Feeling drained, sad worried, about my babies

[cockatielmommy]

I have 9 cockatiels and one 11-year-old cat . Most my fids have been rescues and half of them are over 10 years old with a couple being in the 15 year range, most having had poor nutrition in their early years.

Just venting

I haven't really been in touch with anyone much as during December, January, and part of February. I had quite a time with my baby bird’s mom. She has severe crop stasis. Being a good mom and keeping her baby full, she decided she had to have as much food as possible available to her baby. She way over stuffed herself, and greatly overstretched her crop. There was no problem with this as she always emptied it fast feeding her baby. The problem occurred after she weaned her baby, she was left with an over stretched crop. This lead to the crop stasis as she had difficulty emptying her crop.

She had a serious bacterial infection, and I came close to losing her (Louise). She had to go on antibiotics twice as the bacterium was resistant to the first antibiotic. I also had to give her an anti-fungal medicine, because of the antibiotic. She was in an out of vet hospital in an incubator, having crop washes, crop feeding, and her medicine had to be given by mouth via a syringe, sort of like crop feeding. She hated the medicine and gave me no end of grief, trying to give it to her. She is doing quite well now but needs to wear a crop bra sometimes if she eats too much.

I spent in the neighborhood of $700 in vet bills on her so far. I was extremely fortunate to find a caring avian vet , other wise she would not have survived. Then a week or so ago I noticed my other older cockatiel Georgie (15 years old) was not eating and he was rapidly losing weight. I took him to the vet in town to get blood work done and being that they only had cursory knowledge on birds they took his blood from his toenails, 4 toes to be exact, then cauterized them. I thought they could at least manage to do the blood tests thinking it was simple. So I took him to the avian vet, which I should have done in the first place. I was trying to save the money it would cost to drive to Winfield in my gas guzzling van. The only thing I accomplished was having my poor baby traumatized. So now days later, giving him medicine for liver problems, and finding somewhere to get Milk Thistle in a suspension form, and caring for him, has been draining, emotionally and physically, not to mention financially. That has cost me another $260.

Then just too make things more awful, last night my 11-year-old cat (Scruffy) had a stroke and went blind till this afternoon. Scared the BE GEES out of me. So it is off to the vet I go again. The stroke might have been caused by high blood pressure, due to an aging heart. She now has a heart murmur, and we are on a wait and see mode. If it happens again I will have to pay for special blood work and x-rays to pin point exactly what medicine she will need, and that will be $300, on top of the $60 I paid today.

I am so very worried about all my babies that I just keep checking on them all the time just to make sure they are still alive. I am so drained, tired and I am starting to get depressed.

Well I guess it’s time to wrap my mind around to the fact that I have to steel my self to, “Go with the flow and what ever is going to be, will be”, and try to accept that.

Well anyway I really should not dump this sad story on you. I guess I just wanted to tell someone, who could relate to it.

Anyway I hope you babies are all well and you have a good day.

Linda

[catschair]

I am so sorry you are going through such a hard time. Your animals are lucky to have such a devoted mom. I hope everything goes well with your kitty; it is amazing how these babies wrap themselves around your heart. Please feel free to share with us; that is an important part of a community. Sending best wishes to you and your crew.

[red192]

GREAT BIG HUGS OUT TO YOU AND YOUR LOVING LITTLE FID FAMILY! I had a cat for 23 human years! She died New years day 2002, so your baby has a few more years left in her.

[featherfanatics]

(((HUG))) I'm sorry your going thru such a tough time.

[dancelady]

Linda, I am so sorry to hear about all the troubles you've been through, and I hope that it is all going to get much better from here on. Your cat Scruffy is a lovely one, and I hope is doing a lot better. Louise and Georgie are in our minds as well. You have had a rough time and very expensive. We are here to help you and pray for you.

[Suesue]

Hugggssssssssssss how very special all of your babies are to have you.

[cockatielmommy]

Scruffy seams to be doing better and her eyes have started to dilate properly now, and she seems to be her old self again. Her eyes were so dilated that she was blind for about 18 hours. Now she is fine, but I have to watch her from now on. The vet says she has now developed a heart murmur.

Louise is doing fine , but is puffing her crop again so I have had to put her crop bra on again. I have some pics of her with it on.

Georgie is doing better, on his meds. I still have to try to find someone to make this Milk Thistle suspension to give him. I don't even know how to make a suspension. If anyone knows how to do this please let me know as it is fine to get the first meds by prescription, but since he has to be on this the rest of his life, I sure would not like to have to pay $50 per refill.

I personally take Milk Thistle myself in capsule form, because I have a lot of toxic issues myself, having gone through Chemotherapy 13 years ago for ovarian cancer. I still am dealing with major toxins from that. Since I don't and can't have children, my fids are everything to me, and so is my first baby Scruffy.

anyway here are pics.

[catschair]

So glad to hear things are looking up! Wow, thirteen years in remission (actually, that may be a cure?!) is amazing -- how wonderful. That is the kind of result that makes all the work worthwhile.

[cockatielmommy]

Well here is the scoop:

Scruffy (11 years old Kitty)

Doing great, doesn't seem to be the worse for wear. It's like nothing ever happened, totally her old self again.

Georgie is doing well and is gaining weight. He is hovering around 80 grams now and the milk thistle is only going to cost me about $30 a month.

Louise dropped weight from 95 grams to down to 80 grams then down to 72 grams, and had me scared for awhile. She is now up to 80 grams again. I can get her up to 95 again if I let her have millet, but then she will not eat anything else, and she needs to have good nutrition. I have her on Harisons organic pellets, organic puffed rice, organic puffed corn and the bird bread that I make . no salt, no additives , no dyes, no salt, etc... She mostly lost weight from not wanting to eat the stuff that is good for her. She was holding out for the millet. When she realized that she wasn't going to get it, she started to eat the food that is good for her.

She is doing fine now as well

Linda

[dgcashier]

Glad to see things are looking up. Always seems that "when it rains , it pours" doesn't it??