To say my girl is neurotic is probably putting it lightly. I don't WANT to put her on a plane, I'm afraid she may kill herself, that's where the meds come in. I had planned to DRIVE her, along with my family, from Alaska to Alabama. I'm running into all kinds of hitches with getting her in and out of Canada, though, and the ONLY way to drive from Alaska to the 48 contiguous states is to go through Canada. The plane is the only other option to be able to get her out of Alaska. We could take a ferry from Alaska to Washington, but we still have to drive through Canada to get to the ferry port in Alaska from where we are now.

Ahhh, now I see. You are in a pickle. But it sounds like your only option is to put her on a plane. A non-stop flight if possible. Ask your vet about the different sedatives for birds. Something a little stronger then Rescue Remedy. I have a list of them at work, but I don't go back until Tuesday. There is one in particular that I like that the birds do great with, but it has to be compounded at the pharmacy. If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know. BTW, shipping is really inexpensive!

I would love to hear about the one you like best. We have an "old-fashioned" pharmacy here, he had to compound the "birdie prozac" we tried for her plucking, I thought it was pretty cool, I didn't know pharmacists still existed that did that!

We have 2 compounding pharmacies we work with. They are amazing. We use them quite a bit, especially since cats can be hard to deal with when giving meds. What was the meds they gave you for plucking?

I can't remember (it's been 3-4 years) but I'm going to try to get in to talk to my vet next week, and I'm guessing it's probably in her records, so I'll ask her what it was. All I remember about it is it was supposed to calm her some, and that I could only get it at this one pharmacy because it had to be mixed special. While I was waiting for the pharmacist to make it, he let me pick what flavor he put in it LOL. (I went with banana because my girl's favorite treat is banana chips, but she wasn't having anything to do with those meds, my walls and ceiling got a lot of yellow streaks though!)

I remember the pharmacy had a shelf of things the pharmacist mixed himself, like headache remedies and such. (I want to be a pharmacist up until I failed high school chemistry, so I found that pharmacy very interesting to visit )

I'm on strict bedrest, but I see my doc on Monday, so I'm going to ask "permission" to take my girl to vet because hubby absolutely cannot take time off until paternity leave starts, so maybe she will say OK...that's the only thing holding me back from a vet visit to get her thoughts on the whole ordeal. If not, we are setting my induction date at my appointment, and it should be around April 1st, so I should be able to get her to the vet by mid-April at the latest, or hubby can take her while he's on leave after our little guy comes. (I'd rather take her, even though hubby is her person, because I want to hear personally what the vet says about the meds, and he isn't the greatest at asking questions I might find important, if that makes sense)

Further update from my first post:

I called Canada on Friday, talked to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency - Importation of Personally-Owned Pet Birds from the United States

They also said it was highly unlikely she would clear the border, and referred me to Canada Border Services. They said have a health certificate and make an appointment for a CFI vet (Food inspection maybe?? They only said the CFI letters, so I'm assuming) to inspect her at the border, said they might even do blood tests on her at the border to be certain she was healthy.

They referred me to another number, where I was informed the border crossing we intended to use (Port Alcan) is a phone only?????? place and we couldn't cross there if we had things to declare, such as pets...and therefore I couldn't schedule for a vet to check her there. The only other crossing I see out of Alaska is near Dawson City, and they say that CFI vets don't go there either?!?!?! But when I tried to call that crossing, I didn't get an answer, so I'll try again next week.

Hubby says to heck with trying to figure this out, let's just fly her (I told him you guys said there were some meds available)...that may be the route we take in the end, because the stress of trying to get straight answers isn't exactly good for me/baby right now, I'm already having blood pressure issues but I'm not ready to give up on her driving with us YET. I'm afraid if I give it up until after baby comes, I won't have enough times to get the CITES certificate and whatever stuff I will need to get her back into the US.

What is REALLY aggravating...and granted, this was before passports were required to drive through Canada....when we moved to Alaska, at the crossing, we handed over ID for us and all the kids, along with our military orders, and THAT WAS IT, they let us through. They didn't ask for proof I had permission to take my oldest kids (DH isn't their bio-dad, they have a different last name) out of the US, they didn't ask to see health certificates for the German Shepherd that was barking at them or for the two cats, they didn't look at our insurance or vehicle registration, NOTHING. We actually had more hassle getting back into the US simply because we had to show receipts for things we'd purchased in Canada.

Other people, though, also on military orders, traveling within weeks of us at the same border crossings...they had to completely empty their vehicles and show all kinds of documentation.

If only I KNEW it would be so easy now...heck, no one would even know she was in the truck!

Gosh, this whole thing makes me angry.

Rescue Remedy is good for relieving stress, just be aware, that that is all it does... Helps keep them calm. I've used it for animals and for myself...it is a mild relaxer, natural, and seems to do its job. But, if you suspect your animal may be high strung or more than just STRESSED OUT, you may need an actual sedative. Only you can be sure of that, because we dont know your bird.... it will be best to talk to your vet about this.
Flying seems like a good option for you. Get it done and over with....you don't need the extra stress any more than your bird does.

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A parrot is more than just color and a pretty face. They are our closest friends.
Holly Misty

I just went onto Alaska airlines/cargo's website. It does not look like you would have a problem getting her where you need her to go, other then do you have someone to pick her up at the airport?

I have my girl an appointment for Monday to get her nails and beak done, and the vet is going to talk to me about safely flying her. I had the girl setting up the appointment give me the med name we used for plucking, it was AMITRIPTYLINE. (An anti-depressant according to Google, and I could only find one site that reference using it in birds...but you have to be a member to access the article.)

ETA: My 16 yr old will probably stay in Alaska for a week after the rest of the family leaves, and then she'll fly to Seattle to meet us. (We're visiting friends there) Then she'll fly from Seattle to Georgia or Florida to stay with her grandparents until we get there. (We bought a 5 passenger truck 2 weeks before we found out about our little surprise, oops, so there isn't room for DH, I, and 4 kids in it!) Anyway, my B&G can stay with my daughter (the friends she is staying with are the people who have always pet-sat for us when we were on vacation, so my girlie knows them well, plus they lived across the street from us for 4 years) and then can fly to Seattle with her. We'll pick her up at Seattle and she'll travel the rest of the way with us. The only problem is I may not be able to do a non-stop flight to Seattle, usually Alaska Air stops in Anchorage on the way to Seattle from here.

I just have to figure out the cage issue, because I don't think her big cage will fit on the plane, but we shall see.

That is the same meds we use for them. It works great doesn't it? When we ship birds to their new homes, we use the big dog crates. We also install a perch inside of the carrier for them and put toys in also. They travel very well inside of them. Good luck with everything.

I forgot to mention, Amitriptyline can be compounded into a transdermal, meaning you won't have to give it to her orally, just rub prescibed amount up under her wing and it absorbs through the skin. Works just as great.