Sickly cockateil emergency!

[Akuma223]

Okay, so I'm working at the pet area in countrymax and we got a pretty ragged looking grey cockateil in from our new vendor. I don't know the gender.

His feet look almost swollen and darker pink than I think is normal and is missing 2 or 3 nails. Tail feathers were pretty frayed, very small bald spot on the head (barely noticeable), and it looks like there is a little green residue from feces around his/her cloaca. I clipped his/her wings today, I feel it needed to be done if I am to be able to work with him at all. When he chewed on my fingers very strongly he left a little green residue?

He was very very fiesty when I went to clip his wings which is a good sign, lots of squawking and flailing like a healthy teil would do. After awhile he got extremely tired and stopped fighting back and let me cradle him and pet his head which made me worry.

Most pressing matter is the pet manager (not the in store one someone higher up) wants to send the bird back because of the terrible condition he came in. We got the birds Friday and he still is fluffed up and shaky, while the parakeets we got in have settled in by now.

If I don't buy him she'll have him sent back which will be really bad for him, she'll sell him to me for 75$ (they bought him for 70). What should I do? I don't have a space ready for him and I work two jobs. I'd still spend the rest of my time with him but what if he dies?

What should I do? I need to make a decision by tomarrow, I really want a cockateil but I don't know what to do in this situation.

 

[Peppo]

So sad! I hate to say this....but....BUY HIM!
That's what I would do anyway. Man can't they give you a good, caring employee award discount or something?

 

[Akuma223]

So sad! I hate to say this....but....BUY HIM!
That's what I would do anyway. Man can't they give you a good, caring employee award discount or something?

Well, 75 would be a huge employee discount. They'd only profit 5$ of it.

 

[ToMang07]

So sad! I hate to say this....but....BUY HIM!
That's what I would do anyway. Man can't they give you a good, caring employee award discount or something?

Well, 75 would be a huge employee discount. They'd only profit 5$ of it.

For a sickly animal.

IMHO... The bird sounds like it is certainly in need of a vet visit, and the only way I see that happening is you buying/bringing the bird yourself.

It sucks, but it is what it is.

Good luck to you and your feathered friend.

 

[Akuma223]

Do you guys think there is a good chance he'll just drop dead even if I do try to help him? I honestly wouldn't be able to handle that mentally or financially, if there is a good chance he can recover then I may go for it. Otherwise maybe I shouldn't.

 

[gracebowen]

Maybe you could take him to a vet and get their opinion before you adopt him?

 

[OOwl]

If you buy him, factor in a vet visit because it sounds like he needs one. Poor guy. What kind of a store is Countrymax? We don't have those in Texas that I know of. I'm guessing you're not dealing with a reputable breeder supplying these bulk orders of birds?

 

[Akuma223]

If you buy him, factor in a vet visit because it sounds like he needs one. Poor guy. What kind of a store is Countrymax? We don't have those in Texas that I know of. I'm guessing you're not dealing with a reputable breeder supplying these bulk orders of birds?

Countrymax is kinda like tractor supply I guess but much smaller. I just started working the pet area and love it, my co-worker who manages the small area wanted me hired because I have experiance with all sorts of critters. He does good by the animals.

I would assume a reputable breeder is not involved in any step of this process but I don't know. It's definitely something I will look into, I've had plans on improving other aspects of our area and trying to find breeders rather than some mysterious (to me at least) big vendor is one of them. Reptiles are my primary concern and interest, birds are the other priority of mine. We never have many birds at all, only 6 parakeets and the cockateil right now. Before this last order we only had one pair of keets for a couple of weeks.

 

[Akuma223]

Maybe you could take him to a vet and get their opinion before you adopt him?

Ideally, don't know how I'd do that though. Not sure they'd be comfortable with me taking the bird two towns over to my vet of choice :/

 

[Akuma223]

He/she has colors/markings very much like this bird here. Pic not mine

 

[Comment]

I would take the bird to a vet asap. Cockatiels are pretty tough birds but yours seem to be very sick to me and if it has diarrhea (I say it because of the residue around the cloaca you mention) it can be an infection and pass it on other birds. I don't think you are going to sell it in that bad shape anyway. I hope he/she gets better and find a nice home.

 

[Akuma223]

Well, it's time for me to go to work. Well see later what I do. Hopefully the vet and the bird rescue will call me back so I can have professional guidance on what would be most logical.

 

[Piasa]

Sounds like he may have been attacked by another bird at some point, with the bald spots and injured feet. The poop issues could be something bad, but depending on how long he's been there at the store, he may have just been too traumatized to clean himself too. Hard to know. I really hope you can take him! I don't know how much of a chance he'd have if he were sent back

Good on you for working with your store to source birds from reputable breeders, and to improve things for them within the store. This helps everyone.

Please let us know how things play out.

 

[gracebowen]

So what happened?

 

[plumsmum2005]

Well done on your caring and compassionate concern for the little one. Please be aware that whatever is causing this little bird problems could be highly contagious and easily passed on to the others it came with or you and yours? Please use strict hygiene practices. If you explain this to your manager it may scare them to let you take the bird away. Please be extremely careful until you know what it is though.

 

[Jukster56]

Okay, so I'm working at the pet area in countrymax and we got a pretty ragged looking grey cockateil in from our new vendor. I don't know the gender.

His feet look almost swollen and darker pink than I think is normal and is missing 2 or 3 nails. Tail feathers were pretty frayed, very small bald spot on the head (barely noticeable), and it looks like there is a little green residue from feces around his/her cloaca. I clipped his/her wings today, I feel it needed to be done if I am to be able to work with him at all. When he chewed on my fingers very strongly he left a little green residue?

He was very very fiesty when I went to clip his wings which is a good sign, lots of squawking and flailing like a healthy teil would do. After awhile he got extremely tired and stopped fighting back and let me cradle him and pet his head which made me worry.

Most pressing matter is the pet manager (not the in store one someone higher up) wants to send the bird back because of the terrible condition he came in. We got the birds Friday and he still is fluffed up and shaky, while the parakeets we got in have settled in by now.

If I don't buy him she'll have him sent back which will be really bad for him, she'll sell him to me for 75$ (they bought him for 70). What should I do? I don't have a space ready for him and I work two jobs. I'd still spend the rest of my time with him but what if he dies?

What should I do? I need to make a decision by tomarrow, I really want a cockateil but I don't know what to do in this situation.

He might be atacked by other birds that he was shiped with.In my 2 near pet shops they are keaping like 10 cockatiels and 3 indian ringnecks so yeh....