an update on my flock, kinda long

[bookworm0550]

miss evie is still plucking and hurting herself under her wing. i notice she does it real bad when i put anything topical on it so now i just give her baths, mist her, and put her in a travel cage and bring her into the bathroom w/ me when i shower. she hasn't been too bad about it, though about a month ago, she did a good number on herself. i was already late for work and i just happened to say good bye to her and saw blood dripping down her back and down her tailfeathers. that was stressful.

i'm thinking about bringing her to a different vet. her current vet doesn't do any sort of testing on her or anything. she did talk about giving evie some pain medication to see if that would help a bit. don't know if i should go back and try that before switching vets or if i talk to a new vet, if they would think trying pain medication would be a good idea. i dont think evie's mutilating is a behavior problem. she's perfectly feathered and fine everywhere else on her body except on her right side, underneath her wing. she just picks in one area so i think it's localized pain. or maybe it's something internal? i don't know.

but anyway, yes, the vet i see is an avian vet, but she doesn't test evie. they just look her over and go from there. i know everyone talks about their birds being tested, but evie never gets tested for anything. i don't know what kind of tests they should do and what those tests mean. i hear about gram stains, but clueless as to what those are and what it means for the bird.

but i just feel like i do need to bring her to someone new just to get another perspective. i know these behaviors are difficult, but i just feel like someone else out there may be able to help me and evie out a bit more besides just misting her. sometimes i do worry about her behaviors, like sometimes she just seems so tired and is always napping, but the vet told me that was ok. i don't know, compared to the others, she's not as active. i do think it has to do w/ her wounds. she doesn't fly a lot. and i know when she wants to go somewhere, but can't so i always bring her over to where she wants to go.

for birds like evie, how often do you suggest bringing them to see a vet? i never know how often to bring her.

anyway, on a happier note, i'm gonna order her a ceramic heater from avitech. she tends to get more cold than the others so i think this can keep her warmer.

evie is terrified of jada. jada is relentless when it comes to evie. evie will hide inside my shirt when jada decides to start a fight.

it is very frustrating, but i am afraid i will have to find jada a more lovebird less forever home. i know she gets angry w/ the lovebirds a lot and they don't like her either. i love her, but i dont know if she's happy here w/ me and w/ the lovies. it almost seems too much for her. my bf thinks i should find her a quieter home or a home w/ another bird of her kind. of course, we'll be picky as heck as to who can take her as i want her to go to another bird lover. i'm not putting her on craigslist or hoobly. my sister is a vet tech, so she knows other animal lovers, and hopefully she'll come across another bird lover. i was very specific about that. i want jada to go to a permanent home.

part of me feels bad and guilty for wanting to rehome jada cuz i am her 2nd home. and she is a wonderful bird w/ a lot of sass. and i love her a lot. i just feel like i let her down. i made that comittment to her when i got her and i just feel like a bad person for none of this working out. and then i also feel bad when she wants my attention and just wants to sit on me, but joey and orion kick her off or if evie is on me, she'll fly down and attack evie and then i have to banish jada back to her cage. and i don't want to stress evie out anymore (i had a dream the other night that evie turned into a cockatoo and was completely plucked like those poor neglected ones you see on rescue sites).

and then i am w/ jada (i always make sure to spend one on one time w/ her after i put the lovebirds away), i look at her face and want to keep her forever w/ me even if she's unhappy here w/ the others. but that's selfish of me and then i feel bad again. it will be hard to let her go. i would miss her terribly. i would even miss the way she attacks my face when she is angry w/ the lovebirds.

anyway, that's that. no rush to find her a home, but i am looking.

other than that, hermes is still in her nestbox. i think i'm gonna take it out tomorrow. she's been sitting on fakes for over a month. if she lays another egg, i think i'm just gonna let her lay them in a bowl in her cage rather than a nestbox.

