Vet Visit

Last Thursday I went to see Dr.T with 4 of the crew in hand. Two of our own birds, Sysco the parakeet and KC the patagonian conure went. And also a dwarf hamster and Scout the ferret saw him too.
Kc was up first to see him. As we waited for Dr.T to appear, we played a little , with her favorite foot toy, a plastic barrel with a bell in it, it is actually a cat toy. She loves to fling it and push it and even stick her toes inside it and jingle the bell with her toe. When Dr.T did come in , she ran to me in fear and cuddled up in my shirt, she is so afraid of him and I am her security. KC had a night fright about a year ago that somehow resulted in a severe injury underneath her wing. It was a large , gaping hole , I gasped when I saw it! I don't know what made the injury , I checked everything in her cage, there weren't any sharp areas or points, all her toys were in good condition and there weren't any dangles or frays that she could have gotten tangled up in- but still wouldn't explain a puncture- like wound. She had to have stitches to close up the wound :( and she was on antibiotics for a while. Since her injury , she hasn't been able to fly, she tries and simply ends up on the floor. Dr.T examined her wing on Thursday and told me her wing will not be the same again. The injury had damaged tendon and muscle, she will never have proper use of her wing again :( this is such sad news for me and for KC, she was a skilled flyer and she enjoyed to fly. I'd allow her to fly around the bird room ( door closed to restrict where she went) and she would fly to my shoulder or wherever she wanted to be. I feel awful for her and I know she has been traumatized and is depressed over the whole incident. There are days now where she doesn't even want to come out of her cage. I wish I can go back to that night and prevent that from ever happening.. but I can't.. all i can do is love her and reassure her.
Sysco our parakeet who is now 11 years old, was diagnosed with liver disease over 3 years ago. He frequently needs nail and beak trims since the disease causes abnormally rapid growth. Sysco put up a fuss and bickered while Dr.T trimmed him up. But he did great in the end, he looks superb now.
I took a hamster from the group of 43 dwarf hamsters that were dropped off a couple months ago. A female , that I never named. A gorgeous grey girl, with a feisty attitude. She developed a lump on her chest area. Turned out to be a tumor :( Dr.T told me straight out that the tumor was inoperable. It was attached to her chest wall and her front legs. Even attempting removal of the tumor was too tricky and her survival rate, much too unlikely. If she had made it through surgery the incision area wouldn't have healed well with it being between her front legs, an area of high movement. Also she was scratching at the tumor, making it bleed. Dr.T explained to me that animals do this because tumors don't have nerves, they don't feel the pain of what they are doing, they just want to get the burden and foreign thing off. It was a sad decision but we both agreed it best to have the little girl put to sleep. If I had taken her home, she would have suffered, the tumor growing larger, she may have even bled to death if she had dug the tumor open even further. She was sent to a group cremation and burial. I feel bad I didn't name her, there were so many hamsters to name that came in that day. No matter what, I will remember her.
Scout went in for vaccines. I always forget that Dr.T doesn't want to do both distemper and rabies on the same day. He wants to have two weeks in between to prevent a reaction. Scout only had a rabies vaccination plus a health exam. He checked out fantastic. Dr,T was amazed at how well-mannered and friendly Scout is, a good little patient he was. Scout will receive his distemper in 2 weeks.