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
What a wonderful story Chris and that photo is great too. I would have been very upset also. Thank goodness for 2nd opinions!!
ReplyDeleteThanks God for people like you, that doesn't give up on pets, that's a good thing to keep in mind and get a second opinion. That's an awesome picture. Love all of your babies.
ReplyDeleteChris, I'm so glad you shared Lucas' story! You'll probably never know how many parrot owners this will help. Although I've never met Lucas in person, I love him already. I can't wait to see his beautiful wings when his new feathers grow in. Lucas is one lucky parrot to have you as his owner!
ReplyDeleteThat first vet should be ashamed herself. A bird is not a piece of machinery and therefore cannot be a lemon; he is a sentient being with emotions and physical sensations. Even if he had been plucking his own feathers, that still would be no reason to declare him defective. Nothing would! Plucking can be due to a psychological or physical illness. As a healer, she should never give up on curing an animal. I hope instead she gives up on her veterinary career and finds another line of work. Congrats, Chris, on your beautiful and obviously happy pair of parrots.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! I too have a yellow-fronted girl, Pepper, who is already in her 40s!, a yellow-naped girl, Peter, in her 30s, both adopted me at the Rescue where I volunteer. Then I have two young-ones, a lilac-crowned 3 yo and a Scarlet Macaw 4 yo, who was both given to me by people who could not care for them. The vets I take them to are highly recommended by the Rescue as well as other bird people in the area, but even then, if I feel that the advise is not what I want to hear, I take them for a second opinion.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments....really appreciate it, I cant wait to start posting updates about Lucas and all his new beautiful feathers.
ReplyDeleteI had an African Grey who's history was exactly the same as Lucas's. He had been housed with his sister in a small cage and she had pulled out all of his head and neck feathers. His wings were also a mess. Under my care his head and neck feathers grew back almost immediately but his wings continued to be a problem for about a year and a half. Eventually all of his issues resolved. Kudos to you for hanging in there with Lucas. I'm sure he'll be a fine friend.
ReplyDeleteYour birds are beautiful. I am sorry you had to go through that with your bird, but you are living happily ever after now and that's wonderful! I am so glad you went to another avian vet!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first bought my little cockatiel, Beenie I got a free vet exam with him. He was only a little over 4 months old. I was nervous because I did not know the avian vet. The vet assistant told me to put Beenie on the scale, but he was afraid. He did not want to come out of the cage. I asked the assistant to help. She got his wing caught on the cage door. I had to tell her that his wing was caught. I was just devastated about this. Then she got his wing free and put him on the scale. I saw blood dripping from his wing. He had a blood feather. By this time my poor little Beenie was so upset and frighted, that when the vet came in to examine him he was cry, screeching and squirming to get away from her. She need to wrap him up in a towel to put pressure on his blood feather. I thought he was going to die. I was so upset. This happened about 7 years ago when I knew less about birds. Beenie looked really skinny and like he did not have a ny feathers when he got all stretched out, squirming and trying to get away. This was the worst avian veterinarian experience I ever had. It was the assistant that was so awful, not the veterinarian herself. She was nice, thoughtful and concerned. As a new mother I was just drained a more devastated. My poor Beenie had been terrified of hands ever since and bit quite hard if a hand came too close too fast! But now Beenie is more use to my hand. I try to use my hand very slowly around him and try to be playful with my hand. I never threaten him with my hands ever. I try my best to only use positive reinforcement and it has worked.
Beenie has recently started to step up on my finger without resistance and biting. I forgot to tell you that he would not step up on my hand or fingers for many years. I would have to let him step up on my flannel covered wrist. He did not like any kind of skin on the hand, wrist or fingers to step up on for years. He loves flannel! Baby loves flannel too. Baby is Beenie's older friend. (Sorry about my typos in the comment above.) Now Beenie will step up on my finger more often when he is following Baby stepping up on my hand. If Beenie realizes he's on my bare hand he does bite! But he has recently got better about biting. Also moving into my Mom's with less financial pressure has made me more relaxed to help Beenie more.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that not all vets are trained to take care of our feathered babies. They have to take extra traning and not all of them want to do this. They had rather take care of cats & dogs, etc; and do not have the qualifications to take care of birds. I was told, in a very rude manner, that I was not feeding my bird the right kinds of food and that I probably was just giving him seeds. He wanted to do all kinds of tests on him because his eye was watering and he said something was wrong with him. To make a long story short, the tests came back with excellant reports and the vet had to apolagize to me for acting so ugly. So don't take your birds to vets unless they are qualified to do the job.
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