Lucas
I have a White Bellied Caique named Cindy that I got in January from a pet store owned by friends. They do a great job with their birds and are the only place in town that sells parrots. She came to me healthy, well socialized and has been a very fun, wonderful bird.
I decided to get Cindy after spending several days in the pet store taking photos of the birds and other animals for their web site. She would always come to me and was fascinated with the camera, was friendly and fearless, I decided she was the bird for me.
Cindy
After having Cindy for a couple mos I started entertaining the idea of getting another bird at some point down the road. Long story short I decided on a young Panama Amazon that was at the same store Cindy came from. He was friendly and also well socialized. He will be a year old in June. I brought him home 7 weeks ago and named him Lucas......Here is the story behind the reason for this post.
Lucas, Photo taken in January, before I decided to purchase him.
Before I decided to get Lucas I noticed his wings and tail feathers were sparse and frayed. I asked why is feathers looked that way, and was told his sister (who was in a communal play area with him) was picking on him causing his feathers to look the way they did. This sounded reasonable to me. I trusted what my friends said, they after all were the experts. I purchased him but asked them to hold him for me for a couple weeks because I was going to be out of town for a week, then I was going to be out of my apt for another 5 days while painting and new appliances were being brought in, I could not get both things to coincide. When I returned from my week out of town I went to see him, his wings and tail looked a little worse and he was starting to molt as well. I really wanted to get him home but still needed to wait just a little bit longer. Finally I went to get him and his wings looked even worse, once again "its juvenile molt". I was never in any way concerned that I had bought a bird under false pretenses , Like I said the owners of the shop are friends and their business has a good reputation.
On Wed Lucas jumped off his perch, and one of his wings was bleeding, it only bled a little then stopped, I knew blood loss was not good but it was not horrible. I called the same avian vet clinic that had looked at Cindy a couple mos ago when she had a nostril that seemed irritated. The vet had gone home, I didn't feel like it was an emergency since there wasn't a lot of blood loss and it had stopped. I kept him in his cage the rest of the day, and watched him closely, he ate and drink and acted normal the rest of the day but I took him to the clinic early the next morning just to be on the safe side so they could get a better look at him. I dropped him off early that morning before the vet arrived, explained the situation to the techs and went to work, was told the vet would call me when she got in and after she examined him.
The vet called me early in the afternoon, her tone and demeanor was harsh. " How long has this bird been chewing his feathers?" I told her he doesn't chew his feathers, at least I have never seen him do it. I told her my birds are with me all day, and basically only sleep in their cages. I told her everything I mentioned earlier about why his wings and tail looked the way they did and she said that "birds do not chew each others feathers, its impossible". She said he was not molting, that the pet shop was dishonest with me, that I should take him back, ask for my money back, that he was a neurotic feather plucker that would cost me a fortune in vet bills and should have never been sold to anyone, and that I should never have paid money for a bird in his condition, she said, "you know you can get a bird with issues for free". I went to pick him up after work, the vet was gone but the tech "consulted" me on what to do to keep my neurotic feather plucking bird happy, even suggesting that I stop taking him to work with me because that could be over stimulating him and causing him to pluck. As I left the clinic the receptionist said "good luck!".
On the ride home he kept saying 'Hi!" over and over, my heart exploded with love for this bird, I cried so hard I had to pull over to the side of the road until I pulled myself together, something that to be honest took me by surprise. Then he started saying "watcha doin?" which made me stop crying and start laughing.
Needless to say I was confused, felt stupid, and questioned what my pet store friends told me. I had no intention of taking this bird back, he was my boy, and IF he had issues we would figure it out...but at the same time I kept asking myself "what have I gotten myself into?'' I kept thinking my friends had lied to me and had pawned a bird off on me that had issues, I felt a bit betrayed. Do I confront them?, will this put a strain on our friendship? What do I do? The vets words and attitude discouraged me, she was in no way helpful, and even if she was right about everything she said concerning Lucas being a plucker and chewer, her attitude towards me and my bird and accusations towards the pet store was unprofessional and way out of line, She could have said "lets figure this out together and see how we can solve this problem". It would have been to her benefit to do so and to have me as a client.....lets see, .....how long do Amazon Parrots live???
I decided to get a second opinion and made an appt with a board certified avian vet on the other side of town, our appt was this morning.
I told him the entire story, he examined Lucas's wings and said the same thing that the pet store told me. His opinion was that Lucas has not done this to himself, that it was done by another bird. His opinion was that Lucas was healthy, happy, and just needed time before his wings came back. He trimmed some of the frayed ends of his wings concerned that they could be causing irritation. He was so nice and I was grateful to him. He also said that in his opinion the pet store that Lucas and Cindy came from was a good place. He said he actually purchased a Cockateel there for his daughter who also had some frayed wing and tail feathers and that it was no big deal, sometimes birds pick on and bully one another, Lucas was just probably on the low end of the pecking order.
I just wanted to share this story. I learned how important it is to get a second opinion. I was shocked and angered that an avian vet, a "proffesional" who is supposed to help animals and people would give such horrible advice and suggest I return a bird , or any animal, because they may or may not have issues, as if an animal is an ipod, or a "thing".
We live in a throw away society, the animal shelters are testament to that, Im just not one of those people.
Big thanks to Laura Sims Buxton for giving me such great, encouraging advice and to BirdTricks for connecting me with so many great people.
Lucas, Cindy & Blossom, my bird dog
