Bella is back with me now. My poor baby! I can't believe I trusted those skinny quicklinks. Beefy ones only from now on.
She was so brave.
The story of what happened...
I was in the other room when I heard her cry out a noise I hadn't heard before, then again straight after, so I jumped up and dashed into her room. She was squawking and flapping thrashing about from her hollee roller, and then I saw, she was trapped somehow.
At first I thought her beak was just through the quicklinks normal central hole area and that she'd squawked inside it and then tried to pull her head out and couldn't because her mouth was open.
Then I saw she was actually to the side of the quicklink and I realised it was open and the bottom part of it was hooked under her beak. Every time she yelled it would dig in further. I got inside her cage and held her body up to try to help her unhook herself. I was yelling for my partner (hoping he could snip or saw the quicklink to free her while I held her weight) - but he was in the shower and didn't hear my cries. So there I was, now trapped, inside her cage holding her on her back with her attached to the quicklink, then as she screamed I saw it was in her mouth - it had ripped through her tender skin and bust through into her mouth from under her little chin. My poor baby, innocently playing with a toy I bought her, and this is what happened. It felt like a long time we were there with eachother - both 'trapped', though I know it was more likely less than a minute.
She managed to pull herself free from quicklink with me supporting her. I held her in my hands and held her close talking to her (which was scary in itself as Bella doesn't usually allow me to touch her like that.) I immediately put her in her pet carrier (which is always next to her cage.) I got out my phone and started calling the vet while I went upstairs to alert my partner. All I could say to him was "Bellas had an accident - call your dad" before bursting into tears. (My partners dad is our driver as neither of us drive.) I managed to get enough words out to tell the receptionist the avian vets name and that she had a penetrative mouth injury to be looked at immediately. I put the culprit quicklink and attached toy in my handbag. I then removed the same ones from the boys cages too. The next thing I did (after making an appointment and removing the offending items from my babies cages) was to post a new thread warning others of the potential danger! I would never want for someone else to experience seeing their baby crying and thrashing around the way I saw my Bella.
I covered Bellas cage with a warm blanket and went out to the car. The vets is less than 10mins away and I got seen straight away which was great. I showed the vet the quicklink and explained how it had gone through into her mouth. The vet managed to calm me down some, I was crying when trying to tell her what happened. It just all happened so fast and I'd been trying to hold myself together.
I was told they would need to sedate her and clean the wound and assess if she needed stitches. They said she'd be ready for me in half an hour. So I stayed near by, the vets is adjoined to a pet supply store, so I paced the aisles. That's when I heard her screams. I knew they were probably just handling her and she was just vocally protesting. I overheard a shelf stacker in the next aisle say "what the heck was that" to which I replied, "that would be my parrot".
Eventually half an hour passed and I got the call to return for her (they didn't know I hadn't really left). I went to the front desk and waited. Then the vet emerged with my Bella in her carrier!
I was relieved. She'd been given a couple of injections and the vet gave me some meds to take home. Baytril 0.25ml twice a day for 7 days, metacam 0.1mls twice a day for 3 days. She advised me to only give her soft food for the next 5 - 7 days in order to avoid hard foods getting trapped in the hole. As the hole was small and the area swollen, she was confident that it would knit back together and heal fast without the need for any stitches. After a detour to the supermarket for some extra fruit, we got home where I gave her some banana, which she was pleased with.
This was not how I expected the day to go, but I am pleased that I had my pet carrier ready and available, and that I had my designated taxi substitute on call. I'm also grateful for those of you who offered some comfort with your words, in moments like that, it's only bird people that truly understand - and for that I thankyou x
NOTE
This little incident cost about £135 plus a bunch of emotional trauma. Just thought I'd mention that to give folks an idea of what it costs when these kinds of things happen.
