murfchck Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 On the advice of our first vet we got a humidifer for him. We did not know however there was something other than a cool mist. We got the cool mist and it chilled his room really bad. At one point our heater was up to 78, our normal temp was 68-70. I asked our new vet about it and right now, he would like us to do the steaming because it is more direct. (I will also add he said to stay away from the vicks ones because they are made with the teflon inside.) Oliver made up in one night his bout with without eating. He ate so much over the course of the day i figured dinner would be light. Oh no, i had made the guys some pasta and peas and he ate so much that i thought the weight from his crop was going to drag him forward to the ground. I just hope it continues on and today just wasn't a fluke. He was so full of himself this evening, dancing and and running back and forth on his stand. And best of all..... he said hello to my husband AND when we were putting them to bed, we think he said i love you. His first real words, does a mama proud! Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julia Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Go Oliver! Bravo!! That's the way!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malikah Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Woo hoo!! Hoping for good news on the test results today as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 Although he is full of himself still this morning, his air sac was huge again this morning. ( so much for my not covering the cage theory ) I was able to get some pictures. One picture is messed up on the side, but you can still see the crop verses the air bubble. You can also see the size of it looking from one side of his neck verses the other. I really hope i am being overprotective and this is normal, i have never homed a naked bird before to be seeing what goes on under the feathers! Anyone know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 Nothing from the vet, results not back. On the bright side, he is eating stuff again. No more " just" snap peas! Yeah! He had some grapes and pasta and even some of my sandwhich at lunch! He has been on his playstand almost all day too, actually playing with the toys! Okay, it was a toy this morning, now it is a bell and 2 pieces of wood. Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 Got a call(voice mail) last night from the vet. He tested positive for pdd (parrot waisting disease). I read Daves sticky in the health room, now i am scared. Although Stewart and Oliver were in the same home before i got them, i feel so responsible for subjecting Stewart to this. My only hope is that the vet said 30% of birds test positive, only 10% actually have it. I know it is just a hope because he shows almost every sign. Don't know our next step yet, they are calling me back as i missed his call and he talked so long the vm cut off when he got to that part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chezron Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 I am so sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oblivion Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Oh, wow, that's a bummer. Hoping for the best . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malikah Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Oh no! Praying for it to be a false positive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 Spoke to the avian vet at the dallas zoo, she said there could be false negatives but not positives. I am trying to stay upbeat around him but everytime i look into his eyes, i start crying. I called the lady i got him from, since she is a breeder herself, to warn her of this, her story changed yet again. This time she said, " i would come every day wondering i would find him dead on the bottom of the cage ". She said she would call the breeder she rescued him from to warn him also but she really believes her greys and his macaws are just fine, no need to have them checked. So this thing will keep getting passed from parrot to parrot in the dallas, ft worth area as long as they continue to breed. ( and where they ship to) She even told me when the time came to put him down, she had another one for me, healthy and fully feathered. OMG! How can she not understand how serious this is? It is transmitted thru the air for heavens sake, it can take years for symptoms to show up, stop breeding until they are tested!! This almighty dollar makes people stupid as crap! And it is the birds we love who suffer for their greed. Sickening Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oblivion Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 There are no words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malikah Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Can't they be reported? There aught to be something that can be done! I'm so sorry. :*( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Life is Greyt Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Surely it's not humane to allow her to continue breeding...could she be reported? I am so sorry to hear about his diagnosis. I lost the first grey baby I picked to PVD. Even though I had just begun to bond with him, it was devastating. Oliver is a fighter though, and he has you so hopefully he can make it through. I'll be keeping him in my thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 Spoke to the vets office this evening about reporting her to aspca and the one she claims to be rescueing the macaws from, they asked i hold off untill we are 100% sure he has it and is not just a carrier. They need proof. The only way to do that is a biopsy from his crop with a vein. I am not totally sure i want to put him thru that right now. Dr. Moore works with recues so i trust this will be taken care of correctly, i would not handle it with grace. My vision is stripping her naked, starving her and plugging her nose so its hard for her to breath and putting her in the middle of a freeway and saying, okay, survive this! I wish i could load a video here, tonight was the funniest ever. I got a picture though so let me explain the humor. By our kitchen table is Olivers play stand and where he eats with us, which he has never ventured off of. Tonight i was setting the table and i set our salads down and went to get the plates of food while my husband got our drinks. When he came back in, there was Stewart in his salad bowl eating away. We laughed... I set our plates down, he walked out again to wash his hands and went back to finish up. This is what we walked back into... We went ahead and ate around them as Stewart had moved on to my dinner plate. Now does he look like he has parrot wasting? Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 I am so sorry to hear of this news and it makes me so angry this breeder is just going on about business as usual, mind you I like your idea of how you would handle her but its still too good a way to go. I am sure if there is anything that can be done to save Oliver you will find it for he deserves a better life than what he has had before he came to you and I am keeping you all in my thoughts, please keep the updates coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronald Byrd Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 (edited) IMO, once your vet is sure and you have proof.... Report the breeder.... then post about it on your local craigslist or petfinder. However they are advertising their birds is how you should be advertising the disregard for the health of their birds. Does this breeder have a website? Edited March 2, 2012 by Ronald Byrd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 No, no website. I have seen her advertise on craigslist just once. No worries, i will be doing something when Olivers dr gives me the okay! I am not one to depend on someone else to take care of things! