fleming@acsu.buffalo.edu (christine m fleming) (05/30/91)
Thank you to everyone who has helped me with my recent problem with my
crew. A couple of days ago i took the female parakeet to the vet.
I figure that i would describe the visit in detail, because many
people have never taken a bird to the vet (like me).
I called the vet i had been refired to, and they took her in that day.
We drove her to the vet, and we were put into a small examining room.
A technician (i think, although she seemed rather ...nervous... ) came
in and said she was going to weigh Maranga. So she looked at her and
said: " Do you want to catch her, or should I?" She seemed rather
shocked when i told her that the bird would come out on her finger.
Maranga hopped out, took a short flight, landed on the floor, and
hopped right back on the woman's hand. She was then going to catch her
(with a towel) and put her in a round metal container with holes. (A
weighing pan.) She asked me to do it, and Maranga didn't even
struggle, although once in the pan she tried to get out. We put the
lid on and the woman weighed the bird, and then she had to stay in the
container until the vet came in. Meanwhile the tech. asked me about
the bird's diet, and took particulars of her illness; she wrote all of
this on a chart. When i told her that the bird's diet seed-only (not
through lack of effort... the two parakeets were given seeds for their
whole lives prior to my getting them, and they refuse to eat ANYTHING
else....:(....) she gave me a very informative sheet on varying a
bird's diet. (Probably the most concise advice i have seen, and it had
an interesting bit about fruit...)
Then the vet came in. He was a very nice, late 30ish - early 40ish,
and very gentle. He scooped Maranga out of the container and held her
so that he could examine her. (This was neat to see. He held her with
her body cradled in his palm, using his thumb and forefinger to keep
her still and unable to bite. The rest of his hand, and his other hand
were then both free to examine her...) He looked at her all over --
extending each of her wings, shining a light in her eyes, checking her
cere and cloacia, and using a finger to examine her stomach area. He
said that there was a mass in her stomach that he was "not happy
with." I asked if she may be egg bound, and he thought not, because
she had lost a lot of weight, and that rarely happens with egg-bound
cases. (I had explained earlier the particulars of her illness or what
we had thought was broodiness to him...)
The dr. then asked about Maranga's diet and eating habits. He asked if
she had been eating normally, and i told him, "yes, maybe even more
than normal. Certainly more water." He was surprised because she was
very thin. He decided that the best course of action was to keep her
comfortable, and to get her to eat a LOT in the hopes that her immune
system would help her out. He gave her a shot (the drug began with an
"M" but, the name eludes me...) to increase her appitite. He then sent
me out to buy her "all her favourite foods" to encourage her to eat,
spray millet ("because she'll probably like it a lot"), a blue or
green lightbulb, and thermometer.
He told me to put her favourite foods in her little sick cage, which i
did. (I put them where she would have to move or do little to reach
them, as it was his idea that she should expend as little energy as
possible.) The green or blue bulb ("which do not disturbe sleeping
patterns" -- i assume because birds don't see the light of those
wave-lengths) was to go over the cage, to keep the temperature at a
range of 85-90 degrees F. ("At this temperature her body neither has
to heat or cool itself" again conserving energy that her body can put
into healing.) He didn't seem overly distressed that her diet was of
seeds, nor that she was fully flighted.
I got a blue bulb which turned out to be a fake, so i covered her cage
with green material until i could get a real blue spectrum bulb. I had
to add another lamp to the first to get her environment into the
perscribed temperature range. (One degree can affect her health, which
is very distressing...)
Her cage has been at this temperature range (except for two 5-minute
adjustment periods) since she saw the dr. She is eating up everything,
and she even likes the spray millet. Every time i change her water she
takes a long drink, so i have been changing it at least four times a
day. I bought her a high mineral/vitamine (petamine) food, and after
mixing it 1/2 and 1/2 with her regular food she ate a lot of it. I
also got her her favourite seed stick things, which she has been
tearing to bits. (She has eaten more in two days than she AND her
cagemate normally eat in the same period of time!!) Due to the
increased temperature, she is not puffed up at all, and she is a lot
more active than she had been the two days before the vet visit.
So, we are hopefull. The vet said that she may get better if all of
the instructions were followed very carefully, so we have done so
religiously. (While we are at work, we have our housemate check her
temperature and adjust her lamps... I try to keep the temperature
exactly between 85 and 90.)
Well, that was the vet visit for Maranga. She has a follow-up
appointment in about 10 days...
...jones
(fleming@sun.acsu.buffalo.edu)