12/26/05 - My social butterfly Lib meets Bo and says hello about 20 times, LOL. They were both very interested in each other and wanted on the cage together but "I'm" not ready for that. Bo is too delicate physically and Lib is too delicate emotionally should something appear confrontational to her. Bo kept petting his head as if to say "come preen me right here". Believe me ... I have been preened by Lib (recovering plucker) and he does NOT want that, hahaha. (I kept them looking at each other longer than the video clip but I wanted to keep it short so people on dial up could watch too.)
Bo has been in my home for one month on 12-19-05. I'm in no rush to introduce him to the bird room as I do not want to overwhelm him ... and my bird room can be overwhelming w/ a pushy female ekkie, a RB2, a G2, an U2, and 2 other M2s. The only completely mellow bird toward others is the Rosie so I will introduce them one by one and expand their exposure to each other and expand the number he "hangs out with".
I took it upon myself to remove Bo's bandages being my vet office was first closed due to power outage and then for the holidays. I was concerned because he had dug a "line" under his breast plate and bandages into his skin w/ his beak (even WITH the collar on) and I feared the ragged edges of the bandage would heal into the wound. When I removed the bandages I was rather disturbed by what I saw. The line he created caused too much tension on the skin and it had torn higher than I realized. The gauze under the bandages had also broken down and wore a sore on his breastbone from the plate rubbing. The lack of air and the restriction the breastplate and bandages place on him has the top layer of his skin looking "dead" and the feathers he is attempting to grow are growing under that layer of dead skin. I showered him after removing the bandages and then peeled the dead skin and it came off much like skin after a really bad sunburn would peel in big pieces. That exposed the feathers that was under those and I preened those open a bit. I concocted a new collar for him hoping this one will work to keep him away from himself (so far so good) and will discuss the options w/ my vet. I do not want the bandages or breast plate back on him ... his skin needs to breath and he needs to be protected in a way that I can easily remove and reply so that he can shower and be preened. I have several ideas going through my head of something I can create; an E-Collar is not an option for one, I hate those collars and two w/ his missing digits makes his balance too poor to support that type of collar.
Vet is closed today (Mon. 12/26/05) but will be open tomorrow. I have a plethora of things I need to discuss w/ her plus I am extremely agitated over how long this second read is taking (at this time no fault of U of Ga.). I am beyond my level of patience of waiting, something I do not do well on a normal basis let alone something as important as this. I don't want to discuss it on the phone so I will call to make an appointment for as early as possible.
1/1/2006 - The vet visit did not go well IMO. We still can not get his good bacteria built up even though he is on Bene-Bac. He has finished his different antibiotics so hopefully that will help it re-establish. No word on the second read and my vet has told me she has known for it to take up to 8 weeks to get it back from Uni of Ga. and that is w/o the winter break. I pushed for the CT scan but she still strongly advised to wait and I will explain that below.His weight gain is good but he is still not up to where he should be for a bird his size.
The self inflicted wound that he had made caused the skin to tear and further degrade (something I was already aware of) plus his "cast" did not help any. My vet said that if we had been dealing w/ a healthier bird this would not of occurred so severely. The reason my vet said to wait for the CT Scan is because IF the second read comes back as not cancer the money will be needed for another operation. His flesh in the area he picked is forming too hard and will have to be removed for him to ever properly heal and possibly not mutilate that area again. If it does come back as cancer we will do the CT Scan and see the progression of the cancer and we will look at whether it is operable or not and if not we may be able to ballpark how long I will have w/ him.
We have applied Bio-Dress to his chest (at $15 a patch; was supposed to be $25 but I got a break) and that stays on 48 hrs. per patch before a change; to try to stop any further degradation of his skin/flesh and to try to soften the wound. I feel so helpless and useless; it seems nothing is working out right.
Here is a pic of Bo hanging out w/ my other M2s in the birdroom. He just got done eating and having his first taste of ACV water. They all seem to get along fine so far. So milestone one has been met ... he got to meet my other M2s and to hang out in the birdroom ... now lets all pray he feels the springtime sun.
