ORCA

I think it is a matter of personality, some like kissing while others show their love in different ways like us people. So don’t worry Birdluv, your birds love you and I am sure they have million ways to tell you that.

Each of my birds is different, Sara , if she wanted a kiss she would come close to the lips and make a loud kiss noise with a quick head movement, but if the kids ask her for one she would just stretch her head and open her beak waiting to be kissed. Birdy used to nibble on the lips or the nose like a pruning action, Now I have only Tim-Tam who started with a painful bite, but I am sure he didn’t mean it because quickly he learnt that it is not nice and now he kisss like Birdy, either he would prune or just open his beak slightly with his tongue pushed out a bit and closes his eyes, but whatever way it is very pleasant feeling.

That was very touching everyone, thanks a lot. And you are right Daz, she will stay right here in my heart. Yes, it is a relief knowing she is healthy, happy, playing with all the birds went before her, telling them about the love and good memories we keep about them, even though I blame myself, on the night she passed away, it was the first night that week I didn’t leave the lamp on at night, I thought it is not allowing her to have a deep sleep, and Wednesday night was not that cold, so I covered her well thinking I’ll give her a rest from that light (the cage is not a hospital cage, it is her normal cage but I put a desk lamp shining on her hoping to give her extra warmth), but on the other hand, the position she was in when she passed away tells me that she did that peacefully, she was in a sleeping position and her head tucked on her wing. Knowing how her health was and how much she fought and straggled until the end is showing me how much she loved us and wanted to stay to please us. My heart is hurt, , but in my head I know that what had happened was the best for her so I’ll keep clinging to the cherished memories I have.

Sara has lost her battle last night; she flew free leaving her injured body sitting still in her cage. I am very sad, my heart is broken, but I am sure she is now happier pains free wonderful bird. I love you Sara, fly free my baby

Sara is the same, not better or worse, she is eating a bit better, drinking water only (she refused all other fluids I offered her) in some moments you feel she is better but in others you feel not, she get excited when she hears my husband’s voice (He is her first love and they have really special way of communication) this is why he is trying to be close to her more, but he has a gentle heart and he can’t see her like this, so I have two sick patients to care for. Just I was wondering if you know any way to clean her without causing her to stress or get cold, because her feathers are really messy and dirty, definitely she can’t have a bath and I’m afraid that if I spray her with water she’ll get cold first of all, also she can’t do her bit in cleaning. And if I leave her without cleaning, does that affect her health?

No news about Sara, just now she had her first meal in 20hrs (or at least I hope so), she dug her face in the seed’s plate in eating action but I didn’t see any husk, either she is swallowing the seeds all or she is unable to eat I couldn’t tell. I offered her a variety of soft food (e.g. eggs, banana, etc.) but she wasn’t able to eat any, except when my husband gave her some multigrain beard soaked with water, she nibbled a bit on it, I think she likes the soft seeds in it but I don’t know if it is an okay seeds. Anyhow she didn’t have much. also she is not drinking my tea or the power drink (non carbonated energy drink) she doesn’t mind water but not that often. Feather, where do you get those drinks which you are talking about? I have this photo of her last week; she was alright apart from her shoulder lump. http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g191/orca_01/IMG_0190.jpg But here she is today breaking my heart. http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g191/orca_01/IMG_0222.jpg

Thank you everyone for the support, we survived the night but still not good, Sara is still weak prefers to stand on the perch but her legs are unable to carry her, she has soft cloth at the bottom of her cage and she likes it. She spent most of the time in the palm of my hand where she sleeps deeply; she can’t eat the seed even though she wants to but for some reason she is unable to peel the skin off, I am giving her soft food, but her appetite is not promising. I’ll keep you updated on her situation and thank you again.

My baby is not good today, she is VERY weak and wobbly, Please pray for us.

Today Sara is still not happy and I think her lump is sore because she screamed her head off when I was cleaning the lump, normally she would just stand and watch me, but today when she saw the iodine bottle she panicked and started moving on her perch, and when I came closer she started squeaking and running away from me, I took her out of the cage gave hug and kiss, she was okay until I held the cotton pad again when she tried to fly away from me, I managed to clean her but she is still not happy. I wonder what was that thing which scared them at night??

Thank you everyone for the thoughts and prayers, Sara had such a good week, playful happy and too active, until last night, in the middle of the night we heard loud noise, we went to the living room where the birds were (currently Tim-Tam and Sara are living in separate cages) the birds were frightened and flapping , Timmy was banging from one side of the cage to the other and Sara was at the bottom of the cage trying to fly but unable and very scared, I don’t know what frightened them, I tried to calm them and then they went to sleep. This morning Sara was a bit fluffed up and not very happy, sleeping all day and not wanting to go out that much. Last week she spent the whole time outside the cage while today she goes out for few minutes then she asks to go back and sleep right away. I hope she is just tired after the disturbed night, I hope after a good rest she will be okay tomorrow. Timmy looks fine not affected with the incident. I’ll let you know how things are going in the morning.

