FoxersArtist
11-26-2009, 02:19 AM
(Not for Dot.)
A little over a week ago, I was called by one of our local bird clubs. They had their first ever rescue phone call and were asked to take some lovebirds and their babies. They were not entirely sure how to go about the situation, so I was called to give advice. Several of the club members could have taken the babies but they had babies of their own and no one thought it wise to risk the potential spread of polyoma virus in case these babies happened to be infected. I offered to go along to the rescue and assess the birds and offered to take the babies.
There were 4 adults (2 pair), two adolescent babies, 4 fledgelings, and 3 newly hatched chicks. The owner did not understand parrot care and though he had provided nest boxes for both sets of parents, he was frustrated that the little things kept reproducing and didn't know how to make them stop and could no longer handle the mess. He just wanted them gone. I noticed when I opened the fledgling nestbox that those babies were covered in blood and were clearly being mutilated by mom and dad. The task of teaching 3 1/2 week old lovebirds to eat from a syringe instead of being parent fed was now in my hands. One of those chicks also had a scissor bill and did not look very healthy. All of the birds were exposed to thick cigrette smoke.
The tiny babies were at the perfect age for being pulled from the nest box - 7 to 10 days old and the smallest guy still had his eyes closed. I turned into a new parent who would be hand feeding every two hours. Unfortunately, I was faced with problems from the start. I quickly realized that all 3 of the small chicks were splay legged so we taped their feet so that the bones would harden in the proper position. All of the babies had tiny crops - I don't think the parents had enough food to feed them, so I started the slow and careful process of expanding the crop without destinding, which can cause slow crop and yeast infection. Within a week or so, I was able to get their feedings above 1cc each and their crops were starting to look normal for their size. I was a little worried as they looked slightly destinded one day last week but I quickly reduced their feedings to cause the crop to tighten again.
I wasn't fast enough with the smallest baby and yesterday morning he was showing signs of slow crop. There was nothing sour in the crop and nothing to indicate yeast yet so I felt I had caught it soon enough. I decided to give the baby a little apple cidar vinegar to see if that would break up anything in the crop that might be causing a partial blockage. Then I made a fatal mistake. I offered the baby a little bit of the vinegar from a syringe instead of mixing it into his formula. I should have thought hard enough to know that the strong taste would be uncomfortable for him, but I didn't. As soon as the stuff hit his tongue he panicked, flailed, and threw himself backwards while taking a giant breath. As soon as I saw this I knew what had happened. He had sucked every bit of that stuff into his lungs. I picked him up and quickly ran to the nebulizer, got the drug I have to help open up the lungs of a bird struggling to breath and put the solution in the nebulizer with the struggling baby. The little fellow seemed to get better over the next 24 hours except that every time I tried to do anything with him, he would regress to extremely labored breathing again and his color would turn grey. I spent the day making calls, trying to search for anyone with an oxygen tank because I knew this baby was going to die if he didn't have more Oxygen. i feared he would die anyway and I feared his death even more because this baby did not belong to our rescue but rather the bird club.
Tonight I was successful in finding someone with an oxygen tank and started the baby on oxygen right away when I got it home. His color turned pink again and i felt a little relief. Unfortunately he was still not draining properly and I knew that at this point, he needed a crop flush to keep the now spoiling food from absorbing into his body and causing toxic shock. I got some saline ready to do the flush and tubed him. He turned grey and closed his eyes. The stress was killing him. I was able to get the saline down him but stopped halfway through the procedure and put him under oxygen again as I felt he was crashing on me. I waited for his color to comeback and for him to perk up a little again before trying to remove the contents of the crop. I tubed him again and my stomache shot up into my throat. Before I could extract anything he suddenly turned grey again, regurgitated and quickly died in my hands. I have never before killed a bird because I made a mistake. We have lost quite a few this year - heart attack, fatty liver disease, kidney disease, liver failure, septicemia - all too many to die on my clock, even if I was powerless to stop them. This little guy died because I made a mistake.
I held the little 15 day old bird in my hands and just sobbed. The past 24 hours has been agonizing for this precious little newborn. I feel sick inside. I know it's part of the work that I do but that doesn't make it any easier. He was so precious and he deserved to have a chance in this world. I took that chance away from him with one simple mistake. I can and will forgive myself and move on...I just really needed to share this tonight.
Here is a picture of the newly made little angel:
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/AngelBaby.jpg
One of the babies when they first arrived - splay legged. The splays are completely corrected now and I just took the tape off of them this morning, including the little one we lost tonight:
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/SplayLegged.jpg
My little guy with the crooked beak:
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/CrookedBeak.jpg
One of the fledgelings that was mutilated. They are all healing beautifully:
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/Mutilation.jpg
A little cuteness to remind me why I have this job. My 4 little toddlers:
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/Babies.jpg
Thanks for letting me share.