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julia Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 I can't express how sorry I am to hear this news. But don't give up your hope just yet! If there is a way to pull this through, I'll find it! OMG, I'm imagining doing very bad things to this lady! It's a good thing that I'm far far away! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malikah Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Not just strip her naked, pluck every single hair from her body as well. :mad: I loved the pictures. Look at all the new feathers coming in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 Two feathers coming in, one tail feather fell out. Atleast new pretty one will grow back in their place! I got my first balancing bite from Oliver this morning. After our shower/ steam this morning i guess he wasn't done and was trying to bathe in his water bowl so i ran some bath water and my plan was to let him take his own bath, his plan however was to grab ahold of my upper arm with his beak and pull himself back up. Stewart yesterday got my other arm with his nail, it actually went right under the skin (where blood is drawn from) and got hooked there. Nice blood pool and bruise. Now i have to go get needles for our dog who is diabatic and explain to them i am not a drug user again. Their district manager had to call me and apoligize to me after they refused to sell me the needles last time, i had to have my vet call them and then they wanted a prescription as proof. Lol.. What we go through for our pets! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 4, 2012 Author Share Posted March 4, 2012 The vets office called this morning, so my day has been an emotional roller coaster to say the least. I have been trying to stay positive but today i have been so torn up, while at the car dealership picking up a part for my car the poor guy gave me the price and i broke down crying, everything hit me right then. I feel so sorry for the poor guy, he didn't have a clue what to say or do. They want to do a follow up in two weeks, just to check the progression, suggested i bring my grey, Stewart, just for them to look and get a weight to have something to compare to later on. Even though these two were in the same home before i got them, my guilt for this is so great. I am asking everyone a question.... They are housed in the same room right now. I want to move Stewart to another room, the vet says it really wouldn't matter except that it could stress them both out and thats when pdd could become active. He also says that he has probably already contracted it, even before coming to our home. Thing is if he hasn't already got it, why keep him in a situation where he really would catch it? Moving him is about the only thing i have any control over and feel i have to "do" something. Am i being selfish seperating them? My husband keeps telling me that they were brought to us for a reason and that they were also meant to be together or this would not have played out as it has. I am so conflicted, seperating could cause this to speed up and cause Oliver undo stress and a feeling of being alone, not seperating is a death sentence for Stewart also if he doesn't already have it, which i won't know for 4 months. It isn't just the moving of the cages, its their playstands, their time outside etc. How do you keep them apart like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 4, 2012 Author Share Posted March 4, 2012 Thank you, and no i did not take that as harsh. You are saying what everyone has been saying. I am just not good with feeling helpless but i know that you are right. I am looking for a miracle in any way shape or form right now, even when there isn't one to be found. Funny how in times like this our mind is willing to believe anything that sounds helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 Took the weekend off mentally and just enjoyed our birds. We built them a huge play area in our kitchen for them to hang out on during the day, they really seemed to love it until Oliver almost took a tumble. We had rigged a little water bowl for them until we could get what we wanted, bad idea. Oliver tried to perch on it and it tipped. Let me tell you, there is nothing wrong with his reflexes, he grabbed a branch with his beak, feet dangling and pulled himself right up. We were shocked, we thought he was a bit off balanced as i had mentioned in earlier post, but after seeing those acrobatic moves, no way. Thats one more symptom he does not have with this pdd. :-) In fact, his only symptom of this disease is the blood test. I am still holding to his breathing as sinus and damage done from him never being treated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malikah Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Thank you for the update. I'm glad you had a nice weekend with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katana600 Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 It has been just seventeen months since we lost our second baby to PDD. They were working on a test for PDD at the time but did not have one definitive for PDD. We were diagnosed after the death by necropsy. They had a test for poop that had to be repeated three times and even then, it has a high failure rate. I have studied and studied this through our breeder, our babies original vet who is solely avian certified and they have studied this for more than four decades. I am not saying there is no blood test for PDD, but it doesn't sound right. I have tried not to think of it since we brought Gilbert home. My thoughts are this, since Stewart and Oliver have been together for so long in close quarters for so long, I wouldn't try to separate them at this time even though it does seem reasonable. You could have an entire flock exposed to PDD and nothing happens to all the healthy birds for ten years or more and then it can rear its ugly head again. Our breeder stopped breeding when our second one with PDD was confirmed. He was from the same clutch as our first. They have other ways to look for symptoms and signs of PDD and it makes sense to keep other birds from your two for now and keep them from having a secondary infection brought in while Oliver is sick. I have a cloud over me with my two and I don't go around anyone else with parrots and I don't segregate the two I have as neither of them show any signs of illness. I do keep weight charts and keep regular vet visits, but PDD is a mystery still after so many years. The one thing I am absolutely clear on, the time and attention you are giving Oliver makes a difference. It is painful and it is expensive, but when you look into his eyes, I know there is nothing you wouldn't do for him and he knows it. The one thing that has healed my heart from our experience with PDD is that I gave it everything I had, my boys knew they were wanted and loved and were given a loving and quiet place, good food and that makes a difference in their world and in Oliver and Stewart's. I won't say anything about the person with all these birds where you got yours or I wouldn't be able to breathe another breath. Don't waste your energy on them while you need to keep your spirits up, while your energy is needed for Oliver and Stewart. You have given them the information and it is likely to have fallen on deaf ears. Denial is a powerful emotion and you have to focus on those things you can change. For today, just breathe, give your heart to your two beautiful boys and tomorrow is another day. Cherish the moments and know you have strength to handle what comes when it comes. Today you have this beautiful boy and he knows he is loved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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