Pin Me!
We have rescued over 50 parrots from horrific situations and we were balancing our costs well, until last year… Tragedy after tragedy hit us and the medical bills piled over $10,000 all at once.
Here is where my 3-year-old girl Bella comes in, my little monster. She is a feisty eclectus, who is the heart of our sanctuary. (She’s the one we take to dinner with us) She loves new humans (grows tired of us, I suppose) and loves destroying anything she can. She says Hi Bella and the sweetest ‘hello’ that will make your heart melt.
Bella is the only parrot that chose to come home with me. You cannot say she is rescued because she said demanded I take her home. What her highness demands, I provide, so I paid her ransom and brought her home. Cut to a few years later, Bella starting pulling her feathers out. We took her to the vet, he said heavy metal poisoning, put her on chelation for months! Didn’t work, so we had to have surgery with an avian specialist ($$$$) Now that her gizzard was clean we thought she would get better but she didn’t. Another 6 months passed, back on chelation. Another 4 months and the Doc said, let’s do barium series with digital x-rays ($$$) Barium series showed an abnormality in her gizzard and her intestines being pushed to one side of her body. Doc said most likely it’s egg yolk peritonitis inside her abdominal cavity but of course, we can’t be sure until he cuts her open with ‘exploratory surgery.
I’ve got the best avian vet in the world Dr. Nemetz, the only Doc I would ever let cut open my girls or boys. But he is a specialist and very costly. He put Bella on Lupron to see how the drug would make her feel (that way he knows when he goes into surgery he has to look at the ovary also) So next for Bella was ‘exploratory surgery to clean her stomach out, if that’s the issue or to remove the ovary if that is the issue. The cost of surgery was $5000. It was discovered that she had two ovaries, so one and a half were removed. Also, she had become egg bound and the egg broke inside of her causing lots of damage. She is doing well now after the surgery. We are still giving her meds for pain and inflammation. We hope one day she won't be in pain.
