Betrisher
Well-known member
- Jun 3, 2013
- 4,253
- 177
- Parrots
- Dominic: Galah(RIP: 1981-2018); The Lovies: Four Blue Masked Lovebirds; Barney and Madge (The Beaks): Alexandrines; Miss Rosetta Stone: Little Corella
This afternoon, we were all commenting on how much Dominic's tumours have shrunk over the past twelve months. As we did, I had a strange memory of the first bird I ever knew as a child - well - mostly, of the strange thing that happened to him. I thought I'd run it by you guys to see what you thought. I know I'm not dreaming, because I checked it with my sister and she remembers it too.
Dad gave Mum a yellow budgie called 'SweetiePie' when I was two. Sweetie lived in your typical (inadequate) budgie cage all his life. He was never tamed and never came out: he just sat on his perch and occasionally pecked at his bell or his mirror. He lived on 'Budgie Seed' from the supermarket and the occasional bit of lettuce or grass if anyone thought to give it to him.
When Sweetie was about twelve years old, a brownish-coloured tumour began to form on his lower abdomen. It looked for all the world as though it were brown-coloured skin enclosing about a teaspoonful of budgie seed! It grew over time until it reached about the size of a large kalamata olive. The vet had no idea what it was (he shamelessly said 'I do dogs and cats - I dunno about birds. Let me put that one down for you and you can get another one!') Of course, we never went back there again, but no vet had any clue about what was happening to Sweetie.
Well, when Sweetie was about fourteen and I was about sixteen (doing my Higher School Certificate exam year), I got up one morning and went to clean his cage. There, on the floor was - you guessed it! The tumour! I caught Sweetie and there was no trace of a wound or anything that I could see. Sweetie lived on happily and never grew another tumour. He passed away during my second year away at Uni, so he would have been around eighteen or nineteen years of age.
Now, my question is, was the thing that Sweetie had your common 'fatty tumour' that birds get? Looking at Dom's, there's a definite similarity. Dom's looks like pale, dry skin stretched over a little bag of seeds. The part I just don't get is how or why such a tumour would simply drop off like that! The vet had no idea and made jokes about it (which only made me disrespect him more). The tumour was solid and felt sort of rubbery, not grainy. When I cut it in half, it was soft and fell apart. The final tumour was about the size of a marble, that is, rather smaller than it had been when stuck to the little bird.
Has anyone else had a budgie with a fatty tumour? More to the point, has anyone's budgie dropped the tumour overnight and gone on to live a happy life? I'd love to hear from anyone who can shed light on this, as I have no idea what was going on at the time!
Dad gave Mum a yellow budgie called 'SweetiePie' when I was two. Sweetie lived in your typical (inadequate) budgie cage all his life. He was never tamed and never came out: he just sat on his perch and occasionally pecked at his bell or his mirror. He lived on 'Budgie Seed' from the supermarket and the occasional bit of lettuce or grass if anyone thought to give it to him.
When Sweetie was about twelve years old, a brownish-coloured tumour began to form on his lower abdomen. It looked for all the world as though it were brown-coloured skin enclosing about a teaspoonful of budgie seed! It grew over time until it reached about the size of a large kalamata olive. The vet had no idea what it was (he shamelessly said 'I do dogs and cats - I dunno about birds. Let me put that one down for you and you can get another one!') Of course, we never went back there again, but no vet had any clue about what was happening to Sweetie.
Well, when Sweetie was about fourteen and I was about sixteen (doing my Higher School Certificate exam year), I got up one morning and went to clean his cage. There, on the floor was - you guessed it! The tumour! I caught Sweetie and there was no trace of a wound or anything that I could see. Sweetie lived on happily and never grew another tumour. He passed away during my second year away at Uni, so he would have been around eighteen or nineteen years of age.
Now, my question is, was the thing that Sweetie had your common 'fatty tumour' that birds get? Looking at Dom's, there's a definite similarity. Dom's looks like pale, dry skin stretched over a little bag of seeds. The part I just don't get is how or why such a tumour would simply drop off like that! The vet had no idea and made jokes about it (which only made me disrespect him more). The tumour was solid and felt sort of rubbery, not grainy. When I cut it in half, it was soft and fell apart. The final tumour was about the size of a marble, that is, rather smaller than it had been when stuck to the little bird.
Has anyone else had a budgie with a fatty tumour? More to the point, has anyone's budgie dropped the tumour overnight and gone on to live a happy life? I'd love to hear from anyone who can shed light on this, as I have no idea what was going on at the time!
