JonJon
New member
- Jun 13, 2017
- 11
- 0
Hey everyone. We lost our little Maritaca yesterday. At least that was the name of his species here in Brazil. I think he was possibly a Pionus. We tried our best to give him an amazing, affection and attention filled life and are devastated that he has gone. The thing is, and my reason for posting, is that we have no idea why. The day before he was his normal excited little self. He was eating normally. His poop was totally normal. There were no signs of any behavioural change at all. Then, in the night I heard him awake and went to check on him, and even took him for a little while to comfort him and he seemed like he just needed sleep. The next day, I left him to sleep longer than usual to catch-up. It's cooler here now, so we cover him at night and he likes a little cave. Sometimes we take him in the bedroom for half hour's play as a little treat and he loves going down and under the bed covers. I took him at about 11am in the end, and he was so weak. He had trouble coming down from his bottom perch to the floor. I assumed he was tired still, and so I took him into a calm and distraction free room to comfort him again and turned off the light so he could maybe sleep some more. He also ate and drank, but just a little. He did sleep, but after a while I noticed he was losing his balance very easily and I could also hear a clicking as he breathed. When that turned into a wheezing noise (although he wasn't gasping for air or anything like that) we called the vet. His poop, although regular during the day, also turned more watery but with a black tar-like substance instead of his normal deep green and white. We only have one vet here and he couldn't come until after 4. I stayed with Taca all day and tried to encourage him to eat. He didn't want to. He just wanted to sleep, which he did on and around me until he passed away just as the vet arrived. I feel in some way like I let him down. Yet, I tried everything to make his life as good as the one he would have had outside his little house (we didn't call it a cage). What do you think happened that could have come on so suddenly and taken him so quickly?
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