Thinking of you, ((hugs)), try to give her some weak black tea with sugar, it has helped Sara a lot. Enjoy her while she is with you, there is no turning back from that trip to the vet, and I am sure you will make the right decision whichever way. HUGZ for both of you.

Sara is okay, she gained back 90% of the strength in her foot, her poo in totally normal, she put on some weight (the weight dropped from 64g to 36g and now back to 48g) she is playful, naughty girl , I am enjoying every minute she is with me, these are the good things, but here come the not so good. Her shoulder cyst is growing, and sometimes bleeding, the lump has some infection, I am applying iodine with warm water twice a day (+when she bleeds) she seems doesn't mind this routine, even when she sees the cup and cotton coming, she takes certain position knowing what’s happening. Her body didn’t tolerate the strong antibiotics which she took and I think this was the cause of her internal problems, I don’t think I will take her to the vet (unless I found someone who really has the heart and the love for those creatures and knows what he is doing) Today I added some mild antibiotic in her water (it is called OXY) the breeder told me that they use this in the aviary, and previously Sara tolerated it well, I thought this might help her fight the infection on her shoulder. Sara doesn't mind her lump she is playful, happy chirping and singing most of the time, she is back to the habit of trying to make nests in our sleeves she gets angry if I stop her from diving into my dinner plate. I don’t regret for a second our decision of not putting her to sleep last month, this extra month we had with her worth the world, and I hope we will have many more. She doesn’t look nice any more she has blood and iodine stains all over her feathers, her lump look terrible, but she is still the most beautiful bird in our eyes. We will keep praying for her full recovery, and I believe that IT IS a miracle having her until now with us.

It has been over a week since my last update on Sara's health, she had some bad days when I thought it was her last, one of the days when we waked up I took her out of the cage she was shivering I tried to warm her up, she refused to drink which was unusual (she was drinking more often for the past month) she didn't eat and kept having this shiver every 30 second or so, I noticed she is not pooing as well (her poo was watery recently) so I checked her vent and I saw that balloon-like swelling which scared me to death and I saw the poo was dry on her vet, I tried to clean her and suddenly a burst of water and poo came out of her butt and the swelling disappeared and she relieved. poor little thing her poo was like a cement blocking her, and once I cleaned her she get relieved, and after about five minutes she asked for water. that was few days ago, but today Sara looked much better, her poo is not watery, she is eating on her own, cleaning herself, even she asked for a play, and had the energy to go upside-down when she wanted to go out of the cage (she didn't do that for ages). I am very happy that she is a bit better. she is still not well and the lump on the shoulder is scary, but she is happier and hopefully is getting better.

Sara - was named after my daughter's friend in pre-school. Birdy - she was very baby when we got her and we didn't know if she is a boy or a girl so we decided to call her Birdy until we know the sex, but after couple of weeks you feel the name just suits them and it's hard to change so she stuck with Birdy. Tim-Tam (Timmie) after the biscuits (Chocolate biscuits in Australia) the kids were eating some, and they said this new bird is so sweet like a Tim-Tam, and here it was.

So what do you do with it? Do you just leave it? He's been always with Sara and she used to help him with his "Feather Do" but due to her illness He's been on his own. I suppose because it is a common thing, it is normal, isn't it?

Tim-Tam is molting very much and has lots of pin feathers above his cere, I thought he was bleeding and upon close examination I saw that one of the feathers actually bleeding I pulled it out and cleaned him as much as possible. here are some photos of him http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g191/orca_01/IMG_0187.jpg http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g191/orca_01/IMG_0186.jpg http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g191/orca_01/IMG_0184.jpg is that normal? and is there anything we can do to help them because he is trying to scratch his head with anything and I think that what cause the bleeding.

I TOTALLY agree with you KathyW, and definitely it is not a matter of inconvenience, I will care for Sara as long as it will take her, and I will love her forever. The vet gave up on Sara few months ago, and here she is still with me, saying that and seeing her the way she is going, I know the end is not the way I like it to be. Even though Sara now looks terrible, she doesn’t eat or drink on her own (I give her water regularly and she will only eat from my hand which I am doing few times a day), she has a bruise which is filled with blood and pus ready to burst at any time, her poo is VERY runny, that is not to mention her internal problems, the vet think she has cancer, enlarged liver, and her kidneys are damaged may be from the many times she took antibiotics. For now I don’t see her in pain, and I don’t know if birds ever show their pain if they have it. The first thing I asked the vet was if there is anything to ease the pain, and her answer was no. I am not with nor against the euthanasia; because I think if you love your pet you will be ready to do anything for them, and you will be the only one who can tell what to do, I personally posted this because I would like to study thoroughly all the options whether I like it or not, because if you don’t know you can’t choose.

