Rhode Island Parrot Rescue

[Wolf]

This is one of those difficult situations and I know that you want to help her. While I am concerned that you may have to face losing her and we know how that pulls on our hearts, I like you would like to see her in the right home and if after careful consideration you still feel that this is the right way for both you and her them I can only support your choice. I just don't want you to make a wrong choice on this as it is too hard on both of you.

[Navre]

http://a-day-in-the-life-of-tanya.tumblr.com/

[Wolf]

Thanks for sharing Tanya's information with us. All that I can do at this point other than to try and calm down over what people do to these creatures is to repeat what I said in my last posting to you. Thanks again.

[liz]

Navre, I don't want to seem cold but this is one time I have to tell my opinion from my brain instead of my heart. Think really really hard. In the shelter she has vet care. In the shelter she is never alone. In the shelter you have time to make contact with her and love her without having complete responsibility to care for her.

I have a flock of unwanted birds. I did not hesitate to take in handicapped birds. With a handicapped bird you just have to make sure they have the most ability you can give them to live a normal life. My flock accepts the disabilities of others since most were dire rescues and they know it.

Amos was a seizure bird. I was contacted by the shelter and asked to take him. I thought long and hard on this one. It could have cost a lot of money an care that would take away from my others. He was having 5 or 6 seizures a day. His history was that he was tormented by two little boys who were not controlled by their parents. Hoping that his seizures were caused by fear, improper diet and lighting I gave in and went to see him.
He was in a very small cage with another bird that Wolf named Andy, as in Amos and Andy. They both came to the edge of the cage and tweeted to me. I took them both intending to care for them with the same ways as the others.
Andy was healthy without too much history and Amos seemed to enjoy his company. I took him with the mind set that if he did not respond to the new treatment and died during a seizure that he would not have any more seizures and knew he was loved in the last part of his life.
It turned out that his seizures were caused by fear. After the quarantine Amos and Andy gladly joined the flock and he never had a seizure while with me.

The one you want to care for has definite physical problems. She is teetering on the edge and may not recover. Do you really want to put her through the trauma of changing her world. If she dies while in quarantine you will regret it for the rest of your life that you put her in an imotionally distraut situation in her last days.

[Navre]

She's not at the rescue, she is in a foster home. She can't stay there forever.

Even if she were at the rescue, she wouldn't have constant vet care. The vet comes in to see the birds in quarrentine to do the gram stains and blood work, but she's not directly caring for all the birds in the rescue all the time. As far as vet care goes, she'd get as much or more with me. I don't think the rescue has the money to give her as much vet care as would probably be optimal.

Would I need to quarrentine her? First thing I would do is bring her to my Avian vet and have a cbc and gram stains, etc. She has been in a foster home since June.

Optimally, I guess she could stay in the foster home where she is. I inquired about that, and it's not an option. Also, nobody else is inquiring about taking her. She has been here since June.

I realize that her health and age may mean that she is near the end of her life. She may also have 20 years left. As far as getting attached and dealing with loss, I'm not worried about myself. If you knew what I used to do for work you'd know that it was something that I dealt with a lot. I'd never say I was used to it, but it's not at all foreign to me. I have no little kids to worry about in that regard. My one concern would be if my GCC got attached and lost her.

I may not be the best option for her, but I may be the only one.

[Wolf]

Liz, according to what I read and understood, Tanya is indeed sick and handicapped, but she is currently in foster care with a nice person who for whatever reason can not continue to provide this care. To make things more difficult there does not appear to be anyone at this time that is willing and able to take her in due most likely to her medical issues, except for Navre.
So unless she passes before Navre takes her in she is going to go through the trauma of moving any way and I am pretty certain that Navre is well aware of the risks involved in this to Tanya, especially as I keep harping for him to think about this carefully as much as I have.
The only reason that I am currently responding to you is that you have apparently misread or misunderstood her living circumstances, although I know and am sure that Navre knows that your intent is for the best. Thanks, and I hope that I did not step on anyone's toes or overstepped my bounds.

[Wolf]

Navre, your question about quarantine causes me to respond yet again. Mostly with questions. Is Tanya currently a lone bird at the foster or are there other birds present as well? I realize that she receives a lot of medical care but has she been tested for communicable disease? The large number of papalomas are caused by something and in this questioning I am looking at the risk to your current bird.
Given her circumstances if she has been tested for disease and is clean then you could probably forego the normal quarantine period, but I must honestly say that I am not sure about that. However if she remained at the foster until the results of the testing were known then you could ask the vet about the need for further quarantine.

[Pajarita]

I think that quarantine is the least of the problems. What I see as a big problem is that she needs somebody who knows how to deal with the conditions she has and who would stay home all day long because although people can say she is fine on her own, the truth is that this bird needs 24/7 care. I did not read anything on the link you provided (thank you for that!) about any specific treatment for her liver and, most likely, also kidney condition (if she has fatty liver, she has high uric acid). She is been fed pellets which are real bad both for liver and kidney problems and, apparently, no supplements whatsoever... not even specific fruits (the same old fallacy about fruit been too high in sugar was mentioned) or veggies that would help her organs (high moisture, high vit C, etc).

She is not going to live another 20 years, Navre. She is in REAL bad shape. I bet she also has a high cholesterol and a cardiovascular condition on top of everything else. Birds always improve dramatically when you put them on a fresh food diet after eating only seeds for years and years but this improvement is, in my personal experience and opinion, unfortunately, pretty much temporary because there is only so much you can do after so many years of bad diet. Yes, you can prolong life; yes, you can make them more comfortable; but you can't cure them and the care they require is super involved and specialized. Now, given the circumstances, I don't blame you for wanting to take her in and I can almost assure you that your GCC is not going to bond with her and, if anything, it will be jealous of her but you will need to learn A LOT about her problems and how to supplement her on a daily basis as well as put a lot of time and work into it... so think about it carefully because, unless you are 100% committed to 'going back to school', devoting all your time to her and spending quite a lot of money on supplements and her diet (she can't eat anything that is not organic and needs spring water), you would not be doing her a favor. But, then, of course, it's not as if she is in the right place now, either... It's a real quandary, I can tell you that much!

[Navre]

She is with a peach front conure and a mitered conure.

She got all the tests that our birds get while in quarrentine. I would have everything run again if I were to adopt her. She's due for another set of bloodwork anyhow. It's been a few months since her last.

[Pajarita]

Yes, she will need a complete array of tests plus full body XRays every six months once her condition is stabilized and every three months until it is. Like I said, we are talking A LOT of money.