OUCH TAIL

By our calculations, about 10 days ago Beignet's perch was too close to the window and she stretched or something and touched the cord to the blinds and got bound up in it. We were there immediately as soon as she cried out. Though she grumbled about our handling her, she didn't bite and let us free her of the cords. I asked her if she was okay and she nodded yes. I was worried that something might have happened to her wing, so I told her I would need to put a towel on her so I could look at her wings better and her reaction to this was to raise her wings high and show me under them. It was the essence of saying, "towel not necessary, I can show you." True to parrot behavior, they try to hide any wound or illness. I came into the house after being outdoors for a while and there was blood everywhere. She had broken a blood feather.

We took Beignet to the Avian Emergency Room after the vet's office (who had no openings until the next afternoon) said that there are no blood transfusions for birds. She was still losing blood. She had a broken blood feather removed and they said she would be fine. The next day I took her to the vet anyway. She had yet another broken feather and her tail was terribly bruised. They took out the other broken feather and cleaned up another area and put glue (yep, that's right) in the feather follicle. They said she should be just fine now.

By the next morning it was evident that Beignet was still not doing well. She had periodic bleeding of the feathers and wasn't eating well and was preoccupied with preening her tail. The vet gave her some ointment to put on it. To say the least, Beignet did not like having this done. It took both Bob and me to get this done. By today it was pretty evident to me that she had an infection as she felt quite warm. To make a long story shorter, she had chewed away at the parts that hurt in an effort to relieve the pain, thus making the situation worse. She got cleaned up, disinfectant put on the wound and then antibiotic on the wound. She is taking oral antibiotic and has a very uncomfortable neck collar on (cone of shame for those of you who have seen UP) and still has to have the ointment put on her tail every day. She is one very unhappy parrot and probably will be until next Monday when we see how she is doing.

It is hard to see someone that you love be it human or animal be in pain. I do love this sweet, kind parrot so very much and my heart is breaking for her because she doesn't understand why she has this horrible thing on her neck. Being a sentient being, it makes it all the more difficult for her. Unlike a dog she actually thinks about what has happened. For those of you who read this I ask for your prayers for a speedy recovery for Beignet.