This is Dave, stealing one of Gina's topics.
Please send your positive thoughts to Gina, one of her birds died today. She has several birds, a yellow-nape amazon (big parrot), an african gray (snuggle bird), a starling (saved as a fledgling), two cockatiels (think largish yellow parakeets), and two doves. Cheeko was a green-cheek amazon, a smallish parrot. A very sweet bird. It could talk, saying "Hi Girl!", "Pretty girl!", and Meow-ing like a cat. Gina and Cheeko played a game where Gina would meow! at her, then the bird would meow! back. Cheeko would do this for as long as Gina would.
Cheeko was one of her favorite birds, and definitely her sweetest. She's the only one I would trust not to bite me!
Tuesday the bird was acting funny, eyes drooping, listing to one side. Gina thought she was dehydrated (despite available water), so she tried to get some water into her. She also gave her a little food, since she had lost weight. She stayed up all night with Cheeko, then took her to the vet yesterday. The vet determined that she needed to be hospitalized, so they put an IV on her, gave her oxygen, and started trying to determine what was going on. She got worse last night, and finally died about an hour ago. A necropsy will tell the tale, but they think it was PDD, a fairly rare bird virus. Of course, there's the fear that her other birds may have it as well, and it incubates for years. Gina's heartbroken.
Please send some hugs Gina's way, she needs them.
Dave