I was just reading the article "Euthanasia: the difficult decision" under the FAQ and I found this post, because as some of you may know Sara has been sick for a while and this is something to consider. I called the vet to ask them what method they use to do that , she mentioned two big words which she explained later that one of them is injection into the vein and the other goes into the liver, and I asked her whether they sedate the bird first she said no because they think this will stress the bird ??????????????? I told them that Sara scream if she is being held against her will and I am sure that to find the right spot to do the injection they have to hold her still, she said then it is better to do the vein method because it is painless while the liver one the bird will be in pain until it dies. all of that didn't make sense to me and didn't make the decision easier, when I read what you wrote Anne I was sad, I cried a lot but I felt this is what I should do, but after talking the vet assistant today I felt no way, if she is going to die let her die at peace at the comfort of home. I don't know what to do. also in the article, you mentioned that there are some other methods and from the replies I read about some injection into the brain, what is that and where to find more info about these things.

Thanks heaps,

Sara is still with us, her health is not good, she is weak and frail, her poo has huge amount of water and she drinks a lot. she can't go up and down the perch easily but she has her way for asking for what she wants, she has few perches in her cage at different levels but she insists on sitting on the highest one, she eats and drinks well (often I had to bring the food next to her and I offer her water regularly). her wing has a big bruise-like lump, which looks like it is filled with blood (She had this lump when we went to the vet the last time next to where the vet tried to pull the ingrown feather, but now it's getting bigger and I think whenever she tries to fly this lump grows). her legs are weak and her weight dropped from 64g when she had the big lump to 43g now. her original lump which I posted lots of photos about nearly disappeared. she asks to go out when we have our dinner and she gets really excited and start wonder from one plate to the other but sometimes she just asks to go out for a kiss and cuddle or just to stay close to us and when she does she just sit and sleep on my hand. I have the heater or the desk lamp on to keep her warm. We had that big debate in my family whether its better for her at this stage to consider putting her to rest because as we all see her quality of life is not that great but every one was against this idea, and I had this big drama, the kids crying and my husband just saying the trip is stressful enough and he doesn't think that the vet will be gentle and kind with her, and then it is going to be too late to change anything. and about me, in my heart even though I was suggesting this thing but I was wishing for this reaction, may be some will call me cruel or I am not thinking about what is best for Sara but when I see her at her good moments or when she gets happy just because I passed next to her cage, and remember how many thing she overcame, I feel she is still fighting and I will fight with her. when I took her to the vet about few months ago with the first lump problem, the vet then talked with me about putting her to sleep because she though she is not going to make for few days. and here she is, and who knows may be next time I'll post an update it will be about her getting better and kicking this off, or may be not. but for now I want to enjoy every hour she is with us.

Welcome to the forum Amanda, I'm sorry for your bird, I don't know what sort of lump she has, and its better to check with the vet ASAP, but it sound like something else, because Sara's lump wasn't itching her and she wasn't scratching or picking on it until it started bleeding, then she started cleaning it, the lump itself wasn't bothering her even though the size was massive. I think Sara has many internal problems and the lump was one of the symptoms. I hope your bird will get over it, but definitely I'll visit the avian vet.

after 7 years -as you mentioned macka- I know what this budgie wants from the look in her eyes, and even though deep in my heart I don't want to let go ever, but I can assure you if I feel that she gave up on herself I will not hesitate to help her to go through her final moments and to be as peaceful as possible.

If without arguing about the charge we've been ignored, how is it going to be if I do. I think they do that because first they are the only avian vets in the area, and secondly the are busy enough and last of all I think they gave up on Sara long time ago, and may be they think it is waste of their time, I don't know. but the least charge they did was $50 when I came back the same week. they have average charge of about $110 , they have consultation A or B or C depending on whether it is at a closer date or not,but last time because she did feces test this is why it jumped to $140. and always she says it is diffrent problem.

I'm sorry to hear that, I never had little ones but I can imagine how do you look with anticipation to every egg and bub, RIP little one,

I am very sad and very angry, When ever I try to contact the vet, they take a message and they are suppose to get back to me, most of the time they don't until I ring again, but this time when I spoke to the reception lady, she asked me what is that about and I explained the situation, she said the vet can't do anything about it and you should bring her in, I asked to speak to the vet because whenever I take sara she gets stressed, it is half an hour driving there and I just wanted to know if the vet can do anything for her, if not I am not going to stress her more. the reception lady got back to me and said that she spoke to the vet and the vet said the same thing, we have to bring her in. I am not sure why they treat us this way, they are not doing this for us for free, last week's visit she charged $140 and I guarantee you that we are cutting expenses in our household to afford the vet bills. I go to that avian vet because I feel that normal vet don't know much about birds, once I took Sara when she was about two to a vet and she was not able to fly well and she was breathing heavily, the vet said she is going to lay an egg of course that egg didn't come until now, the same vet once I asked her how do you know a budgie if it is male or female, she said you feel their vent, if is is inward it is female if it is sticking out it is male, I'm not sure about this method either. anyhow, I don't feel I can take Sara to that avian vet again, but may be I'll do for Sara's Sake.