Greiving Parrot Owner

[Dharma1911]

My husband is having a really hard time bc Duke was his bird in '73 until I came along in '88, so he has had him the entire 43 year. This is so hard on him and I just need to let him work out his grief.

 

[Birdman666]

I thought so... that is what we have always been told and this vet has no idea what he is talking about saying he is really more like 70 years old. We also do not believe he died of malnutrition. We think the vet screwed up and is trying to hide it. He seemed very concerned when we insisted on bringing him back home after he died instead of leaving him at the vet.
Thanks.

Well there is such a thing as macaw wasting syndrome, which is an actual fatal disease where no matter how much you feed the bird, they are unable to process the nutrients. I'm not a vet, but malnutrition, if you were feeding him properly all these years and nothing changed in his diet, does not appear to be a correct diagnosis, absent some sort of disease process like macaw wasting syndrome. That happens, and there is just nothing that can be done about it. It's a disease, and it's fatal. So, if there were "malnurishment" findings and he was eating normally, THAT would be my number one suspected cause of death.

A necropsy is the only way to know for sure.

But as you know, birds mask their illnesses until they just can't do it anymore. By the time they show any symptoms at all, they are usually gravely ill... My BFA went downhill very fast, like 3-4 days from normal behaviors to "dead"... the end comes swiftly. Which on some levels is a blessing.

 

[bill_e]

Sorry about your loss. I lost my OWA of 40 years back in the fall and the loss left a void in my life. I jumped right back in with a re-homed bird and I've been very happy since. I still think of her and call my new bird by her name half the time but Nike has definitely made the loss easier.