Tweedle

I think any nasal discharge needs to be checked as soon as possible.

Mine smells. It's not strong, it's not unpleasant, but I can definately sense 'bird' with my nose! I do have quite a big nose though. The nose knows.

And Fisherman's Blues in the background! One of my faves

What a beautiful bird

Yep, one of my dogs leaps off the sofa as soon as she here's a poop hit the floor in order to lick it up :confused: She is a truly disgusting hound.

Hmm....got me thinking.... One of the problems might be the definition not being entirely consistant. When they hear 'No' from us, it might mean the end of chewing, the end of contact, going back in the cage, lots of different things rather than one firm definition. And then the word might be associated with a less than pleasant consequence for the bird, their being denied what they were wanting to do, rather than an expression of their desire. I'm not sure how we can give the word the appropriate meaning from the bird's point of view until they actually utter it and we respond with the appropriate consequence. Maybe this is an example of how the 'modelling' approach might be useful. 'Wanna nut?' followed by 'Yes!' gets someone the nut, hey, I should give that a try...

She's delightfully perky today Previous bouts I had pinned down to cooking, and usually burnt fat acrolein poisoning I guess. As far as I'm aware they don't 'get better' from PTFE poisoning, can anyone comment on this? The last two episodes I wasn't cooking at all though. I had wondered whether the aspergillosis had left her with a particular sensitivity, but it's amazing how quickly and how well she responds to O2 therapy. I shall keep trying to spot any possible triggers though......

Good Morning guys, and thanks for the comments. She's still here

Pippa had one of her 'moments' today, and we spent a couple of hours at the hospital. She suddenly, and again for no apparent reason, had another bout of respiratory distress. Half an hour of oxygen helped, but she still wasn't quite right, so we went for the F10 nebuliser again. I'm glad to say she's back home, chirping away, apparently none the worse for wear. She sat there preening away whilst under treatment, seemingly in a content rather than stressed way. It's quite strange actually, that you can hear her laboured breathing, and watch her chest having to work hard, but despite the terminology she doesn't appear distressed. The cage from the Adventure Pack easily converted to an oxygen tent with a bit of cling film, much better than the cat box we used to use. She was soon bright enough to try poking her way out, she wasn't happy that I couldn't give beak rubs or headscratches with all that plasticy stuff in the way! I've racked my brains, and can't come up with any trigger for this episode, or the last one which was in May. I had not long cleaned out her cage, and the only cleaner I'd been using was dilute F10 in a spray bottle. In a way, I hope it is something I do that triggers it, as what on earth would happen if it occured whilst she was on her own? It's awful to think, will she still be with us when I go down in the morning? It was a very hard day at work today, many euthanasias, many sick patients to admit, I lost count of the number of blood samples I took, sometimes very hard to do from animals with collapsed veins, and placing catheters in tiny puppies. To be back in work a few hours later with my bubba was wearing, and being commited to looking after a sick bird does funny things to you. Just when you're getting closer, you're faced with the possibility of losing them, the inevitable heartache, yet having to almost resign yourself to it. I am looking forward to her loudly waking me with the dawn tomorrow, my heart will beam will every noise she makes.

That salute is fabulous!

The pay is c**p!

It may sound strange, but the euthanasia days are often some of the most satisfying. I'm very glad I am not the one making the decision, but if the vet and owner have decided it's the best thing to do, I take pride it doing it as well as it can possibly be done for that animal. And on those days, the things I say to the owner make an enormous difference. You do get less personally affected after a little while - I think we'd burn out very quickly if we didn't. But I am glad that I am still connected enough to the people and the animals to still weep with and for them sometimes. I feel honoured to be alongside at those times.

I met the most delightful little Quaker today, totally beautiful and sweet. The guys at work are a little scared of birds, so I get to do all the handling (hoorah for me!). She stepped up beautifully, even with a broken leg. I performed her anaesthetic, and assisted my vet as she inserted a pin to hold together her tibiotarsus. Fiddly stuff. Calculated and administered the tiniest, tiniest doses of analgesia. I held her so carefully as she came round and she made a beautiful recovery, back to her delightful little self in no time. I really hope she heals well and regains full mobility and control. Fingers crossed. I love my job.