everyone else is the same, which is good. no one is sick, every birdy is happy, alive, and doing well. i did order them a jolly ball for 15 dollars (www.bluesbirdtoys.com) for christmas. i found more toys for them too on other sites. i'm gonna order them more nutriberries and treats from dr foster and smith. they have a 20% off treats code if anyone wants it. they had sent me a 2010 calendar full of promo codes for every month of the year. i hope they send me a 2011 one too. those promos are awesome. i've gotten free Poop off, a pound of free millet (my fave, i always order during those months and it's good millet too!), free toys, and % off stuff.

i still have the spice babies. they are ready to go to my boyfriend's place, but he's not ready yet so i still have them. no rush to send them off either. i know, i thought 13 birds was overwhelming. i was at my wits end, but it's actually not that bad. i grew used to it and as the babies learned how to step up and when to go back to their cages, it got a lot easier. Wasabi still doesn't like hands, but he'll step up on a perch toy so that works and he follows his siblings around so if they are on me, he is cautious, but he'll eventually find his courage. so yeah, 13 birds isn't that bad though that is a lot! a lot more poop, mess, and a lot more food being consumed. i go through my ten pound bag of pellets and seeds like it's nothing.

the end.

i'll post up recent pictures soon. right now i'm just too lazy and i need a new camera. they tore the cover of my lenses off so i can still take pictures, but if its' natural sunlight, it just comes out w/ lines and it's white. and by 'they', i mean the birds, specifically pantalaimon, orion, and joey. esp pan. last guilty beak i caught in the act.

[linda040899]

Let me address this part of your post, and hopefully, it will make sense.

but anyway, yes, the vet i see is an avian vet, but she doesn't test evie. they just look her over and go from there. i know everyone talks about their birds being tested, but evie never gets tested for anything. i don't know what kind of tests they should do and what those tests mean. i hear about gram stains, but clueless as to what those are and what it means for the bird.
A Gram Stain is a non-invasive test that checks for the presence of budding or non-budding yeast and Gram negative/Gram positive bacteria. Budding yeast is bad, as is Gram negative bacteria. Your avian vet will take samples from either/or both the cloaca and the mouth, stain the microscope slide and examine what's on the slide. Non-budding yeast is OK, as are Gram positive bacteria (except Avian Gastric Yeast). Too much gram negative means there's an infection present that needs to be treated. The problem with the gram stain is that it doesn't tell you which bacteria is causing the problem. Many vets will prescribe a broad spectrum antibiotic for 10 days and do a follow up re-check. If the antibiotic worked, the problem bacteria will be reduced in percentage. If not, my avian vet will then do a Culture & Sensitivity to determine exactly what bacteria is present and which medication will treat it effectively. I would suggest a second opinion for Evie's wing to see what's really going on. My vet maintains that most picking/plucking has medical causes and she's been right with that statement when it comes to my birds. They pick because there's something that's bothering them.

Pain medication (Metacam) may or may not help. I've had it work both ways, but I always have some on hand, just in case I need it before I can get to my vet's office. It's amazing how many things go wrong after vet hrs or on week-ends!!!

[CompassionAk]

I'm sorry Evie is having problems,my little Zeus has also been plucking under both his wings. I'm really frustrated the vet I saw didn't give Zeus a gram stain,I asked three times and she just looked at me like I was asking something crazy.

Part of me wonders if it was a way to get me to go back and pay more money because she said if the meds she prescribed didn't work she could do a gram stain then. I guess I don't get why she didn't do it when I asked because money certainly wasn't a problem for me when it comes to the well being of my babies!

[linda040899]

My vet and I had a conversation regarding Gram Stains and why more vets don't use them about 8 months ago. Many vets don't see the value, as the stain won't tell you specifically which organism is present. It will, however, detect the presence of an infection (gram negative rods or budding yeast) so you at least know if medication is necessary. While my vet isn't completely holistic, she won't prescribe meds for something that's not there. Medications like Baytril and Diflucan are very strong and are very hard on body systems when used. I used one avian vet (years ago) who was so adamant about the proper use of medications with birds that he would not prescribe any medication with a Culture & Sensitivity. It was an automatic $55.00 charge on my final bill each time I had a sick bird. If my bird was actively showing sypmtoms, he would give me medication after he took the sample to send off to the lab and I always knew the medication could be subject to change, depending on C&S results. He would never send me home with a sick bird and no meds.

