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As I was driving home today, I saw a cocktaoo lying in the middle of the road, still moving it's legs. I quickly pulled over, and waited till there were no cars around and picked the bird up and placed it in a box i had in the back of the car. My mum was with me and she held the box till we arrived at Northside Emergency Vet Service, which are open all night for emergencies. During the car ride, the bird managed to stand up on it's legs, and even peeked it's head out once, but I could see some blood in the box and thought hopefully it's just a wing injury and nothing severe.

 

Anyhow, we arrived at the emergency vet, the nurse took the box in, asked me to fill in a form and I took one of their cards to ring them back later to check on the bird (as they do not do callouts to people). About an hour and half later, I rang the vet and the same nurse said the bird was put to sleep because it had a broken wing. I was shocked. I asked her couldn't a bird's wing grow back with nurturing? She said no and told me that it wouldn't survive in the wild and I said what about if it was my pet, and she said no it still couldn't fly again.

 

So I want to ask, if there are some specialists here, whether you think they did enough to save this bird's life, because to me it sounds the same as if telling a human being 'your leg is broken, you will never be able to walk again, therefore you might as well be dead.' I understand these emergency vet places must receive hundreds of injured animals, but I don't believe this bird was so ill that it needed to be put down.

 

Would this bird have had a chance at life again if it was somebody's pet? Do vets place more importance on certain animals than others?

 

Would love to know everyone's thoughts on this.

Edited by cheekfood
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I worked for a vet once whose philosophy was

 

" you don't give up on an animal until it has given up on itself "

 

This way of thinking and actions showed me her saving many a creature that others would not have attempted to save. Miracle vet, she was and very revolutionary in her time.

 

I am saddened to hear the easiest thing is to put them to sleep when others woulod happily step forward to home them or do the aftercare. A " middle man" is needed here...........somewhere for the aftercare when decent vet has done what he can to save them, crippled or not.

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this is why i never take injerd birds to vets

my cocky would be dead if a vet had of got him

i rescued him as a small nestling covered in black oil at a petrol station

 

its good to have some knowledge of birds animals in general so you can asses an injured one as some times its as simple as a broken wing and all thats needed is a sling to set the bone in place sure they can not fly again but they are fine

was it just the wing or did it have internal bleeding or what as if it was only the wing i would not be happy with this vet clinic

my vet fixed a black bird with a broken wing and it was just a black bird

its wing was poping through something i cant fix

 

next time asess the bird or take to wild life shelter a vet is a vet wild life shelter is just that for wild life their are nummbers everywhere and they send someone to pick the animal up :)

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I can understand an emergency animal clinic not wanting to go to great lengths to save an animal that was brought in with no owner to pay for the care. But I would have thought they would at least have done the basics, and TRIED to save it! :unsure:

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I asked them if there were any internal bleeding, and her response was 'there could have been, but that requires an ultrasound or xray' I would have paid for all expenses and cared for it but I didn't think that would be an issue, I thought they would place just as much value on this one life as much as someone's pet bird or dog or cat.

 

Has anyone tried calling WIRES before for Wildlife Rescue? I'm just concerned about the amount of time they take to get to you and if they take the animal to the vet as well? I know they aren't 24/7 so I would hate to have to take the animal back to this place again.

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I asked them if there were any internal bleeding, and her response was 'there could have been, but that requires an ultrasound or xray' I would have paid for all expenses and cared for it but I didn't think that would be an issue, I thought they would place just as much value on this one life as much as someone's pet bird or dog or cat.

 

Has anyone tried calling WIRES before for Wildlife Rescue? I'm just concerned about the amount of time they take to get to you and if they take the animal to the vet as well? I know they aren't 24/7 so I would hate to have to take the animal back to this place again.

 

ive never called them as usually can deal with the animal in question but i belive their pretty fast at taking anamal into their hands

and they have their own vets assess the animals weather its the same vet you used or not only they could tell you that

why dont you call ask and see what they say

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That cocky lying on the road differently would of meant it was hit by a car and he or she mostly had internal injuries, beside a broken wing.

BUT sorry they did that. It's all about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ these days.

 

I saved a couple of galars from the side of the road Buddy made and he had a broken wing he was just a baby but he kept picking at his wing until it bleed but then it would heal. We wrapped his wing up tight around his body for a few weeks hoping it would heal. He lived a happy life but can't fly.

The other one was really young and bleeding from the mouth Lisa thought it fell from the nest but I think a car hit him as he had blood coming from his mouth. He died the nest day poor little fella.

He was sitting on his little perch and the bleeding stopped the night before but next minute there was blood on his beak and he just dropped dead. :(

I was just about to name him thinking he was going to make it too.

 

Gosh how do you spell garlar because is't there a h in it somewhere ;)

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:rolleyes: Splat it's Galah !!!!

 

cheekfood.....I too was very sad when in the September school holidays just gone, we found our cat "playing" with a baby Kingfisher......I grabbed it and put it in a spare cage where it sat on the perch - no blood - nothing broken....but it couldn't fly, I think it was very young....I knew I couldn't keep it as you would have needed a permit so I took it to the local animal "hospital", filled in the forms and rang 2 days later only to be told it was euthenized because they don't survive in captivity?? This may be so, but surely it could have been taken "somewhere"......

