Hello,
I have wanted to write this forum for two months but because of my heartbreak I have been unable to.
On, Tuesday, August 23 2016, I took my Eclectus, Rio, in for his annual check up. The vet did a gram stain, blood work, etc and because his beak was a little ong wanted to do a beak trim. He took him in another room to do the beak trim and returned twenty minutes later. He told be three times what an amazingly healthy bird I had, the results from the gram stain was perfect and he said by the color and condition of his feathers and color of his beak he knew immediately that he was in superior health.
When he returned Rio to me, Rio was panting (I assumed from stress) and sneezing ( I assumed from dust from the beak trim). However, this continued all day and when I called the vet, he assured me Rio would be fine by the next morning. The next morning Rio was still sneezing, open mouth breathing and now, also, wheezing. I rushed him back to the vet,who couldn't believe this was the same bird he saw the day before. He took x-rays but found nothing and a more extensive blood panel than his rountine exam. He kept Rio overnight and sent him home with antibiotics on Thursday. He left for vacation on Friday and when Rio had not improved by Saturday I called his clinic, they told me antibiotics can take four days to kick in and by Monday I should see improvement. On Monday, he was much worse, he sounded like he had bronchitis, his chest sounded congested, he also, had yellow, thick phlem in his mouth. (He did continue, like a typical Eclectus, to eat heartily through all of this). I called another avian vet and took him in to see her. She wanted to do more x-rays and blood work since his condition had deteriorated. By the way, the blood work from the last vet came back normal. She kept him overnight and called me first thing in the morning asking if I would be willing to take him to a specialist for an endoscopy. I drove over there first thing, (this is now Tuesday, a week from his check up) to pick him up. The vet told me he tried to eat but kept regurgitating his food, he was fluffed up and looked very ill, he has clearly gone downhill since I dropped him off the day before. I held him and sobbed uncontrollably until I could pull myself together. I decided to make this time special and so I played his favorite CD on the radio and sang. He has a car perch for our car rides, he always runs errands with me, he is my constant companion and goes everywhere with me. He loves when I play the radio and sing but this time he did not sing along, he had not talked since our vet appointment a week ago. As I sang on our hour drive to the vets, he crawled up on my shoulder and continually kissed me on the cheek. The avian specialist had me leave Rio and told me he would call with the results. After a tearful good bye and lots of kisses from my gentle, sweet Rio, I headed home. Three hours later, the vet called to tell me Rio's heart stopped during the procedure.
Rio was my only bird and my constant companion. We spent all day together, he went everywhere with me and was quite a big hit around town. He talked up a storm, was so gentle, never bit anyone and anyone could hold him, he was potty trained, he played ball with my poodle, he was my best friend. I would tell Rio someday it will just be you and me in the nursing home, I expected to have him for decades, my fifteen year old daughter planned to take care of him if I died before him. I adopted him from a bird rescue when he was two years old. He was only seven and a half year old when he died. The house is devastatingly quiet and I miss him every minute of everyday.
I am sorry this is so long but I had to get this out and see if anyone else has experienced this. On his final blood work, with the specialist only his white blood cells were elevated which would indicate infection. I asked the vet if the beak trim could have caused his death, he did say given the onset of his illness it did appear that if I had not taken him for the beak trim I would most likely still have him today. Did the vet restrain him to tightly causing food in his crop to go into his esophagus him to aspirate and did this than turn into pneumonia, Rio did eat breakfast right before our 9:00 a.m. appointment.
Be careful with beak trims and your the vet if you can hold your bird while he does it, that way you, know your bird and can have the vet stop if it's causing to much stress. Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
I lost my Blue and Gold right in front of me.I believe it was their handling of him.He was only six.Now I make all the judgement calls when it comes to my big flock.I don't do unnecessary things.I do have a anime as l hospital
