Recovery progress

[JessiMuse]

This is a thread for me to keep track of Lucy's recovery progress. In case some of you don't know, she escaped on Wednesday, and I managed to get her back yesterday, thanks to a neighbor who got her in before the rain and temperature drop. However, she's a little weak right now. She's underweight, and doesn't have quite as much energy. However, she's already starting to bounce back, so she might get better quickly.

I'm also open to suggestions as to what I can do, right now. If you guys have any idea, I'll be glad to hear them. Lucy might be glad too.

She's doing better than she was yesterday. She still looks and acts tired, but she's a little more nosey than she was yesterday, and considering that she used to be very nosey, that's a good sign. She's eating, but she only seems interested in seeds. That was not a problem for me yesterday, because It only mattered to me that she was eating at all. I want to focus in getting her nutrients back, though. She's eating kale today, so it's a start.

From what I can tell, she seems to weigh even less than the unweaned baby. I'm really gonna have to watch her weight, and make sure she doesn't lose any more. I'll put her on a scale sometime soon, to see how much she weighs exactly.

On another bright side, her droppings are starting to look more normal. Yesterday, they looked black, as if she had some internal bleeding in her intestional tract. She may have eaten something weird while outside, but it seems cleared up now.

[Pajarita]

No, most likely the black stool was a product of her starving to near death. Just give her soft and wet foods and she'll do fine.

[JessiMuse]

Thanks, Paj. I'm glad the person called us when they did. I doubt she ate anything for the couple of days they had her. She would have probably died the third day.

Thing is, she doesn't like soft foods. She likes hard, crunchy foods better. Kale is crisp, so she seems to enjoy it more than other greens that tend to be a little softer. I might shred up a carrot or something for her, too. I'll try your gloop recipe though, and see if I can't get her to eat that, as well.

Where does everybody stand on the concept of "bird bread"? I saw some recipes for it online. It seems soft, but possibly solid enough for Lucy to want to eat it too. However, I also heard that bread isn't good for birds, so I'm a little confused about that.

[Wolf]

Birdie bread is good as long as it is not over done ( feeding too often ). I haven't made any but once or twice a week may be about right.

[seagoatdeb]

Thats great that she ate some kale. Not all birdie breads are created equal. It depends on how nutritious they are. It also depends how much you give at a time. If its little bits you can give everyday. Also, if she likes dry better, millet is very easy to digest and many vets recommend it for bird that was not eating. It is high fat so you would cut down on other fats.

[JessiMuse]

Oh, she has absolutely no problem with the millet. That was all she ate yesterday.

I just need her to get nutrients I'm there too. Weight might be a priority though.

I noticed that her voice doesn't sound the same. It's a bit lower in pitch than it was before she escaped. Should I see a vet about that?

[liz]

It sounds like you are right that he is just worn out by his adventure.
If you had a sick kid who did not want to eat you would give him anything including a candy bar just to keep his strength up. Millet is like a candy bar to birds. I do not feed it on a regular basis because of that. In your case just slowly reduce the millet as he picks up n other foods.

[Wolf]

I really don't know what to think about a change in Lucy's voice, much less what to say. A human would probably be hoarse for a few days or even longer after going through a similar type of ordeal. Bit birds don't have vocal cords like we do although the do have an organ that allows them to make sounds. I don't ever recall hearing about a hoarse bird .
I do encourage humans to not waste time if they think that something is not right with their bird and get them to see the vet asap. I don't know if I would consider the change in the tone of Lucy's voice to be worth a trip to the vet or not, but if it concerns you then I would suggest that you take her to see the vet, if for no other reason than peace of mind. You can never be too careful when it comes to your birds health and if you are going to make any mistake it is always better to make a mistake that is in the best interests of your bird.

[Pajarita]

I would wait and see if her voice doesn't go back to normal in a week or so. She was not only starving, she was, most likely, completely dehydrated (most birds that get lost don't die of starvation, they die from dehydration) so her poor body was all out of whack.

My birds love birdy bread and they get once a week or every ten days for breakfast instead of gloop - it's one of their favorite things and they actually know the word 'pan' which means bread in Spanish and, as soon as I say it, they get all excited. But, it's like Seagoatdeb said, it depends on the recipe you use. I make their birdy bread with whole grain flours, yeast, olive oil, a bit of honey (the yeast needs it) and all kinds of goodies like orange juice (instead of plain water), pureed pumpkin, fresh corn, grated carrots and zucchini, and naturally dried fruits like raisins, currants, cranberries, figs, dates, etc. - but you can also make it with veggies and spices, instead, as well as add chopped nuts to it. It's the easiest thing to make if you have a bread machine... I just dump everything in it at night, turn it on and, when I get up in the morning, there is freshly baked bread for the birds!

[JessiMuse]

Lucy isn't much of a fruit eater. It seems she's not a fan of the sweeter foods (like berries). She loves grains though, which is kinda why I thought bird bread would be a good idea.

I'm pretty bad at making my own recipes, espcially when it comes to pastry-types like bread. If you can't tell, I'm not a very good cook. If you guys have some good recipes, I would love to hear about them.

Anyways, Lucy is doing pretty good. I can't quite tell for sure, but I think she's gained some weight. She's also getting back into trying to trying to get into trying to "help" me, which basically means she tries to play with whatever's in my hands, and trying to make everything I do twice as hard. So in other words, she's getting her energy back. Once she's fully recovered and the baby grows up, I feel like they're going to be double the trouble. Though the baby's a little more clingy, while Lucy likes to do her things, which apparently involves driving me crazy.

I got her to try some carrot. That's actually the first time she's ever had any. She seems to like it, which is good. Trying to get her to eat something new is a little bit of a challenge depending on what it is, so I'm really glad that she did try it today. Her eyes have a lot more life in them than they did as well. She's making a fairly quick recovery.