Ringo

On Sunday, August 16, 1998, Ringo pulled out an entire set of newly growing wing feathers, his tail (which was finally growing out), and mutilated one entire side of his body. on Tuesday, Ringo passed away at the vet due to septicemia caused by the mutilation.

One day a little over 15 years ago a tiny innocent baby Ringo’s eyes focused upon this world with nothing but trust and curiosity. We wanted so much to give him back the life he deserved, and that was taken away from him. He made such a huge impact on our lives during the short time he was with us and we still miss him horribly.

He had finally been taken there after spending most of his 14-year life in the garage with a blanket over it. All of his primary feathers stick out at a 45 degree angle from his body. They've all been clipped short for his comfort. He has large bare patches (primarily on his back and under his wings), sores/calluses on his legs, and the remaining feathers are in poor condition at best. His diet was atrocious. He is very thin and weak, and is currently kept on a very low perch over a fluffy towel because he will fall off the perch if he has to do any climbing around.

We loaded him into the carrier, and it was just like he said "Well! let's go home!" He preened a bit, and played with the towel... it looked like he had never seen one before, and was just captivated by it. He kept leaning his chest against the front fold of it and sitting there with his eyes half closed. When we got home, I gave him a crock of the Fiesta for Parrots and he dove into it like he hadn't eaten all day, guzzled plenty of water.

Probably the most heart-breaking thing is that he is a total lover. He loves to nuzzle, and loves to be scritched under his wings. He looked very disturbed when I removed him from the cage at the humane society, but never tried to bite. And frankly..... on the noise scale, he doesn't even come CLOSE to the princess Kes.

May 18 - Ringo's gram stain came back 40% negative, with a touch of coccidia. He's so starved that Dr. Hartwick doesn't want to do any further blood tests or cultures until he's gained some weight... maybe 2 weeks. Our goal is an addition of 20 grams on his weight. She thinks he'll be much sassier (okay, she said 'grumpier' --but we don't tolerate 'grumpy' in this household) when he's feeling better, so so much for a sweatheart (we'll see). He has a well-established case of bumblefoot on his heels of all things.... he was evidently not on a perch for quite some time. I'm embarrased I didn't make that connection last night --his legs are weak enough that on the ground, the heels hit the floor. He's been either on a perch or a towel since we had him. He has dry skin, no parasites of any kind, and although he's got a lot of new feathers shafts coming in, they don't appear to be deformed at all, so PBFD is not at the top of her list. She said it was unfortunate that the primaries were clipped because until they grow back in again... we can't really tell what the problem is with those. --we also passed on an x-ray at this time because it's pointless until he's stronger and something can be done anyway (not that I'm not dying of curiosity). So, he's on Nystatin & Baytril. We didn't debride the scabs on his heels, because that would require more hell for him at this point.... wraps, additional meds —things he doesn't really need right now.

So, we have a sick little birdie who for the moment at least, is a sweetheart. Maybe the cuddling and attention will grow on him.

He's too weak to climb up onto a standard perch, so his home for now is in the carrier, with a towel on the bottom and a short little perch that he can get onto with no problems.

Thanks so much Mary for your help in this! I don't care how grumpy he gets. After all he's been through, he deserves to be a "grumpy old man" :)

May 19 - He's definitely feeling better... nailed my thumb and when I jerked back, he was still hanging off of it, and continued to do so while I stiffled back a nice big holler, several cuss words, and some drool. Okay... he's a hanger-on, and I'll use a towel first next time. Thank goodness it's not my space-bar thumb, because it's paralyzed.

He's very possessive of his new home which *was* Kes' travel carrier. It's a small dog-sized Vari-Kennel, with manzanita perches installed, and a thick towel on the bottom. Larry thinks the idea of it is strange, but a bird locked in his cage for 14 years is going to be somewhat psychotic about the whole thing (in my opinion.) He took another tumble, so still needs a bunch of strength (although he has no problems with the beak) We have a cage for him, but we aren't going to use it until he's doing a lot better.

He gained 2 grams from yesterday afternoon! (207 grams today) So... perhaps I shouldn't have been so hysterical about getting food in him. He's cleaning up on the seed if nothing else... so maybe that's so much better than he was getting before.

In order to get his meds in, I blended a batch of soaked parrot pellets and a jar of banana/apple baby food, and gave him a taste and then added the Baytril. I got in 4 cc's altogether (of the food), and none of it was spit out on me. It looked more like he was trying to figure it out. If I got the syringe near his beak, he opened up and them clamped down on it so it was a matter of pumping it in slowly.. and then waiting for him to let go. No muss, no fuss. The Nystatin is already sweet --in an oral suspension, and that made a near 5th cc that I got into him.

For dinner, he has a baked potato with sour cream, a few slices of baked sweet potato with a sprinkle of brown sugar, a few pieces of garlic bread, and some warm grapenuts in the bottom. So... I'll leave it there for a while and see if he eats any of it. He hated peanut butter (although he did have a suspicious smear on his beak after I put some on his perch --could have been trying to get rid of it tho.) Instead of water, he's got a dish of kiwi/strawberry nectar at the moment. He drank at least one mouthful.

I have a feeling he won't touch the dinner, but will try again tomorrow morning with a breakfast burrito and some of Sally B's glop.

May 20 - I had to leave at the crack of dawn this morning, and was really worried about Larry and Ringo, and that Ringo wouldn't get a proper breakfast or his meds would be screwed up or something.

I obviously needn't have worried..... Larry in his ingenious male way, mixed Ringo's beloved seed mix thoroughly with cottage cheese and fruit cocktail. Ringo had a lovely messy face when I got home, and although he left every scrap of cottage cheese and fruit that he could.... I'm sure he managed to ingest quite a bit anyway. (Although, Lou can eat chili and lick every kidney bean absolutely clean, lick the bowl absolutely clean, and leave a neat pile of kidney beans)

It certainly worked better than *my* dinner for him last night... (which took me 45 minutes to prepare) didn't touch a bit of it. 208 gms today (+1 :) ...make that 2 grams (209!). We've been weighing him *after* dinner every night and I jumped the gun. He's got a habit of eating the syringes... and we're about out now. Guess we'll have to get some more :)