Hello all. As the title states, my father's Blue and Gold Macaw, Mango, passed away today at the age of around 29 years old due to egg binding. I am writing this thread to ask for opinions on whether or not the veterinarians provided the right advice on how to handle Mango's health.
I want to start off by saying this was my father's bird. Mango was very aggressive to anyone other than him, so myself (his daughter), my mother, and brother were unable to physically handle her ourselves without injury.
Around two weeks ago, we noticed Mango was making squeaking noises. We figured it was hormonal. But some days later, when she seemed to be losing her voice, we believed her to be sick. My father took her into the vet on April 14th, where the x-ray revealed Mango had an egg. She had no contact with a male or any other bird. The doctor also told my father that the bloodwork was fine, no problems, and said the bird should pass the egg within 7 days ( I was skeptical about this time frame myself, it seemed like a long time to wait, but I couldn't say for sure.)
So Mango came back home, where she continued to strain to pass the egg. She started to lose appetite and would bleed quite a lot from the vent. My father once again put her in her carrier, and I took her to the vet yesterday (4/21). We were assigned a different doctor this time, who revealed to us that the bloodwork from the previous visit showed high white blood cells, indicating infection and also a strain on her kidney function. I couldn't understand this- shouldn't we have known about this? This was the same bloodwork the other doctor said was normal! I also could not get any answer as to if the amount of blood Mango was passing was normal. I wasn't really given any real prognosis even when I asked.
This doctor decided to keep Mango until the evening and provide her with fluids, medication, and calcium to help pass the egg. And while I plead with the clinic to keep the bird overnight as we were worried, they refused to keep the bird and sent her home with us that night, heavily medicated. I was told to feed her and check the consistency of her stool, but that was it. If it was watery or she did not eat by the next morning or have the egg, to bring her back in. Mango spent the rest of the night eating just a bit, and sleeping with her feathers puffed out. Personally, if it was up to me, I would have taken her to the emergency clinic that night, but Mango was back in her cage, and I could not get her into the carrier myself. When I alerted my father over the phone, he thought she looked fine (I'm very disappointed in him for not being more attentive to her during this terrible time, she was clearly not fine.). When he got home, he decided against taking her to the emergency vet.
Anyways, this morning, Mango looked even worse. I was however able this time to get my dad to take her to the emergency clinic where Mango sadly stopped breathing, and was unable to be revived by CPR.
Long story short is my question: Was the vet right in the advice given? Did they have us wait too long for Mango to pass the egg, should they have kept the bird over night? and was it wrong of them to not tell us sooner about the infection noted in the bloodwork? I tried my best to learn about the condition of egg binding, reading in depth through threads on this website and I feel that being told to wait 7 days for it to pass seemed too long.... (I want to stress that I am not intending to blame the vet or accuse them of malpractice, but I am not a bird expert and want to make sure they provided us with the proper information and care)
I am so sorry for the long post. I know users here are very knowledgeable about parrots, and thought I would come here for input on how this happened. While Mango wasn't my bird, and she sure hated anyone but my dad with a passion, it still makes me extremely sad to see how she suffered in the end. Mango did not deserve this. Any insight on this situation will be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much in advance.
I want to start off by saying this was my father's bird. Mango was very aggressive to anyone other than him, so myself (his daughter), my mother, and brother were unable to physically handle her ourselves without injury.
Around two weeks ago, we noticed Mango was making squeaking noises. We figured it was hormonal. But some days later, when she seemed to be losing her voice, we believed her to be sick. My father took her into the vet on April 14th, where the x-ray revealed Mango had an egg. She had no contact with a male or any other bird. The doctor also told my father that the bloodwork was fine, no problems, and said the bird should pass the egg within 7 days ( I was skeptical about this time frame myself, it seemed like a long time to wait, but I couldn't say for sure.)
So Mango came back home, where she continued to strain to pass the egg. She started to lose appetite and would bleed quite a lot from the vent. My father once again put her in her carrier, and I took her to the vet yesterday (4/21). We were assigned a different doctor this time, who revealed to us that the bloodwork from the previous visit showed high white blood cells, indicating infection and also a strain on her kidney function. I couldn't understand this- shouldn't we have known about this? This was the same bloodwork the other doctor said was normal! I also could not get any answer as to if the amount of blood Mango was passing was normal. I wasn't really given any real prognosis even when I asked.
This doctor decided to keep Mango until the evening and provide her with fluids, medication, and calcium to help pass the egg. And while I plead with the clinic to keep the bird overnight as we were worried, they refused to keep the bird and sent her home with us that night, heavily medicated. I was told to feed her and check the consistency of her stool, but that was it. If it was watery or she did not eat by the next morning or have the egg, to bring her back in. Mango spent the rest of the night eating just a bit, and sleeping with her feathers puffed out. Personally, if it was up to me, I would have taken her to the emergency clinic that night, but Mango was back in her cage, and I could not get her into the carrier myself. When I alerted my father over the phone, he thought she looked fine (I'm very disappointed in him for not being more attentive to her during this terrible time, she was clearly not fine.). When he got home, he decided against taking her to the emergency vet.
Anyways, this morning, Mango looked even worse. I was however able this time to get my dad to take her to the emergency clinic where Mango sadly stopped breathing, and was unable to be revived by CPR.
Long story short is my question: Was the vet right in the advice given? Did they have us wait too long for Mango to pass the egg, should they have kept the bird over night? and was it wrong of them to not tell us sooner about the infection noted in the bloodwork? I tried my best to learn about the condition of egg binding, reading in depth through threads on this website and I feel that being told to wait 7 days for it to pass seemed too long.... (I want to stress that I am not intending to blame the vet or accuse them of malpractice, but I am not a bird expert and want to make sure they provided us with the proper information and care)
I am so sorry for the long post. I know users here are very knowledgeable about parrots, and thought I would come here for input on how this happened. While Mango wasn't my bird, and she sure hated anyone but my dad with a passion, it still makes me extremely sad to see how she suffered in the end. Mango did not deserve this. Any insight on this situation will be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much in advance.
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