Fab I'd love to know which of my grey's noises are natural. My friend used to have a TAG, and often comments about certain noises Pippa makes being exactly the same, and have heard birds at work do the same ones. Some of the sound like quite artificial, human noises though, that they wouldn't hear in the wild.

Oh wow, that was wonderful to see

Oh my word, I just burst into tears when I read that. I'm just so, so pleased for you. ((big hug))

Squeeeeee! Crusher is beautiful!! I met an adorable min bullie on a clicker training course in the UK - she's quite a star! http://www.oniondog.com/meet-the-onion.html

Last year I thought Pippa couldn't/wouldn't/didn't fly......she still managed to go AWOL...... You're doing so wonderfully with Diva, it would just be so heartbreaking to lose her in a freak incident. She may prefer not to fly, or not be comfortable with how under normal circumstances, but she is still hard wired with all those wild bird instincts. If something is sufficiently scarey, she WILL flap and try and fly away from it, pure instinct. It's not possible to control all the variables outside - it might just be a hawk overhead, a plane, a cat, a noise, you never know quite what might spook, so many things that are beyond your control. A panicky flap, no matter how amateur, combined with an unfortunate gust of wind, and she could be gone forever..... I'm really sorry if it sounds like I'm scaremongering, but you'll only know what scares her with hindsight. The trust you are building with her is just wonderful, and I'm sure you could encorporate harness training into that with great ease

I'm so pleased that she seems to have taken to it. Whenever we stopped and put her down, she was happy to take a peanut, ask for a tickle, or sit there preening. She was happily making her pinging noises too. I did get stopped by people saying 'ooooh, that's a first, a parrot going for a walk.....' I still can't make my mind up on the sad/cool issue, but if Pippa thinks it's cool, that's what counts

Oooh, blue jobs/pink jobs.....that's a whole other off topic debate

As a very quiet aside.......there is also debate over the application of pack theory to dogs.......some studies show free ranging dogs only form very loose, temporary packs, if at all. There may be a linear hierarchy amongst the females, and another amongst the males, and the two vary against each other with time. Much of dog-dog interaction can be viewed as about resources, or resource holding potential, which varies with time and circumstance (do I REALLY want to pick a fight over that pasty today?) rather than an absolute hierarchical status. I think humans like the concept of 'dominance' rather more than Mother Nature does.... /end off topic ramble

The dome bit on top is a zippy storage compartment.

This is very specific to my bird's respiratory problems, but I have a bin bag and a diving cylinder of oxygen enriched air and hose to make an emergency oxygen tent when required!! I've used it twice, and a 20 minute treatment relieved her dyspnoea. *Note: I'm a veterinary nurse, and would be the person administering her treatment when taking her into the vets. If anyone else's bird ever has breathing difficulties TAKE THEM STRAIGHT TO A VET. I would imagine in most medical emergencies, that would also be the advice, so as well as a first aid kit, a 'catch the bird quickly and get them to the vet' kit is necessary. There was a thread recently about disaster/evacuation preparedness, that might have some good ideas.

We took Pippa in her Adventure Pack on a Dartmoor Adventure today! The weather was beautiful, we chucked four adults, three dogs and her in a van, drove to one of my favourite places and had a lovely bimble around, finishing up with a cream tea. Scones are clearly not as high in Pippa's estimation as chips *Note how she is able to steady herself against the movement with one foot on the vertical surface of the cage. Wouldn't be able to do that with a Pak-O-Bird.

Pauline, I lost Pippa a year or so ago when she flew out the door. The first thing I did was call the vets, search the neighbourhood, made flyers. Within 7 hours someone found her, called the vets, who called me, and I was able to go an pick her up from 2 streets away. I work at a vets, and in the UK if anyone finds a parrot they will probably call their local vets or the RSPCA straight away. Don't give up hope, keep going, will be thinking of you.