Well on Tuesday, I took Saffy back to the vet to get her X-ray taken. She was a very good little girl and behaved herself well. The vet was absolutely excellent. He is an avian and wildlife vet and because I am a vet student, he let me join in on all the procedures. He was telling me about why they do certain things and the reasons for everything, it was great. So we got two x-rays taken of Saffy, one ventro-dorsally (on her back) and one laterally (on her side). To test that she is under properly he pulls on her wings to test the amount of muscle tone and he was saying there was quite a lot, so maybe that is why she has never been able to fly. So then we had a good look at her x rays. It showed no problems what so ever with her leg, but there was a lot of fluid build up in the abdomin, making it hard to see what the problem was. He said this could be from an enlarged organ, or it could be just from her coming into lay (which she seems to be doing ). He didn't want to try and catheterise it, because he wouldn't want to stick a needle into an organ if it is one.

Then he said that her bones are looking, a little mottley, which is a sign of calcium deficiency. This could be from two things, if she is laying she would be moving calcium out of her bones to make egg shell, or she is calcium deficient. Her legs looked good though. There was no visible egg so we couldn't be sure.

So I decided to get some blood work done on her, because she had pulled through the anaesthetic so well the first time and she was there at the clinic already.

Again we couldn't find anything wrong in that area. Her blood looked really good, there were very little white blood cells (which means no infection), I only saw one! The vet also let me dip and prepare the slides and look at them.

So we couldn't identify any definate problem with her only that she had a lot of fluid in her abdomin which was obscurring the view of her organs, which could be due to her on the lay.

Anyway the vet said to feed her lots of green leafy vegetables as these are good sources of calcium.

 

Saffy was a real trooper, she did so well and as soon she got back home, she was happily chirping away.

I made her a little platform out of a ladder and some material, just in case she feels better about sleeping on that, and she is so good, she keeps it clean herself, by picking all the little poos off of it.

I'm proud of my girl.

Well, that was an interesting vet visit, wasn't it ? :bluebudgie:

:bluebudgie: Hope Saffy's problems can be found by the tests taken but in the meantime, she is in really good hands! :ausb:

very interesting, glad she pulled through everything well :bluebudgie:

Well I just got a phonecall from the vet yesterday and he said that he has been going over her case and throwing ideas around as to what the fluid build up could be. He said there are two possible situations. One would be a herniation, caused by the muscles of the abdominal wall becoming weaker. This would require her to undergo a tummy tuck (I laughed when I heard that, because it sounded like plastic surgery) to pull her muscles back together. Or she could have had a past case of peritonitus, caused by an ova being released into the abdominal (or peritoneal) cavity and causing an infection, which has now lead to fluid build up. This would require drawing liquid out of her abdomen. So to determine what it truly is, we are going to get an ultrasound done.

Now don't worry, the vet said it is not an emergency or anything and she is not in any real pain, maybe just a bit of discomfit, but she should be alright.

Poor thing I feel sorry for her.

Well that's good news she isn't in any pain but not so great you don't know exactly what the problem is but vets can only do so much. :grbud:

Well so far the swelling in her abdomen has gone down, so whatever it was has gone. I'm guessing it was an egg that moved into the peritoneal cavity and then got reabsorbed. She is pretty much back to normal, well normal for Saffy that is. (Laughing out loud)

good to hear

That's good news

 

 

Feathers.

oh that is so good to hear .

That's a good news

 

I really want to be a vet, to be able to help my babies :ausb: Shame I didn't try to go to a vet school, it's late for me now

It's never too late. We have people in our class over 30 and in some others there are 50 year olds too.

But I think I got too lazy since I left school - I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to learn all the staff anymore. And I just started a new job - a good one finally :ausb: , so I'm afraid to do big changes