ShanonandLogan
New member
(I somehow lost my much longer, more detailed post)
Hi, I'm new here and I'm very distraught. My Timneh, Logan, got scratched on his toe, the whole length of it, on Saturday night by my cat. For some absurd reason he decided to fly low towards my cat (he usually flies around the house) and the cat casually reached a paw out and got his middle toe. It bled just a little, and I calmly ran Logan's toe under the water faucet, applied pressure and it stopped. I was completely panicking because I KNOW what a cat scratch can mean for a bird. I kept telling Logan "it's ok", to which he always repeats "it's ok" and leans in a for a head kiss.
I found an ER Avian vet open at 10pm on a Saturday, and my husband and I got Logan into his travel cage. All of this of course made the toe bleed a little more.
We got to the vet and they immediately took him back to check his vitals. After a long while, they told me he was quite stressed and they wanted to give him a mild sedative to keep him calm enough to examine and clean wound. So we waited a while longer and then were told - the wound was not too bad, it should heal on it's own and they bandaged it. They want to give him an injectable antibiotic every 8 hrs to get ahead of a certain cat pathogen, along with an anti inflammatory and some gabapentin to keep him calm. They wanted to keep him till Monday to guarantee he was getting the antibiotics.
They asked me if I would be able to towel him and give him 2 oral antibiotics and an oral pain med twice a day for 10 days. I should mention here that Logan is a VERY stubborn guy, very smart and cannot be forced to do anything. He will be furious at me over much smaller things. He HATES towels or any square shaped cloth, to the point you can't even walk by him with a washcloth in your hand without him throwing himself across the cage, due to being toweled by a vet in the past.
He is 10 yrs old, I have had him since he was 5 months old, he is like my child. I would pay any price and do anything for him. But I will not towel him and force 3 different medicines in his mouth twice a day for 10 days. I KNOWhe will hate me and I will break his trust. My husband also doesn't want to be hated by him, and I have no one else willing to handle him and administer medicines to him. The vet said it's too much medicine to try to hide in food, and he has to get ALL of it everyday.
So I decided to board him at the vet for the length of the 10 day antibiotic course. I am sick to my stomach, I dont know if this is the right choice. He has never been away from me, he is my whole world, we are very bonded. I am terrified this will psychologically traumatize and damage him. I'm afraid he will be a completely different bird when he comes home next Monday. I'm afraid he will still blame me and hate me for all of this. He's so smart but emotionally immature. Like a toddler.
The vet has been updating me every morning at 10. They are keeping him a little loopy with the gabapentin, they decided to put a couple stitches in his toe since it does keep reopening when they change bandages, but it's not infected. He's eating the seed mix they have (seeds are his favorite thing in the world), walking around his cage, pooping normally, looking around, stepping up to everyone just fine. But I still am distraught at the thought of him being terrified for 10 days, away from home.
What would you all have done? Did I make a terrible mistake? I can always go there and take him home earlier. Thank you for listening to me and any advice you have.
Hi, I'm new here and I'm very distraught. My Timneh, Logan, got scratched on his toe, the whole length of it, on Saturday night by my cat. For some absurd reason he decided to fly low towards my cat (he usually flies around the house) and the cat casually reached a paw out and got his middle toe. It bled just a little, and I calmly ran Logan's toe under the water faucet, applied pressure and it stopped. I was completely panicking because I KNOW what a cat scratch can mean for a bird. I kept telling Logan "it's ok", to which he always repeats "it's ok" and leans in a for a head kiss.
I found an ER Avian vet open at 10pm on a Saturday, and my husband and I got Logan into his travel cage. All of this of course made the toe bleed a little more.
We got to the vet and they immediately took him back to check his vitals. After a long while, they told me he was quite stressed and they wanted to give him a mild sedative to keep him calm enough to examine and clean wound. So we waited a while longer and then were told - the wound was not too bad, it should heal on it's own and they bandaged it. They want to give him an injectable antibiotic every 8 hrs to get ahead of a certain cat pathogen, along with an anti inflammatory and some gabapentin to keep him calm. They wanted to keep him till Monday to guarantee he was getting the antibiotics.
They asked me if I would be able to towel him and give him 2 oral antibiotics and an oral pain med twice a day for 10 days. I should mention here that Logan is a VERY stubborn guy, very smart and cannot be forced to do anything. He will be furious at me over much smaller things. He HATES towels or any square shaped cloth, to the point you can't even walk by him with a washcloth in your hand without him throwing himself across the cage, due to being toweled by a vet in the past.
He is 10 yrs old, I have had him since he was 5 months old, he is like my child. I would pay any price and do anything for him. But I will not towel him and force 3 different medicines in his mouth twice a day for 10 days. I KNOWhe will hate me and I will break his trust. My husband also doesn't want to be hated by him, and I have no one else willing to handle him and administer medicines to him. The vet said it's too much medicine to try to hide in food, and he has to get ALL of it everyday.
So I decided to board him at the vet for the length of the 10 day antibiotic course. I am sick to my stomach, I dont know if this is the right choice. He has never been away from me, he is my whole world, we are very bonded. I am terrified this will psychologically traumatize and damage him. I'm afraid he will be a completely different bird when he comes home next Monday. I'm afraid he will still blame me and hate me for all of this. He's so smart but emotionally immature. Like a toddler.
The vet has been updating me every morning at 10. They are keeping him a little loopy with the gabapentin, they decided to put a couple stitches in his toe since it does keep reopening when they change bandages, but it's not infected. He's eating the seed mix they have (seeds are his favorite thing in the world), walking around his cage, pooping normally, looking around, stepping up to everyone just fine. But I still am distraught at the thought of him being terrified for 10 days, away from home.
What would you all have done? Did I make a terrible mistake? I can always go there and take him home earlier. Thank you for listening to me and any advice you have.
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