- Jan 19, 2014
- 14,248
- 225
- Parrots
- Red Bellied Parrot /
Ruppell's Parrot /
Bronze Winged Pionus /
English Budgie
My precious little monkey. Raven's bonded bff and partner. Griffin my Ruppell's Parrot is one of the smallest species I've had, but hands down by far the most trouble. He is literally like keeping a primate when he's out of his cage. I feel so awful, I stepped on him.
Anyway, I was doing things around the 11x18 room which required me to walk here and there within the room. For the past several weeks, Griffin has developed a preoccupation with my feet, and ESPECIALLY a certain pair of green rubber flip flops (that he keeps shredding more and more). I was wearing those around the room today. I am sure you can guess what happened next. While I am so careful 'knowing' that this can happen, even though I look down and am constantly aware of him near my feet, yep...being aware of it 99% of the time just wasn't enough
.
I am actually so thankful that my body was in a position that when I stepped it did not require me to put my full weight on him, although I was mortified that I DID put more pressure on him than just a light tap. Enough to dislocate his beak, as I stepped mainly on his head! When I looked at him in horror, his beak was held open (he couldn't shut it) and his whole beak was sticking out straight forward, instead of down like a parrot's beak should go. His head looked odd and misshapen too. Catching him was anything but fun for him or I, as some of you know Griffin has developed a phobia problem and gone semi wild. He still has severe panic attacks at times. Although the chasing wasn't good for his health, I obviously had no choice. When he'd fly into and seek refuge in his cage, he kept flying out, until one time I was finally able to gently get him with a towel.
I hate to say I was not dressed to leave the house right then, it was an off day that I was going to take care of business around here instead of going out and driving anywhere. I flew into my closet, grabbed the closest pair of pants, grabbed a shirt blindly (happened to be a long sleeve) although I could have gotten away with a tank top today, but who cares all I needed was something to cover up with to go outdoors lol! In my panic I literally had to double check I was wearing bottoms, a top, and shoes before running out the door with my injured little boy.
The vet gave a thorough visual body and head examination and determined no external damage is evident, and sometime on the drive there, he had "popped his beak back into place". I described it to the vet how it looked before, and he said it was dislocated. Being 2 years old he is still young enough (and I guess flexible in the area) to pop it back himself, the vet said older birds need the vet to re-set it. The good news is, his eyes looked okay. He said many times crushing trauma like this affects the blood pressure and the eyes.
The vet thought the most important thing is to get fluids into him right away. He said it's when they've had trauma and don't get fluids, they are more likely to go into shock the NEXT day and have complications. Same principle as when we humans feel worse the next day after injury or trauma. Because it was 'looking like' I am lucky with this, I opted out of x-rays, as the entire bill would have been near $1000 and my credit cards were simply not ready fo that kind of hit again, considering our other unfortunate expenses including some other big ones as of late.
I will be so nervous overnight, and will be so anxious to see that we're in the clear. He did not prescribe pain meds, I'm surprised now that I'm home and able to think more clearly. I need to see if he needs his food softened for the next little while though. He is just resting right now.
Anyway, I was doing things around the 11x18 room which required me to walk here and there within the room. For the past several weeks, Griffin has developed a preoccupation with my feet, and ESPECIALLY a certain pair of green rubber flip flops (that he keeps shredding more and more). I was wearing those around the room today. I am sure you can guess what happened next. While I am so careful 'knowing' that this can happen, even though I look down and am constantly aware of him near my feet, yep...being aware of it 99% of the time just wasn't enough
.I am actually so thankful that my body was in a position that when I stepped it did not require me to put my full weight on him, although I was mortified that I DID put more pressure on him than just a light tap. Enough to dislocate his beak, as I stepped mainly on his head! When I looked at him in horror, his beak was held open (he couldn't shut it) and his whole beak was sticking out straight forward, instead of down like a parrot's beak should go. His head looked odd and misshapen too. Catching him was anything but fun for him or I, as some of you know Griffin has developed a phobia problem and gone semi wild. He still has severe panic attacks at times. Although the chasing wasn't good for his health, I obviously had no choice. When he'd fly into and seek refuge in his cage, he kept flying out, until one time I was finally able to gently get him with a towel.
I hate to say I was not dressed to leave the house right then, it was an off day that I was going to take care of business around here instead of going out and driving anywhere. I flew into my closet, grabbed the closest pair of pants, grabbed a shirt blindly (happened to be a long sleeve) although I could have gotten away with a tank top today, but who cares all I needed was something to cover up with to go outdoors lol! In my panic I literally had to double check I was wearing bottoms, a top, and shoes before running out the door with my injured little boy.
The vet gave a thorough visual body and head examination and determined no external damage is evident, and sometime on the drive there, he had "popped his beak back into place". I described it to the vet how it looked before, and he said it was dislocated. Being 2 years old he is still young enough (and I guess flexible in the area) to pop it back himself, the vet said older birds need the vet to re-set it. The good news is, his eyes looked okay. He said many times crushing trauma like this affects the blood pressure and the eyes.
The vet thought the most important thing is to get fluids into him right away. He said it's when they've had trauma and don't get fluids, they are more likely to go into shock the NEXT day and have complications. Same principle as when we humans feel worse the next day after injury or trauma. Because it was 'looking like' I am lucky with this, I opted out of x-rays, as the entire bill would have been near $1000 and my credit cards were simply not ready fo that kind of hit again, considering our other unfortunate expenses including some other big ones as of late.
I will be so nervous overnight, and will be so anxious to see that we're in the clear. He did not prescribe pain meds, I'm surprised now that I'm home and able to think more clearly. I need to see if he needs his food softened for the next little while though. He is just resting right now.
Julie, I am SO very sorry!!! What an absolute HORRIBLE accident!
! 
. Raven, Robin, and larger birds I've had in the past, NONE of them are/were quite as active or as determined to get into trouble as Griffin is. I swear, he's just lucky he's so cute. 