 

I guess its finding the right vet....... B)

Edited by anne101
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:rolleyes: Splat it's Galah !!!!

 

cheekfood.....I too was very sad when in the September school holidays just gone, we found our cat "playing" with a baby Kingfisher......I grabbed it and put it in a spare cage where it sat on the perch - no blood - nothing broken....but it couldn't fly, I think it was very young....I knew I couldn't keep it as you would have needed a permit so I took it to the local animal "hospital", filled in the forms and rang 2 days later only to be told it was euthenized because they don't survive in captivity?? This may be so, but surely it could have been taken "somewhere"......

 

I guess its finding the right vet....... B)

 

 

it is not a vets job to save wild like hence the wild life shelters and parks the zoo takes animals also we gave them a wombat once its still their :D

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It is unfortunate, but very common. being a wild bird it's also not as simple as patch it up and give it to someone as a pet... doesn't work like that. I would also depend on the vet. My vet would assess and let me know before anything was done and would also be happy to liase with the shelter if need be. We have a wonderful shelter down here where I would take any injured wildlife... Good on You for trying though.

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I've been told by another local vet of mine that WIRES don't have their own vet, they are more like a foster care group for injured wild animals. Anyway, I will try them next time I run into this kind of situation again.

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We're lucky here. There's a wildlife santuary that picks up any of my injured animals. They had a magpie that lost most of its feathers, had bleeding along with a fratured wing. It has been released now and made a full recovery. I don't take wildlife to the vet.

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I haven't popped in here for a while but this caught my attention so I thought I'd pop in my two cents. I'm a vet now. Wildlife is not simple - it's a case by case thing, what we do really depends on the injury. It's not as if we can fix it now and then let it go later in the week. It's a bit more complicated.

 

In this case "broken wing" can cover a heck of a lot of things. In many cases I think I would have done the same - but again it depends. Broken ulna, hairline fracture, mild sprain - these I save as they heal completely. Broken humerus, dislocated joints, open wounds, loss of skin - these not only cost a lot (and yes unfortunately we have to talk about costs, because realistically who is going to pay for an extensive surgery? If you've ever had a surgery performed on your animal you would know how much it costs. The boss would let me pay for it out of my salary but if I did this for every wild animal I see but I'd be a poor person very quickly. And we always have paying clients waiting - we can't neglect them either) - and sometimes when they heal, they heal with strictures, loss of motion/meanouvreability, and are often very slow to get there. After that, someone has to rehabilitate it in order for release in the wild - usually the clinic has a wildlife carer in contact - but it's not like the bird can be given to any member of the public to keep.

 

At my clinic the policy for wildlife is: it must be able to survive its injury AND survive in the long term in the wild. Yes we could save its life in the immediate period (if someone will pick up costs - which sometimes we do or the person who brought it in will). But a bird that can't fly well may face the following ends: it can't feed itself so it starves to death, or it is easily attacked by a predator - in most vets' eyes, this is a far worse death than passing away quietly in warmth and quiet. But not every bird will face that. It really is a case by case judgement call.

 

Those are my thoughts, as an individual, and perhaps to give a little bit of insight to what happens in my clinic at least. I should probably add that I try my best to save what I can - that's my call. Some things my boss won't let me save even though I did try for a while - pest species and so on (it's actualy illegal). I mean, I've been to specialist avian clinics who will put metal pins inside the bones of common old magpies. But I still think I'm fairly lucky at this clinic; we go to reasonable lengths to save wildlife and yes we pay for it. Some places won't even see (or know what to do) with pet birds, let alone wild ones needing extensive expensive surgery.

Edited by Chrysocome
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I'm a vet now.

 

 

Just want to say

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Thanks for the responses everyone. It has definitely opened my eyes to see both sides of the story, and understand the sometimes painful choices vets have to make. I had another case yesterday where a pigeon flew into our shop, it was bleeding from a damaged wing and I took it to another vet this time, they said they would try their best but most likely it would be euthanized. I did ring another local vet where I take my dogs to see what they would say and they basically told me that if it's not a native pigeon, it is considered a pest and would be put down. Also, WIRES only foster cares for native wild animals, pigeons, miners, etc. have not a chance. Are cockatoos native animals??

 

Anyway, unfortunately I have ran into many cases like this and may run into more in the future, it is something I will have to accept, but it breaks my heart everytime I have to do it.

 

R.I.P birdies

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My dad would say 'let nature take its course'. Chrysocome, magpie are native and they are a protected species. Apparently they have more right than a pigeon. Anyway, CONGRATULATIONS on becoming a vet!

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Thanks guys, I'm having a blast.

 

Cheekfood, yes cockatoos are native. The whole thing breaks my heart too, as most of them who are brought in are usually hurt enough to be caught easily, and therefore the injuries are often quite bad.

 

Oh, I know that Ratzy; now I realise that sentence doesn't read well. I deleted a line and I probably should have started a new paragraph but I had to rush out - that'll teach me not to try and post on forums five minutes before the end of my lunch break. My point was that the clinic went to great lengths even on common birds and were willing (and able) to absorb the costs. At most clinics (that have anything to do with birds), that kind of thing is usually reserved for pets and rare/endangered animals.

Edited by Chrysocome
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Congrats Chrysocome!!! :D

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Congratulations Chrysocome!!!!!!

:D :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

 

 

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