[Chickobee]

Have you tried using neem cream under Evie's wing? You may discover amazing results from it. I am attaching the link where I bought mine in case you don't have a place you can get it locally.

This is where I bought my neem salve.
http://neemtreefarms.com/

There are three kinds of salve and I got all of them to try but then gave a couple away. It has all natural ingredients that won't be harmful to Evie. Please keep in mind that it can have a contraceptive effect on people (no, it hasn't been tested on birds) so if you want to breed Evie soon you shouldn't use it.

[As a side note, I wondered about the constant egg layers. Neem Tree Farms has other ingestible products which are harmless so I wondered about something like that added to the food or maybe neem tea in the water. Wouldn't it be neat if this would work for Hermes???]

Neem tree farms will also send free samples. I got a free sample of their anti-itch that I have in my bird supplies but haven't needed yet. They are super nice when you call on the phone and will tell you all about the different products. Maybe they would send a free sample of neem salve or anti itch, or both! :) They offer a price break for three products and will make the adjustment on the invoice if you write your instructions in the comments.

Maybe using this will soothe the area and stop the itching. It is also antibacterial so it may help with that if there is something present causing itching or pain.

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Then, on another topic, did you see the thread on seed savers? Linda originally posted the link about it and I bought one and it has literally saved us hundreds of dollars for pellets and seeds. Since your bird population has increased quite a bit you might want to consider getting one of these also.

http://www.seed-saver.com/

We empty all of the seed/pellet dishes every day into a container and save them. (we use cashew jars from Costco) Then when I have a bunch collected I run it all through the seed saver which removes the pellet powder and seed hulls. When it is done we have at least 75% of what I had saved to use again. It's AMAZING!!!!

I purposely bought small 5 oz stainless food dishes so the lovies don't get inside and scractch around or poop in their food. When we had 10 oz dishes there were so many birds, especially hens, who would sit in the dishes. This has nearly eliminated those issues so the food stays clean.

[bookworm0550]

i did look at the seed saver. um, i still don't get how it works. what does the vacuum do to it? i don't get the vacuum factors into it. personally, my vacuum is a full of dust and whatnot from everyday use

[linda040899]

I've had my seed saver for almost 2 yrs and I don't know what I would do without it. I hung the unit on a wall and have the small shop vac that's attached to the top of the unit to suck out shells, hulls and other debris from the seed I run through the unit. I use a small shop vac that I've dedicated to just cleaning seed, as a lot of debris is separated each time I use it. I used to go through 50# of seed in 6 days. Now that I clean seed left over in seed cups, I've extended that to 10-11 days for 50#. It's one of the best investments I've ever made and it will work for any size seed. There's a slide setting on the side that controls how much suction is needed for various size seeds. Seed saver and shop vac cost me roughly $159.00. It took me 4 weeks to recoup my investment!

To catch my "cleaned seed," I use the top of a Tupperware cake taker turned upside down. When the cleaned seed comes out of the bottom, it tends to scatter in a fan type pattern so I needed something a bit wider than an ordinary bucket. It works on the principle that seed shells (most of them) are lighter than seed. There's a "chute" where you add the seed, which is about midway on the unit. The whole seed is heavier and it drops to the bottom. The shells are lighter so the shop vac or vaccuum cleaner pulls the up to the top, out the vacuum cleaner hose and into the vacuum, itself. The only thing electric about this unit is the shop vac.

[Chickobee]

On the Seed Saver website they recommend a particular small cannister vacuum because it has the correct amount of suction to use with the seed saver. I also only use that vacuum for cleaning bird seed and nothing else. Sometimes if I don't have the adjustment set correctly I will have quite a few pellets in the vacuum cannister so I will run them through again. That's why I want that vacuum cleaner to be clean and not ever used for dirt.

It saves us so much money!!! Before we got it we were throwing away so much food every single day. It has paid for itself so many times since we got it.

I use a five gallon bucket to catch the cleaned seeds. I have a box to set it on so it is directly below the chute opening so almost all of it goes into the bucket. The wild birds can have the rest on my deck. :)