First of all, I so want to let everyone know how much your support has meant, not only to me, but to my husband as well.
I was going to reply to each message individually but am so far behind with my internet issues that I am going to just say thank you all so much for your support, advice, links & prayers. The caring you have all shown for my baby is helping to keep me together, and there are no words to convey what this has meant to me. A huge thank you to Allee for updating for me as well.
Phoe is doing much better. Other than tiring more easily, he is playing, and doing his usual things. There has been no more stumbling since that first morning, and his eyes have remained clear.He literally runs when I come in with the syringe to get to me, with no issues. He has been eating the whole time, and also drinking, and we are making sure he gets extra fluids to help flush out his kidneys. His poop is completely normal. My vet did not feel that anything other than oral fluids is necessary unless something changes. If the situation declines, I do have an emergency number so we aren't all alone in this, thank goodness. As for now, on Thursday Phoe is going to be examined, labs retaken & xrays done. I am anxious to see new bloodwork since I have no faith in the vet who ran it originally, and I know that Phoe's Dr. knows what she is doing with using the proper procedures.
This is in her report that I was sent (by my vet, the other place would not send it to me), and it is not even close to the conversation we had:
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"Recommended sedation for BW and radiographs.
Owner declines any sedation as she is too nervous of Phe dying under sedation - discussed risks of handling/restraining
without sedation, and that we probably won't be able to poke for blood or hold still for rads without sedation. Stress of
handling could kill him. Owner still declines sedation, even when told her we could do something quickly reversible. She has
heard of too many other parrots dying under sedation before. Told her I was not comfortable doing any heavy restraint
without sedation. She asked if there was any way that we could do awake BW. Owner would like to do nail clip collection
despite being warned of the discomfort, and that it is no longer a recommended practice."
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Her "quickly reversible" was 4 hours of being unconscious. She said he could wake up sooner, but that was a general timeline. We never had a discussion about nail clip collecting, the only conversation we had was that I did not want him put under general anesthesia for bloodwork. When she called me with the results, she told me there was nothing that could be done. That the only option was a kidney biopsy and that she knew how I felt about sedation. That was really the end of the conversation as I told her to get the labs to my regular vet.
Back to Phoe. He has 2 bowls of water in his cage, and also a bowl changed multiple times a day with different unsweetened fruit juices (cranberry is his favourite). We are also giving him extra water by syringe, alternated with Pedialyte. He loves the syringe and drinks right from it. The only change to his diet until he sees the vet on Thursday is an addition of egg whites and shells, and an addition of a small amount of Hemp Oil to his food. We also are giving him more fruits, he loves grapes, Cherries, poms and cranberries and I found some watermelon last night. She does not want to change his diet in a major way until we sit down and talk about it Thursday. I did get some white rice after reading what Ellen mentioned (we usually use whole wheat). I am also following the veggie list Ellen had in April's thread about Kiwi. (Special thanks to April for the link and Ellen for the post). Also thank you Ellen for the info about Purines. I was unfamiliar with that term, and am glad for the information.
He eats Tropimix & Zupreem, but the major portion of his diet is veggies, which he loves. I do veggies twice a day for the birds. I have removed the Zupreem for now, he prefers the Tropimix anyway and wanted to cut down on pellets for now.
She did mention Gout, and we will be discussing that further on Thursday.The goal until then is keeping him stable,eating and drinking and adding in the extra hydration.
Anyway, my apologies for writing a book here, I don't think I missed anything. And again, thank you all for your support. I really do love every one of you.
When I had insectivores who ate crickets, I gut loaded on fruits/veg and a little bit of special 'pellets' specifically made for gut loading crickets to feed to reptiles. That 'special' cricket food cost next to nothing, the amount of produce crickets can consume is negligible and it's 100% fine to feed them scraps. How disgusting to be so cheap with animals health that you'd put a baby at disadvantage for life to save what? A few PENNIES? Absolutely unacceptable
We are saying our mightiest prayers for Phoe!
