My 10 month old SI Eclectus female, Kirin, died day before yesterday. It was extemely traumatic, and I am still confused as to what happened. I was hoping that if I wrote what happened here, maybe someone would know what on earth happened.
My fiance' Zak and I have had Kirin for about 5 months. She never really warmed up to us, especially not Zak. She was pretty paranoid and still puffed and jumped when anyone would come near her, but my sister and I eventually got her into stepping up and exchanging kisses for seeds. I figured this was pretty normal, everyone told me female SI's are a bit bossy and bratty and take time to warm up. I was at work, and Zak was home with the bird. He said she fell off her perch, which he did not think was unusual because she usually jumps when he walks into a room, he thought maybe he had startled her. She seemed fine, climbed back up to her perch. But then she fell again, and seemed to catch her wing on the bars of the cage bottom. She was screeching and flipping out, so he helped her get unstuck and set her back on her perch. She seemed to be okay but was holding her wing at a strange angle. He tried to give her some space, but she fell down again and started screaming and screaming and flipping out. He got her out of the cage thinking she was going to get stuck again. He called me and told me what was going on, so I headed home right away. I thought he had just upset her and that once I got there to hold her and calm her she would be alright. He has some video of what she was doing, intending to show the vet her behavior when we got there. I watched it. It is creepy. She looks posessed. Not just upset. Her breath is heavy, and she cranes her neck way back practically to her tail feathers, and just flops around. Her feet are balled up and her neck moves so strange, like she can't get it straight. Her wing looks like it may have been broken. She keeps screaming and screaming. Zak grabbed a towell and covered her, hoping to calm her down before she injured herself further or gave herself a heart attack. When I got home she had calmed down a little, had gripped his fingers with her feet, and had put her head back down. When he handed her to me she was fireball hot. I gently set her down on the living room floor, talking slow and soothing to her in the way I do when I coax her to step up. I slowly lifted the towel off of her, and she screamed. I have never heard anything like it in my life, and it will haunt me forever. She screamed once, threw her head back and screamed again, and was gone just like that. It was so fast, I keep going over and over it in my head trying to understand what could have happened. It really was like she was posessed, and I do not understand it. She seemed fine the day before, playing with her toys and giving kisses, and she seemed fine when I left in the morning, though she had not touched any of the food I gave her before I went to work. I could understand if she had broken her wing and the stress from that worked her up enough to burst her heart, but why was she falling from perches in the first place? I know that knowing what happened will not bring her back, but I do want to have a bird again someday and if there is anything I could have done to save her or prevent this I would like to know.
Any ideas and help would be very greatly appreciated, I am at a complete loss here.
Thanks again, so much
-LauraBug
My fiance' Zak and I have had Kirin for about 5 months. She never really warmed up to us, especially not Zak. She was pretty paranoid and still puffed and jumped when anyone would come near her, but my sister and I eventually got her into stepping up and exchanging kisses for seeds. I figured this was pretty normal, everyone told me female SI's are a bit bossy and bratty and take time to warm up. I was at work, and Zak was home with the bird. He said she fell off her perch, which he did not think was unusual because she usually jumps when he walks into a room, he thought maybe he had startled her. She seemed fine, climbed back up to her perch. But then she fell again, and seemed to catch her wing on the bars of the cage bottom. She was screeching and flipping out, so he helped her get unstuck and set her back on her perch. She seemed to be okay but was holding her wing at a strange angle. He tried to give her some space, but she fell down again and started screaming and screaming and flipping out. He got her out of the cage thinking she was going to get stuck again. He called me and told me what was going on, so I headed home right away. I thought he had just upset her and that once I got there to hold her and calm her she would be alright. He has some video of what she was doing, intending to show the vet her behavior when we got there. I watched it. It is creepy. She looks posessed. Not just upset. Her breath is heavy, and she cranes her neck way back practically to her tail feathers, and just flops around. Her feet are balled up and her neck moves so strange, like she can't get it straight. Her wing looks like it may have been broken. She keeps screaming and screaming. Zak grabbed a towell and covered her, hoping to calm her down before she injured herself further or gave herself a heart attack. When I got home she had calmed down a little, had gripped his fingers with her feet, and had put her head back down. When he handed her to me she was fireball hot. I gently set her down on the living room floor, talking slow and soothing to her in the way I do when I coax her to step up. I slowly lifted the towel off of her, and she screamed. I have never heard anything like it in my life, and it will haunt me forever. She screamed once, threw her head back and screamed again, and was gone just like that. It was so fast, I keep going over and over it in my head trying to understand what could have happened. It really was like she was posessed, and I do not understand it. She seemed fine the day before, playing with her toys and giving kisses, and she seemed fine when I left in the morning, though she had not touched any of the food I gave her before I went to work. I could understand if she had broken her wing and the stress from that worked her up enough to burst her heart, but why was she falling from perches in the first place? I know that knowing what happened will not bring her back, but I do want to have a bird again someday and if there is anything I could have done to save her or prevent this I would like to know.
Any ideas and help would be very greatly appreciated, I am at a complete loss here.
Thanks again, so much
-LauraBug
