noodles123
Well-known member
- Jul 11, 2018
- 8,145
- 472
- Parrots
- Umbrella Cockatoo- 15? years old..I think?
Took Noodles to the vet today because I knew she was going to lay an egg again and the last few days she has been showing all the signs. At the risk of complications (since they aren't open and doctor has very very limited hours due having recovered from very serious COVID) I took her in on emergency and went ahead with the prostaglandin...As I believe her 24 hours post-formation had passed...thereby defining her as "egg bound'. I wonder if she just takes longer, because the times when she did it herself, she waited a bit longer, but that amount of polyuria was concerning me because I was afraid she would get too weak if that lasted longer (even though she was eating and drinking).
Egg shot out on the drive home. Replaced it with a dummy that happens to be much larger because I bought new ones based on the size of her last (of course....the last one would have been a match, but this dummy egg is larger compared to this egg *hoping she was too busy contracting to pay attention to details..) I asked about the fact that she is still messing with that old dummy egg and he insisted that I should leave it (even with the new one) until I stop seeing her move it around at night. I will say that it was month to month for a while there, so leaving the egg does seem to have afforded
I am at my wit's end with her laying. I do everything I can to control hormones (12 hours sleep, no shadowy spaces in or out of cage, no nesting materials, petting on head and neck only).
I do cover her cage at night (not before bed--- ONLY AT BEDTIME--which she has memorized from her internal clock), but I use a black out cover and she sleeps in her room with the lights off/ drapes drawn. She puts herself to bed like clock-work, and she is very insistent upon it, but it lines up perfectly w/ 12 hours.
I just don't get how she never had this issue for so many years and then BAM-- and I still think it has to do with how happy she was to see me when I cam home each day after returning to work after the stay-at-home orders all summer. Like, my presence after work pushed her over the edge....
Now we are in a cycle....
I do give her some oatmeal daily, which I guess I could stop doing (it is mushy), but it never caused an issue all these years ....Laura mentioned in another post that maybe I should try not covering the cage at night, but the light/dark hours she would get would be crazy, as it isn't dark until 8 or so and she wakes up with me at 5am (gets light around 6). I also KNOW she would have a fit and wouldn't sleep uncovered, as she has never done it before. She screams in the car if we drive past dark and she isn't in her big cage and covered.....If I didn't cover, she'd get an excessive amount of light and not enough sleep. **TO BE CLEAR--I never ever partially cover the cage or anything crazy like that (which would be a massive trigger). I only cover her at the start of her 12 hours sleep, which she initiates within the hour daily).
OY --OF COURSE this happened on the worst possible day....sucked all of the peace out of my week...I feel like I haven't slept in days.
Any thoughts are welcome.
**I know lupron and other hormonal methods are options for excessive layers, but according to the vet, at egg 3, he said her laying is not "excessive" enough to merit something so invasive..... I wonder if egg 4 changed that opinion. I didn't ask because he was clearly not feeling well after his ordeal and I was squeezed in after his hours (they are shorter because of his covid recovery). The receptionists and techs were exhausted and the whole ordeal just was really really stressful. The egg itself wasn't the stressful part (although polyuria is and egg-bound behavior is terrifying)- but the timing was (that seems to be a trend...always starts mid week and lays it on the dang weekend)
I believe this is egg 4 since November (so she has laid 50% without intervention)...I wonder if this one would have come out on its own (I was starting to think it might this afternoon, but I was terrified that if it didn't Sunday would roll around and I would be out of luck).
I thought about moving her cage, but that would be complicated because of window positioning and the next best room would put her open window at sidewalk level in a very heavily traveled sidewalk RIGHT next to the road. I haven't moved much around in her cage, which I could also do, but again, never had issues before and she really doesn't like changes to her cage very much at all (she gets super scared of certain perches etc)
The vet gave me a huge compliment in terms of how well I know her---I'm like an egg detector LOL. I asked about prolapse risk from intervention and he said it is always a slight risk but that most people wait way too long to get their birds in for this issue and that shouldn't be an issue for her because I act quickly each time. HONESTLY, I cannot imagine waiting any longer (I always wait as long as I can). So that's upsetting to know that people are so out of touch with their animals that they would let it go on and on without noticing. A bird yesterday had an egg stuck to its uterus as a result of waiting and he had to literally peel it off...Can you imagine the horror?
