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29 May 2003 - Planning Care for JoJo
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I have been frantic about trying to figure out something special for JoJo, knowing that I have to litterly encourage him to fly OFF the cage our out of it, in order to capture him for anything I need too. (The other day I did to take him outside for the first time in 2 yrs). He is still afraid of me, and I knew it would take a long time to tame him. He is wilder then wild when it comes to his personality. He's not aggressive, however he frights easily. I couldn't imagine how I was going to do this too him daily 2 x per day without making his life so much worse with the stress of it all. I at one point came to conclusion that if JoJo had PDD or caught it, that mabe the humane thing for Jojo would be allowing him to go to rainbow bridge, knowing the fright, stress of medicating would just be too much for him. As you can imagine, I hate the thoughts of even having to think of that. That poor bird has been through so much and all i've ever wanted to do for JoJo is allow him to feel safety , love and affection and let him learn , his world is indeed okay. It really upsets me, that we have this issue to deal with because it certainly has put a damper on what my heart wants for JoJo.As it stands now, checking poops, I noticed that Callie has passed tiny tiny bits of undigested nut in her stools. JoJo's stools are more wet. Not diarhea, formed, but wetter. I am so unsure if this means Callie is starting symptoms, or whether the odd stool with tiny bits of food are normal. I've been told 2 theories. ANY undigested food is bad....and others say, its no different then you or I, sometimes not everything breaks down, that it is the WHOLE piecies of food to be concerened with. My birds eat mainly and moreso a wet diet. They eat fresh, cooked and uncooked veggies, fruit, nuts and sprouts in the morning and evening, with a few seeds and pellets in between. Therefore, their stools are more wetter then if they ate only a seed or pellet diet. It is under stressful conditions that if a bird was exposed to PDD and the virus just so happened to enter its body, is when they are very capable of developing symptoms. I would suspect for Callie and JoJo to naturally have more stress, because this living room enviornment is all new and they are exposed to many new things in a day simply not being alone in a room by themselves and not seeing other birds, things, foods, changes, and commotion. JoJo and Callie are located on the other side of the room away from the other birds. Our other concern is Jeffery right now too. From breaking 3 blood feathers last weekend, he is stressed, not eating as much, refusing his formula and HAS to be in his cage all day when i cannot hold him. When taking him out, he freaks, bites and is very unpredictable. Im afraid all that Jeffery has been through has ruined his temperment. He's becoming more aggressive and unpredicatable as time passes. However, I work iwth him several times a day, try to get him outside to work off some steam, give him showers, anything I can think off for him to release his built up aggression, but he's just not responding very well. So that has me really upset. I just keep telling myself to continue to do what I can with Jeffery and just pray once those flights are in, and he has his freedom again, we'll get him back, just to be patient. The only birds that seem completely normal are Owen, Emily, Zack, Bailey and Simon. Even bella our senegal is acting strange because she can't visit Jeffery anymore. So we're trying and doing the best we can and take each day as it comes.
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29 May 2003 - Pathology Confirms PDD!
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I've just received that DREADED call. Austin's pathology has come back. He is confirmed PDD. Austin's body was full of lesions everywhere. He was worded as being " A bad case of PDD" I feel the pain and devistation all over again ! This is painful to hear and now I must face some very important decisions which both my Vet and Dr. Taylor will provide me (as my vet has described) our options in how to deal with this. Dr. Taylor is in surgery now, and will call me later this afternoon to discuss those options in greater detail. I discussed Jojo and Callie and all the birds with my vet. It also depends on funds and how far I want and can go with this. But explaining Jojo espeically, it probablly will be best to have Jojo rest peacefully, if he is infected for the first signs of infection, Catching him, toweling and the stress he would endure wiould be too much for him and probablly only go against a recovery. *tears* I've grown attached to JoJo, that bird has just begun to trust me, now to even think of this rips my heart apart more. Now, I am highly encourage to move birds around the house. Keep the breeders on one room, Jeffery and bella (who had contact) in another. The Timnehs in another and Bailey and Zack in another and Simon on his own. We need to pull the rug immediately, disinfect the bird room and remove all toys. disinfect all perches. We're talking foot baths between rooms, changing clothes betweeen rooms, we're talking about strict disease control. WE're talking about screening. the Idea of taking xrays, or barium or floroscopy, as an inital tool, if those tests for each bird are normal, then later we have something to compare too if we need to test in the future. We're talking about medication, we're talking about whether to medicate now, or later. We're talking about who to medicate if we do. Our nightmare begins.............. You'll probablly find out more about PDD from Austins case then you ever thought possible in a short time if they decide to use this case on VIN. I am also to make a list of where each bird came from, the day they arrived in my home, how long in quarentine, how long in the presence of each bird as it arrived, all and any medical problems or medical conerns, even feathere picking etc. This list will greatly help in following our case and helping in further research with PDD. Im speechless now. I have no more words at this moment.
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29 May 2003 - Panic Stricken over Changes
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All babies are incubator hatched and handfed with no exposure the parents or breeding birds, perhaps this is safe, but without really knowing how PDD is really transmitted, how can we be sure its enough......we can't really i guess. However, if for some reason JoJo and CAllie have PDD, it might have come from Austin, OR mabe Austin got it from the breeders??. We'll never really know for sure I guess, but it will eat me forever not knowing where this all stemed from. Also, regarding Austin. Again, because we don't know exactly how PDD works, and it does and can affect 2 birds differently, it's possible for Austin to BOTH either have had it all along, harboured or been suffering slowly.........OR it might have began that suddenly. We just don't know, and this is the scary part cindy, is you don't know when, if , how, PDD will affect the others. It could happen slowly, it could happen quickly, it might not happen at all. I just look at what I have to do here and im not sure how to deal with it. I don't know who to move where, I don't know who is less of a risk, I dont know whether to keep them all in the same room, parted more then before.......keeping the pairs like Bailey and Zack together, the Timneh's together, Jeffery and Bella in an area and the Breeders in an area, and moving Simon into another room as he probablly couldn't care less about not being around the other birds. But keeping those equailly exposed pairs in an area that they cannot get to another pair....if you know what I mean. Or......moving these pairs all over the house. Is it really going to make a difference now?. Keep them happy with little change and stress better? I just dont know. I feel like i have to sit here and pick and choose and it doesn't feel good.
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