Please~~ do your part to stop PDD

[Lisa B]

hi...I'm sitting here in tears because I just recieved this from a friend. She has another grey and a macaw.....
I have not met her in person, but yet, she is my friend. I have emailed her for years...I knew nothing of JJ being sick, and I had sent her an email to let her know what I was up to....this is her letter back to me this morning.
I dont even know what to say to her. All's I can do is cry, and worry about her other babies, and hold my own a bit closer....
We've got to find a cure.


hello Lisa,
i tell with a sad sad heart that i lost my jj to pdd this morning..........how ironic u were working for funding for this disgusting disease.........it was a sorrowful death ...wanted to share and here he is here in a happier time not so long ago...he was sick and gone within a month.....so so so sad for hubby and i..................at least we can think of him flying high in heaven without any thing to hold him back......becuz mark used to hold him in the palm of his hand and take him around the rooms so he could feel like he was flying.........we loved him dearly

thnx barb

[The Outlaw]

I know exactly that pain. Its so awful to watch bird literally starve to death and then have seizures. I can't begin to describe how horrendous it is.

I will work to fund Dr. Ritchie until I can say, with pride, its cured or at least controlled. Nothing in my lifetime has haunted me more than the last time I saw Rainbow alive. I will never forget. Ever.

[Winged_Victory]

Lisa,

My heart goes out to your friend and JJ !!!

I have tears in my eyes as I type this note.................

[Quito's Qage]

Oh Lisa, how awful. Please try to take some comfort in that you are certainly doing your part to halt this awful disease. I just went and bought a ticket in memory of Barb's JJ. Someday our wish will become reality!

[Irish]

How terribly sad. I, too, am in tears. Just thinking about my own babies, and knowing that, but for the grace of God, they could suffer the same fate, fills me with terror. I hope and pray that our donations and Dr. Ritchie's research yields a good result SOON!

[felisdomesticus]

Outlaw, who was Rainbow?

do they know how birds contract PDD?

[AmandaB]

I'm so sorry for your friend Lisa, my heart goes out to her. Thank you and everyone else that works so hard at beating this disease. (((hugs)))

[Izzy2006]

I have tears in my eyes and want to know how to help.

[The Outlaw]

About 2 and a half years ago, I met a local girl in a pet store we both frequent. We apparently had been buying birds at the same time and unbeknowst to either of us, we were being played against each other.

I had long wanted a GW, but Fate kept delivering BGs to my door instead. Learning how close she lived to me, I invited her over to meet my fids. It was then that I learned about all of her birds and was introduced to Rainbow shortly thereafter.

I really think that the store owner had ordered him from a breeder in TN because I kept looking for a baby GW. By the time he did arrive, I had a full house. So, my friend bought him.

Part 2: Fate spares me

This girl had a lot of birds. In fact, she was in over her head. Rainbow was just a baby when I met him, about a year old. He had never really been the lively baby that she had expected. However since it was her first GW baby and she knew they were more laid back than BGs she wasn't very alarmed.

When I first met him, I was TOTALLY captivated by him. Even with a house full of beautiful birds, I was just nuts about this bird. However, I did notice he was very,very thin. I don't think she had a clue about weighing her birds, so she really had no idea what his weight should be. Somewhere in August, after having spent many days with her, her air conditioner died in her home. It was stifling inside. She had a lot of birds and I sent every spare fan I had to her home. Still Rainbow had stopped eating. I suggested that she bring him to my home for the evening. Thank God I elected to keep him in the playroom away from my own birds. I always clean the gyms after I remove the birds and place them back in their freshly cleaned cages.

I made up a batch of sweet potato mash hoping to entice him to eat. He gobbled it up as if he was starving. In fact he was. I gave him a spoon and he fed himself. That is what he's doing in this photo.

About 20 minutes later, I noticed a pile of orange looking food on the bottom of his playstand. It was bubbly. I knew this was a bad sign. I then carefully checked his droppings and saw the telltale signs: undigested seed. Even then I knew what we were dealing with.

His condition grew worse over the next few days. I talked my friend into taking him to Dr. Zantop, a well known and highly respected avian vet. After intial examination, he ordered radiographs. He also suspected the worst: PDD.

A crop biopsy confirmed everyone's greatest fear: he did in fact have PDD. Immediately he was started on a course of Celebrex to reduce the swelling in his digestive tract. He also had Megabacteria, another telltale sign. This is a very nasty bacteria and would haunt him over and over again until his last day.

Rainbow's treatment involved daily chest shots and oral medications. He needed meds to keep his food down, he needed special food that wouldn't irritate his gut. I cooked for him daily. Together, she and I treated this poor bird.

He would rally and seem to improve only to crash and burn over and over again. It was heartbreaking. In the meantime, while treating him, her SI Ekkie started showing signs of the neurological symptoms. She started to convulse. Electra only lasted about a month once she was diagnosed positive for PDD.

The nightmare got worse. She had approximately 30 birds in her home, from finches to a Buffons. Most of her birds were large parrots.

She had spent over $5,000 and had one dead Ekkie and one dying GW. And, no one knew who would be next.

We always knew his days were numbered. I had gone with her when she decided it was time to euthanize Electra. I have to tell you, that still haunts my dreams. I stood with her as the shot was administered.

I also told her that even though I felt her pain, I COULD NOT go with her when Rainbow got that bad. I just couldn't bear the thought of watching him die.

Aproximately 6 months after diagnosis, Rainbow had to be euthanized. Nothing worked anymore. He could no longer perch or eat. He was a skeleton. She took him one day to have him put down. I didn't even find out for 3 weeks. She just didn't have the heart to tell me.

Part 3 How did they get it?

The problem with PDD is that it manifests itself differently often. Sometimes, its all about digestive problems. Other times, its about balancing and stability. The neurological symptoms I mentioned earlier. Both Rainbow and Electra were purchased from two different places within a few months of each other. Electra was older and was a rehome. Rainbow came from the breeder to the petstore and then to her. No other bird in her home ever showed any more signs of the disease to date.

In my gut, I've always suspected that the Ekkie was actually the first bird. However, since her symptoms didn't manifest the same way and since she was totally unhandleable, we simply didn't notice her until it became very evident. To the best of my knowledge, the pet store and the breeder have never had any instances of PDD to date.

We may never know for sure. It doesn't really matter. We simply MUST find a vaccine to save them. Anything less is inhumane. Its our obligation to protect them once we own them. JMHO

[poi_lover]

Nancy-

How sad. What happened to her other birds?