Egg shot out on the drive home. Replaced it with a dummy that happens to be much larger because I bought new ones based on the size of her last (of course....the last one would have been a match, but this dummy egg is larger compared to this egg *hoping she was too busy contracting to pay attention to details..) I asked about the fact that she is still messing with that old dummy egg and he insisted that I should leave it (even with the new one) until I stop seeing her move it around at night. I will say that it was month to month for a while there, so leaving the egg does seem to have afforded
I am at my wit's end with her laying. I do everything I can to control hormones (12 hours sleep, no shadowy spaces in or out of cage, no nesting materials, petting on head and neck only).
I do cover her cage at night (not before bed--- ONLY AT BEDTIME--which she has memorized from her internal clock), but I use a black out cover and she sleeps in her room with the lights off/ drapes drawn. She puts herself to bed like clock-work, and she is very insistent upon it, but it lines up perfectly w/ 12 hours.
I just don't get how she never had this issue for so many years and then BAM-- and I still think it has to do with how happy she was to see me when I cam home each day after returning to work after the stay-at-home orders all summer. Like, my presence after work pushed her over the edge....
Now we are in a cycle....
I do give her some oatmeal daily, which I guess I could stop doing (it is mushy), but it never caused an issue all these years ....Laura mentioned in another post that maybe I should try not covering the cage at night, but the light/dark hours she would get would be crazy, as it isn't dark until 8 or so and she wakes up with me at 5am (gets light around 6). I also KNOW she would have a fit and wouldn't sleep uncovered, as she has never done it before. She screams in the car if we drive past dark and she isn't in her big cage and covered.....If I didn't cover, she'd get an excessive amount of light and not enough sleep. **TO BE CLEAR--I never ever partially cover the cage or anything crazy like that (which would be a massive trigger). I only cover her at the start of her 12 hours sleep, which she initiates within the hour daily).
OY --OF COURSE this happened on the worst possible day....sucked all of the peace out of my week...I feel like I haven't slept in days.
Any thoughts are welcome.
**I know lupron and other hormonal methods are options for excessive layers, but according to the vet, at egg 3, he said her laying is not "excessive" enough to merit something so invasive..... I wonder if egg 4 changed that opinion. I didn't ask because he was clearly not feeling well after his ordeal and I was squeezed in after his hours (they are shorter because of his covid recovery). The receptionists and techs were exhausted and the whole ordeal just was really really stressful. The egg itself wasn't the stressful part (although polyuria is and egg-bound behavior is terrifying)- but the timing was (that seems to be a trend...always starts mid week and lays it on the dang weekend)
I believe this is egg 4 since November (so she has laid 50% without intervention)...I wonder if this one would have come out on its own (I was starting to think it might this afternoon, but I was terrified that if it didn't Sunday would roll around and I would be out of luck).
I thought about moving her cage, but that would be complicated because of window positioning and the next best room would put her open window at sidewalk level in a very heavily traveled sidewalk RIGHT next to the road. I haven't moved much around in her cage, which I could also do, but again, never had issues before and she really doesn't like changes to her cage very much at all (she gets super scared of certain perches etc)
The vet gave me a huge compliment in terms of how well I know her---I'm like an egg detector LOL. I asked about prolapse risk from intervention and he said it is always a slight risk but that most people wait way too long to get their birds in for this issue and that shouldn't be an issue for her because I act quickly each time. HONESTLY, I cannot imagine waiting any longer (I always wait as long as I can). So that's upsetting to know that people are so out of touch with their animals that they would let it go on and on without noticing. A bird yesterday had an egg stuck to its uterus as a result of waiting and he had to literally peel it off...Can you imagine the horror?
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