Earlier today, Tweet started falling off her perch, as if she couldn't maintain her balance, or as if her strength suddenly failed her. As if she'd had a heart attack or stroke. After picking her up a few times, I realized she was getting progressively weaker and this was it. I removed the perches and padded the bottom of her cage with an old pair of denim shorts. She cuddled down into that nest and quit fighting.

I pulled off the e-collar she hated so much and held her until the end.

Goodbye, Tweetie Bird. Thank you for being such a sassy and beloved part of my life.

Gunnar

She nibbled the e-collar's tape down until she could twist herself in half. I reached the little hellion just as she ripped the entire scab from her wound. Damn damn damn.

We're not quite back to square one. The injury is trying to form another scab; it's not oozing pus or serum the way it did before. But it's still a set-back she didn't need.

Note to self: keep the tape layer built up.

Positive news! The angry red has gone from Tweet's injury. Even most of the non-angry red has faded, leaving a fairly healthy pink behind.

On Thursday last, I grew concerned about her medicines. She'd been taking the same antibiotic at low doses for something like five weeks at that point, and the angry red remained. It seemed nothing could get rid of it. My sister, who studied to be a physician's assistant, said low-dose antibiotics for a long stretch of time was the best way to breed resistant strains of bacteria in a wound, and that worried me.

So I switched her from Baytril, which was the antibiotic the avian vet said was best suited for reducing the inflammation of her preen gland, to Amtyl, an antibiotic I had on hand after some respiratory problems in the aviary last year. It's near the expiration date but not quite there, and it seemed worth a shot. I also added the Metacam anti-inflammatory to her water for three days.

It's now day four, and it seems the switch was a good move. She's put on weight, she's eating well (especially when I put millet sprays in her cage), and she's starting to act more like a parakeet and less like a patient. Her feathers are growing back from where she'd been plucking, and that vague baldness around her eyes is going away. She's brighter, sitting up straighter, and becoming more vocal.

I've quit washing the injury, leaving it alone to heal. It does get checked daily, and the e-collar occasionally needs reinforcing since she's still chewing it at whenever her beak can reach. Even athletic tape, supposedly the strongest out there, slowly peels off the X-ray film and gauze padding, leaving streamers that collect seed husks and have to be trimmed. After a while it looks like a flower, opening around her cute little face, and then the danger becomes the tape sticking to her feathers, or her getting a good grab at it and wriggling the e-collar off. Yep, she can do it.

So, a few days of little and not-so-little updates here. On Saturday (I think it was) Tweet quit eating and I panicked. Thinking maybe she was depressed, I put her back in the communal cage with Pete, her mate of nine years. See the loving way they're looking into each other's eyes? Unfortunately, within half an hour Pete was chewing away on the e-collar, and as I found out the hard way when I took it off for cleaning, she's still perfectly willing to rip away at her injury. I had to separate them again.

And she still wasn't eating. On Sunday, during a panicky diatribe with my sister, who's had some health care training, she pointed out that the aspirin and Metacam (anti-inflammatory) that Tweet's been getting are both NSAIDs and therefore could be upsetting the wee girl's tiny tummy. Head, meet desk; I should have figured that out for myself.

So I mixed her up a batch of antibiotics-only water, without the NSAIDs, made sure she had fresh food that she could reach even with the e-collar on, and tied a sprig of millet in her cage. By Sunday evening she was pigging out. KUDOS TO MY SISTER FOR HER INTUITION!

Unfortunately again, by Monday afternoon, after 24 hours without the NSAIDs, Tweet quit eating again. She sat on her perch and trembled, and even I could figure out that she was in pain. Mixed up a new batch of water with the antibiotics and aspirin, and within an hour she was bouncing, misbehaving, and eating once more.

It's a balance between giving her enough aspirin to keep the pain at bay, and not giving her so much that she becomes listless and refuses to eat — a few hours with aspirin and antibiotics in her water each morning, then antibiotics only. So far, so good. She's eating again and seems happier.

Other than that, the week's been fairly quiet. Every day Tweetie's a little more like her old self, screaming at me when I wash her injury with a weak solution of Betadine and purified water, shaking her tail when I miss a spot while drying her off. The injury still seems too red to me, and it's sticking up rather like proud flesh in horses. But Dr Jensen at the Atascazoo assured me on the telephone that everything sounds okay.

My knowledgeable sister wants me to take Tweet to the avian and exotic specialists at the Texas A&M Small Animal Hospital. I adore the place, and the vets and veterinary students there are wonderful; but a ride of that length sounds like a lot of stress for one already stressed-out little bird. Instead maybe I can ask the Atascazoo vets, none of whom are avian specialists, to consult with TAMU, should any need arise. For now, we're waiting, giving Tweetie time to heal. And lots of love, broccoli, and the occasional millet spray.

Again, her meds are: Baytril, 10% oral solution (100mg per 1ml solution), mixed 0.5ml in 4 ounces of water (roughly 250ml). The Metacam's on hold, and the morning solution contains one standard adult aspirin (325mg) dissolved in the same 4 ounces of water (250ml). So far she's shown no hesitation while drinking, so she doesn't seem to mind any taste.

Cheers and more later,

Gunnar