RJ - The Scarlet Macaw!

'RJ' was born 15th January 2008 and immediately life was hard! His two siblings both unfortunately passed away at only a few weeks of age so he was all alone. Rj was being hand raised by his owners which was going fine - until his crop movement started to slow and he started to lose weight.

He was promptly brought in to see us. We took some blood samples, examined a faecal sample and looked at fluid from his crop under the microscope. This told us he was not a well baby! He had bacterial gastroenteritis and crop stasis. He started a cocktail of medications to try and get him right.

One week later after a lot of effort and TLC from his owners, RJ was back with us. He was still underweight despite the medications and feeding - his crop was still not moving very well at all. We decided it was best to change the brand of food to one of slightly better quality to ensure he was getting the most nutrition from the tiny amount he was actually absorbing and gave him a course of injections to help get the digestive system moving.

RJ came back for a revisit one week later. He had had to start more of the injections before coming to see us, but he had gained some weight and his crop was moving more than previously. He had another mild bacterial infection (a different sort of bacteria this time) which we treated with more medication but he was very bright and happy!

We have recently heard from his owners, and RJ is now gaining weight well. He loves his cuddles, and is certain to remind anybody if his dinner is late!