A crazy ride...

StephenAndKyleigh

New member
Jul 29, 2015
530
0
Dallas, TX
Parrots
Kyleigh, B&G Macaw -
Peanut, Yellow Collar Mini Macaw -
Aaliyah, Green Wing Macaw
So, my life has been rather eventful lately. On June 21st, I was set to bring home and big beautiful baby girl green wing. We brought her home and instantly fell in love with her. Her name was Aaaliyah, named after the young singer the died in a plane crash in the early 2000s. My wife and I had been in love with her since March 24th, the day she hatched. She was the perfect addition to complete our flock of now three.

Aaliyah comes home and I notice she is often panting, wings out, and moving a bit slow. I thought maybe it was because she was young and her lungs were still developing. I took note of it and planned to ask my vet in a couple days had things not gotten better. Well, things didn't get better. In fact, they quickly got worse. After two days of having her at home, the breeder calls me that evening. I assumed it was to check on the status of our little girl, but unfortunately, it wasn't. She informed us that she had not DNA's Aaliyah until the day I picked her up. This precious little girl in my hand - was actually a boy. Before reading the rest of this, I want you to understand that I have zero knowledge or experience in breeding, mating, or hormonal macaws. My initial reaction was a slight bit of panic. I instantly began to think of the male green wing and my female blue and gold mating, I had thoughts of becoming an accidental breeder, and of my female blue and gold and this bird bonding together, and I losing the relationship that I have built with my blue and gold.

It wasn't a good evening for me. Long story shot, I reached out to some experience macaw owners and I made the decision to keep the boy. Honestly, I had already fallen in love with him over the last months that the breeder had been sending me pictures. It was a tough decision, but I completely feel like I made the right one.

While all of this is happening I notice that he had been vomiting his formula. Originally, I thought it was something I had been doing wrong. He had been here for less than 8 hours when he vomited the formula the breeder gave him before I brought him home. He vomited again the first night I fed him, as well as the next morning. This continued and I became more worried. I took him to the vet and learned he had an infection in his crop, aspiration pneumonia, and an anomaly of sort some in his crop as well. That day was nothing short of a nightmare. By this time he had lost over 200g seemingly over night and was gasping for air and keeping his neck out stretched. I thought I was going to lose my baby boy.

Thankfully, we take our birds to a highly skilled, knowledgeable, and professional vet that knew exactly what to do. He's been placed on four medications over the last two weeks. We've been offering formula often to put weight back on him and have continuously kept solid foods in front of him.

This has been a learning experience. Unfortunately, the breeder offered no help during this time. They made a nasty status about me on Facebook to cover their tails. Today, Ali, my baby, is doing well. He's still on meds, but the vet and I believe he will make a full recovery. We go back for X Rays to check out his crop next week.

This has been my life. It's been pretty stressful as I have never dealt with a sick bird.

Thanks for listening.

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Allee

Well-known member
Oct 27, 2013
16,852
Media
2
213
Texas
Parrots
U2-Poppy(Poppy lives with her new mommy, Misty now) CAG-Jack, YNA, Bingo, Budgie-Piper, Cockatiel-Sweet Pea Quakers-Harry, Sammy, Wilson ***Zeke (quaker) Twinkle (budgie) forever in our hearts
Stephen, I'm sorry for all you've been through recently. Your baby BOY (what a surprise) is stunning, so beautiful! I'm glad you caught the crop issue immediately and got Ali in for treatment. I hope the check up proves the problem is completely cured. It's a real shame Ali's breeder wasn't more supportive, under the circumstances he should have been there for you at the very least. I'm glad everything is going well for you and your flock now. I hope it continues.
 

plumsmum2005

New member
Nov 18, 2015
5,330
94
England, UK
Parrots
Lou, Ruby, and Sonu.
Fly free Plum, my gorgeous boy.
Wow what a time you have had. Lovely to see your flock and all good wishes for continued improvement to Ali.
 

OutlawedSpirit

New member
Apr 12, 2016
1,020
21
Northern Illinois, USA
Parrots
Bo - DYH ~ Gus - CAG ~ Twitch - Linnie ~ Apple - Pineapple GCC ~ Goliath - Quaker ~ Squish - Peach face Lovebird
I hope Ali is brought back to completely good health soon. At least you were able to get him care quickly, so hopefully all comes out well. He is a stunning boy, and I'm glad to hear how smitten you are with him already.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
 

DexMom

New member
Jul 18, 2015
429
0
New Jersey
Parrots
Dexter, SI Eclectus
I'm so sorry for all the trouble and worry that you've been through with your new baby boy, Ali. I hope he recovers quickly and as expected.

I'm also very glad that he has you to take care of him. A lesser owner may not have noticed or acted as quickly on his symptoms and/or may have given up on him in his time of need. He's so blessed to have you.
 

SailBoat

Supporting Member
Jul 10, 2015
17,671
10,076
Western, Michigan
Parrots
DYH Amazon
You have experienced the great advantage of having an excellent Vet!
So very happy that all appears to be going well now!

It is interesting that the Breeder waited so very long to get DNA testing done! Not sure that I'm buying it. Did/has the Breeder provide you with the Certification Document, if not please make every effort to obtain it. After all, you're purchase of your new baby included the cost of that Document.

I would suggest that you make it a point to make a hard copy of whatever the Breeder put on their FaceBook page regarding the event as it will likely get pulled fairly quickly!

Well the great news is; Baby is on the mend!
 

junglenutcracker

New member
Apr 25, 2015
149
1
Parrots
GW Macaw, CAG, eclectus (Kiwi- RIP)
Wow! What a crazy ride indeed. Glad to see that everything is going well for your new GW —*and what a lovely looking GW boy it is!
 

MonicaMc

Well-known member
Sep 12, 2012
7,960
Media
2
43
Parrots
Mitred Conure - Charlie 1994;
Cockatiel - Casey 2001;
Wild Caught ARN - Sylphie 2013
Does this breeder not offer a health guarantee??? Considering the difficulties, the breeder should have at least paid for those vet bills, and you have the records to prove that you were sold a sick bird!



At least he's doing better now! And that's what *REALLY* matters!
 
OP
StephenAndKyleigh

StephenAndKyleigh

New member
Jul 29, 2015
530
0
Dallas, TX
Parrots
Kyleigh, B&G Macaw -
Peanut, Yellow Collar Mini Macaw -
Aaliyah, Green Wing Macaw
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #9
Thanks so much, folks. My baby boy is doing so awesome now. He's gained weight and we are off of medication. He's flying around and is gentle as could be. I couldn't be happier.
 

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