vet. Sam Vaughn. He was Whisper's vet when I lived in Ky and I highly recommend him. She had an x-ray of the broken wing and blood work. They gave her anesthesia to do the x-ray but it wore off really quickly with no ill effects from that. Diagnosis: She will never fly again. He told me that if they had brought her in when it first happened that that he could have fixed it. He has done it hundreds of times. He said it is now completely healed and that he could do surgery to re-break it and put a pin in it but he did not recommend it. He said that the risk of complications outweighed the benefits. It was a bad break right in the joint. He said he has done the surgery many times and if she were a falcon or other bird that had to fly then he would do it. At this point she is not in any pain it is cosmetic. She can sail to the ground and move around her cage just as she did in the beginning when I first got her and she was clipped from the breeder. I had later let her flight feathers grow in and she has been flighted for may years. She was also slightly anemic and he gave her an iron shot and a calcium shot. Her calcium level was normal but he liked to see a Grey's on the higher end of normal. It appeared she had been eating too many seeds (her poop was green) and the pellet they gave her may not have been the best quality. I am switching her back over to Harrison's as soon as I can get it ordered. We then drove 6 hours back home. She did very well on the long drive beside me in the car in her travel cage. When we got back she acted fine. Ate and drank. No big kisses or obvious recognition but was asking for scratches and didn't seem to have been bothered by any of it. I her cage together and she went in with no problem. It was her old cage that she had before. They were using a smaller one and had stored her 2 big cages. I was very happy with the way things were going so far. The next morning things were not so well.. She was in a bad mood all morning. Didn't want to have anything to do with me. Didn't want to step up and even beaked me hard when I tried. I was disappointed but was prepared for it to take some time. We just left her alone and just spoke to her occasionally. Around 2:00 we had to go out and do some shopping. We were gone until about 4:00 and when we returned it was a whole new Whisper. She was calling to us as soon as we opened the door. She was sweet and kept asking for scratches and almonds. Complete turnaround!! She still won't give me kisses and I can't say I have seen the "light go on" as far as recognition goes but I am thrilled that things are going so well.

I had her for nearly 3 years. We were very close. She has been away from me for 2 years. I went to visit her twice during that time. The last time she was friendly like she is to most people and took a treat from me from her cage. I started to talk to her and repeat some of the things that I taught her to say and all of a sudden you could see the light go on! She stood up straight, flashed her eyes and jumped on me and started kissing me all over my face. I couldn't go back to visit after that. It was too painful. I am hoping I will have the same response from her when I see her tomorrow but I am prepared to be patient and give her space if she needs it. The broken wing accident has been traumatic for her but the other family says she is doing great this morning. Eating and talking just like always.

Thank you all for the well wishes and the welcome. It is going to be a tough weekend for my girl. A visit with the vet that will probably include X-rays, a 6 hour car ride to her new home in Alabama and then settling in to her new home. It will really help if she remembers me. She is a very unusual Grey so I think she will adjust quickly. I can't tell you how much I have missed her. Even after all this time I would still get tears in my eyes every time I talked about her. Funny thing is..I always knew that she would come back to me some day.

I don't know if some of you remember me but I was a member a few years ago with my sweet CAG, Whisper. After I went through a divorce I had a big change in lifestyle and was working 12 hours a day. I also became ill and was overcome with medical expenses. I made a very tough decision at that time to re-home Whisper. It broke my heart but I felt I was doing the best thing for her at the time. The new home had 2 other Grays, one of which they had for over 15 years. One of them also worked from home and the birds had lots of attention. I felt good about where she was going. I made them promise that if they ever had to give her up that they would call me. Things have improved drastically for me over the past two years and a couple of days ago I got the call. I was thrilled and said "Yes, I would love to have her back!" I have missed her so much and never stopped loving my girl. They now have a 2 yr old child and are having a hard time giving enough attention to the birds and feel they are doing the right thing for her. Now the bad news.. 10 days ago Whisper broke a wing. Instead of taking her to the vet, they sought advice from a vet friend of theirs in another state who told them that there is not too much can be done for a broken wing and it would probably mend on it's own. She is eating well, weight is good but the wing is still not right. I am now living in Alabama but this Saturday I am driving to Kentucky and taking her straight to an Avian vet. I am upset with them for not rushing her to the vet right away but they trusted their vet friend's advice. It could be that he was correct but I won't believe that until she looked at. Say a prayer for her and for me. I am very nervous that she won't remember me. They say she has become very nervous and quiet since the accident.

Whisper's favorite place too. Used to be my shoulder but lately she prefers to sit on my forearm in my lap or on my knee all the while getting scratched of course.

I don't usually have too much trouble getting Whisper back in the cage but when I do bribery works.:laugh: I just let her see me put an almond {her favorite} into her bowl and she is after it like a flash. Then I just shut the door. She is enjoying her treat so much she hardly notices when I say good by.

So sad and true. I have said it before and I will say it again. People ought to have to take a test and get a license to own a parrot.

I agree it is normal behavior. Whisper will bang her beak on the wall when she is on top of the shower curtain all the while saying " No, no, stop it, stop it." She likes to give things a good thrashing every now and then. :laugh:

Fantastic news! I love happy endings!

Whisper will do this if she is on the floor for any length of time. I believe it is instinctive foraging behavior as greys in the wild forage on the ground. remember that they are only a couple of generations removed from the wild and have all their instincts still intact.

I have a patient that comes in from time to time that has a a grey that is 25. Alex was 31 when he passed. Post edited by: Char, at: 2010/01/20 23:25<br><br>Post edited by: Char, at: 2010/01/20 23:26

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