60yo Amazon getting ready for the final departure

[patti]

Yesterday I went out looking for a travel cage and found myself in a store across town that I had never been to before, owned by a woman who brings her birds to work. In the front window there were three macaws and an amazon each happily perched in their own space, with tons of cars and pedestrians to watch. They were cycling through “hello” and “hi” and then afternoon naps when I got there. The Amazon in the window was singing some funky song from the seventies.

At first I assumed these birds were for sale, which was why I thought it was odd that they had set up barrier of perches and accessories between the birds and the customers. Then the clerk mentioned that they were the owner’s birds, and the birds for sale were along the back wall. So I turned around and noticed a bank of cages along the wall, 1/3 filled with birds. Being a Jenday owner, I go right to the conures and say hello to the jenday and the two suns… all babies. Cute. But not at cute as my Lily. Then at the end I see an amazon and I walk up to say hello to that one too. I love Amazons and plan to get one someday but can only have one bird until I buy a house.

“Hello,” I said, watching his body language for signs of what he thought of me. He didn’t change his posture at all… but when I got close enough I saw that his eyes were pinning like crazy. Weird! So I stepped back a pace or two and said hello again, blinking a few times. He stopped pinning and blinked at me. But otherwise he didn’t react at all.

I hear a chorus of hellos coming from the window behind me, so I turned around to join the chorus. After I walked away, I heard him say “hello” so I came back and stood in front of his cage again. He seemed to be okay with me when i was a foot and ahalf away. We exchanged a few hellos and then just stood there, looking at each other. He didn’t know what to make of me and I didn’t know what to make of him. The other amazons I have met have had me figured out in less than a minute, so something was off with this guy. He was a little slow. He was missing his two toes on his left foot, and I wondered if that was why he was so unsteady on his perch. I felt bad for him, feeling so vulnerable and not able to do anything about it.

The clerk said something about kids in the store pestering the birds, and there are signs that say not to touch the birds, but kids today think of rules as nothing more than suggestions that everyone else should follow. This is why the owner's birds have a barrier... but this guy doesn't have one. He is at least out of reach of the smaller kids, but reachable by boys in the most annoying age range.

Then the clerk tells me that he is 60 and going to go “any day now.” I ask about the foot and he says that it got caught in a toy a long time ago, with a previous owner, so they had to amputate the toes. The bird is a rescue, given up by his last owner, and he doesn’t know much about him… but he is not for sale. He is too old to go to a new home, so they are just keeping him in the store until he dies. “Amazons, they can live to be like 80 years or even a hundred… but not this one. He’s had a hard life.”

Now this bird is making a little more sense to me. He has all his feathers but he hasn’t been preening them in a while so he is not looking so snazzy. His breathing is really labored and he is swaying on the perch with each breath. He lets a breath out, blinks and sways backward, then opens his eyes to breathe back in again while he steadies himself. He does this with every breath and it takes all his energy – that why he was pinning at me but not moving otherwise. He was concentrating on his breathing and would have fallen. The clerk mentioned that he falls off his perch a lot.

I wish I could take him home but the clerk was right… any change would be way too much for him. But is so sad to be abandoned like that, and to die in an environment like that. Now he is sitting in a tiny cage in store where everyone is waiting for him to die. He is waiting to die himself. One day he is going to let a breath out, close his eyes, and just go. OMG It breaks my heart.

[liz]

No. He is giving up. No telling how many hands he has gone through and how he was treated.
After all the malnurishment and abuse he has gone through then put in a little cage on display for who knows how long, he has no hope for tomarrow.

His perch should be on the bottom of the cage. He should be getting better food. And he should have someone to love him.

If I was there I would talk the woman out of him. After all she doesn't want people to see him die or find him dead.

He would not need a cage. He could be put on a table with his food or in a warm corner where he can see others.

There is a 75 year old that can not get on a perch but the video shows her trying to play with a foot toy and talking. Then too I watched one that was 100. I think it was a shame to let it suffer the way it was.

He won't be any trouble. Go get him.

[Wolf]

I would also try to get this bird for whatever time he has left. no one should be treated that way especially if they are old and/ or sick. This is a time when he really needs to have someone to love him.

[liz]

Yes. You might only have him for two days but that would be two days that he knows he is loved.
Then too, you may be just what he needs to come out of it and live another 20 years. I think his labored breathing is caused by where he is. It is dusty, they don't control the types of cleaners they use a and you know they change the temperature for night.

[Pajarita]

The poor dear is sick! People think that old birds are like people or dogs, that they slow down, get grey, wheeze, etc but it's not true. Birds age but they don't look or act old. One day, they just drop dead. And that's it! This bird is sick and that store is the WORST place for him!

[patti]

Okay, i will drive back up there tomorrow....

Wait a minute....if he is sick he could get my lily sick. does quarantine mean no touching or no sharing airspace? i read somewhere that amazons are okay not being handled that much, and i can put sanitizer in every corner (next to the kleenex boxes, and there always seems to be a box in arm's reach). so if quarantine is no touching i can manage that easy. but i live in a large open space, a loft. its all one big room.

[Wolf]

It would be better if there were a separate room to put him in, and safer too. Do you have a friend who could house him for the quarantine period?

[Pajarita]

I HIGHLY doubt he has an infectious disease. It's most likely liver and kidneys malfunction and that's due to diet and not contagious so I would say you are OK with putting him in the same room. I don't think that a sick bird would stand the stress of going from one house to another and yet another one in a month so, although quarantine is supposed to be in a separate room, in his case, I would risk it because the alternative is much riskier. I would make an appointment at an avian vet for the same day I am getting him and take him there straight from the store. Ask the vet to take blood for CBC, chem panel and bile acids. Don't even do the full body XRay I always recommend, it's too stressful and he sounds touch and go. And, without waiting for a diagnosis, blood work results or anything, put him on a fresh food, low protein, high moisture, high fiber diet IMMEDIATELY (no pellets! his kidneys would not stand them) with the following:
In about 5 oz of spring water: make it 1/3 aloe vera juice from inner filet (not whole leaf and not gel) and add an entire dropperful of non-alcoholic milk thistle and dandelion root extract each as well as two level tablespoons of lactulose
In about 1/2 lb of soft food (gloop is perfect), one capsule of 500 mg of methionine, one capsule of 300 mg of vitamin B6, one capsule of 300 mg of milk thistle, one capsule of 500 mg of dandelion root, one capsule of 500 mg of artichoke extract.

[liz]

You can touch him just wash your hands after. The easiest is to stroke his belly. I use the word tickle before I touch so they know what I am going to do. Myrtle really likes tickle feet.
He probably never learned to fly so I would not be afraid of leaving the cage door open for him to see freedom. Just put some things outside the cage to interest him.

I would take him home and see if I am right that he needs love and hope. Give him a couple of days to adjust to you, love and freedom before taking him to the Vet. He has probably never been to one.

[Wolf]

Tickling their belly isn't good as it is an erogenous zone.