-Anna
A little over a week ago, I was called by one of our local bird clubs. They had their first ever rescue phone call and were asked to take some lovebirds and their babies. They were not entirely sure how to go about the situation, so I was called to give advice. Several of the club members could have taken the babies but they had babies of their own and no one thought it wise to risk the potential spread of polyoma virus in case these babies happened to be infected. I offered to go along to the rescue and assess the birds and offered to take the babies.
There were 4 adults (2 pair), two adolescent babies, 4 fledgelings, and 3 newly hatched chicks. The owner did not understand parrot care and though he had provided nest boxes for both sets of parents, he was frustrated that the little things kept reproducing and didn't know how to make them stop and could no longer handle the mess. He just wanted them gone. I noticed when I opened the fledgling nestbox that those babies were covered in blood and were clearly being mutilated by mom and dad. The task of teaching 3 1/2 week old lovebirds to eat from a syringe instead of being parent fed was now in my hands. One of those chicks also had a scissor bill and did not look very healthy. All of the birds were exposed to thick cigrette smoke.
The tiny babies were at the perfect age for being pulled from the nest box - 7 to 10 days old and the smallest guy still had his eyes closed. I turned into a new parent who would be hand feeding every two hours. Unfortunately, I was faced with problems from the start. I quickly realized that all 3 of the small chicks were splay legged so we taped their feet so that the bones would harden in the proper position. All of the babies had tiny crops - I don't think the parents had enough food to feed them, so I started the slow and careful process of expanding the crop without destinding, which can cause slow crop and yeast infection. Within a week or so, I was able to get their feedings above 1cc each and their crops were starting to look normal for their size. I was a little worried as they looked slightly destinded one day last week but I quickly reduced their feedings to cause the crop to tighten again.
I wasn't fast enough with the smallest baby and yesterday morning he was showing signs of slow crop. There was nothing sour in the crop and nothing to indicate yeast yet so I felt I had caught it soon enough. I decided to give the baby a little apple cidar vinegar to see if that would break up anything in the crop that might be causing a partial blockage. Then I made a fatal mistake. I offered the baby a little bit of the vinegar from a syringe instead of mixing it into his formula. I should have thought hard enough to know that the strong taste would be uncomfortable for him, but I didn't. As soon as the stuff hit his tongue he panicked, flailed, and threw himself backwards while taking a giant breath. As soon as I saw this I knew what had happened. He had sucked every bit of that stuff into his lungs. I picked him up and quickly ran to the nebulizer, got the drug I have to help open up the lungs of a bird struggling to breath and put the solution in the nebulizer with the struggling baby. The little fellow seemed to get better over the next 24 hours except that every time I tried to do anything with him, he would regress to extremely labored breathing again and his color would turn grey. I spent the day making calls, trying to search for anyone with an oxygen tank because I knew this baby was going to die if he didn't have more Oxygen. i feared he would die anyway and I feared his death even more because this baby did not belong to our rescue but rather the bird club.
Tonight I was successful in finding someone with an oxygen tank and started the baby on oxygen right away when I got it home. His color turned pink again and i felt a little relief. Unfortunately he was still not draining properly and I knew that at this point, he needed a crop flush to keep the now spoiling food from absorbing into his body and causing toxic shock. I got some saline ready to do the flush and tubed him. He turned grey and closed his eyes. The stress was killing him. I was able to get the saline down him but stopped halfway through the procedure and put him under oxygen again as I felt he was crashing on me. I waited for his color to comeback and for him to perk up a little again before trying to remove the contents of the crop. I tubed him again and my stomache shot up into my throat. Before I could extract anything he suddenly turned grey again, regurgitated and quickly died in my hands. I have never before killed a bird because I made a mistake. We have lost quite a few this year - heart attack, fatty liver disease, kidney disease, liver failure, septicemia - all too many to die on my clock, even if I was powerless to stop them. This little guy died because I made a mistake.
I held the little 15 day old bird in my hands and just sobbed. The past 24 hours has been agonizing for this precious little newborn. I feel sick inside. I know it's part of the work that I do but that doesn't make it any easier. He was so precious and he deserved to have a chance in this world. I took that chance away from him with one simple mistake. I can and will forgive myself and move on...I just really needed to share this tonight.
Here is a picture of the newly made little angel:
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/AngelBaby.jpg
One of the babies when they first arrived - splay legged. The splays are completely corrected now and I just took the tape off of them this morning, including the little one we lost tonight:
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/SplayLegged.jpg
My little guy with the crooked beak:
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/CrookedBeak.jpg
One of the fledgelings that was mutilated. They are all healing beautifully:
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/Mutilation.jpg
A little cuteness to remind me why I have this job. My 4 little toddlers:
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/Babies.jpg
Thanks for letting me share.
-Anna