2018 isn’t turning out to be such a great year for my pets. First I lost Piper and now Nyx had to be hospitalized. GOSH, I hope everything starts turning around.
So, Monday, April 9th, 2018 I took Nyx out of her Cage as usual and I continued on my way doing what I usually do. She weighed 70grams which are her usual weight. However, I sent my 3 yr old daughter to give her an orange and Nyx flipped out and flew to me but on her way to me, she wasn’t flying properly. So automatically I was like “What’s wrong with Nyx?!”
Once she was on my finger she started regurgitating not the “I love you” kind but the vomiting kind. I thought OMG, earlier that day I made a Birdtricks meal and had seen her eating it and wondered if it affected her somehow. She vomited three times!!! Then she had diarrhea and she was missing 3 tail feathers which explained why she was flying weird. I immediately thought another bird had attacked her, I went looking in all their cages to find her 3 tail feathers. I found them in her cage, so now I was confused and I’m not sure what happened. I figured she was attacked by Grayson, flew back to her cage and then her feathers fell out (yes, I blamed poor Grayson. Unfortunately he is aggressive towards the other birds so I automatically blamed him. I’m sorry).
I called around to see if I could bring her to an emergency 24-hour vet hospital but the only one around is Guelph which is a good hour or something away. I gave her some water and pellets and she ate little and drank a little so I was hoping that maybe she was okay. I figured she was just traumatized but no real injury as I didn’t see any blood or bruising. I moved her cage into my room and off to bed we went after cuddling with her for an hour. She had no more vomit. Through the night, I heard her thrashing around in her cage. I was like what is going on?
In the morning, I weighed her and she was at 60 grams. That is way too much of a drop. I gave her some water and called the vet, called my sister to watch the kids. The vet didn’t have an opening until 3pm. I prayed over Nyx and waited. We left at 1:50pm to get to the vet. On the drive there she was perched on the Perch but right before we reached our destination she fell off the perch, curled up on the floor and basically died. I begged her not to die. “Please don’t die, we are almost at the vet, please Nyx don’t leave me! I can’t handle losing you too.” It was a miracle! She jumped up out of nowhere after she was laying there basically dead and back on the perch.
I ran to the vet and apologized as it was 2:15pm. They hurried me into a room where Dr. Heather White came in to investigate. She Advised me that she did not see any signs of physical trauma and was wondering if maybe Nyx had been sick for awhile and was just now showing signs. I honestly thought no way! I weigh my birds every day! They tell you that is the first signs of sickness so weigh them so you can be ahead of the game. Nyx’s weight and poop has NEVER fluctuated or changed. Dr. White advised me that she thinks Nyx had a crop infection which could be caused by pooping on food and eating it, pooping in their water, poop on a perch and cleaning their beak against it basically coming in contact with poop. She advised that she was going to do a crop wash, antibiotics and recommended hospitalization for 2 days. Then advised on antibiotics to bring home, doing a cultural swab, which they might have to send out for answers and xrays plus a blood check but the bloodwork would have to wait until Nyx was stronger. Estimate $1,600. Also, she advised that Nyx may still die but hopefully they have her in time and that won’t happen. I have never left Nyx, from the day I got her, she hasn’t even gone to a sitter. I have never had to hospitalize any of my parrots before. I couldn’t help but cry. Cry, because I didn’t want Nyx to die. Cry, because Nyx was actually sick and cry, because how was I going to pay this vet bill plus keep on top of my other bills. I don’t have $1,600 dollars but I signed those papers, paid the deposit of $600 dollars and left.
At 6:30pm Tuesday, April 10th, 2018 Dr. White called me to let me know Nyx had quite a lot of bacteria in her crop. She was first sitting in the corner of the incubator hunched over but they have given her injections and iv and now she was actually perched on their cement perch. Nyx wasn’t out of the woods but diagnostically she looked better. I was relieved. I was told to call on Wednesday at 9:30am to talk to the doctor that was on site as Dr. White wouldn’t be there to find out how Nyx was doing.
Keep you posted! Let’s pray for Nyx.
