Taleah was rushed into us one Monday morning. She had somehow managed to escape from her patio aviary on the Thursday prior to this and had been stuck in a tree where butcher birds were picking on her. She could fly up but had not yet mastered the flying down part. After many unsuccessful rescue attempts from her owners, she finally became so weak that she fell out of the tree and hit many branches on the way down. She was so weak she could barely hold her head up when she arrived at the clinic and her poor owners were suspecting she had broken her legs because she couldn't stand. Thankfully there were no broken bones, just a very weak and exhausted bird. She was rushed straight out into the theatre for critical care that included oxygen, a special warmer and fluid therapy.
Taleah had obviously had quite a hit to the head also as she was showing a few signs of head injury. She was not in a good way! We did a blood test on her which showed her white blood cells were fighting an infection and these tests also showed she had some muscle damage and very low blood sugar levels.
In addition to the critical care, we gave her two different types of pain relief, an antibiotic and a nutritious supplementary feeding. Once she had stabilised we set her up in one of our heated wards and continued her fluid therapy. For now all we could do was hope she had the strength and the willpower to pull through the next 24 hours.
On Tuesday morning she was still quiet but was sitting on her perch and even managed to eat a few almonds for us. She was still on heavy pain relief, antibiotics and supplementary feeding. Luckily that evening she was definitely improving and we started to wean her off the strong pain relief!
By Wednesday morning she was almost back to her normal self. She was vocalizing when we went into her ward, was eating more on her own and she was perching happily. A repeat blood test showed the white blood cells were much improved so it was decided we would send her home to her very relieved owners where they would continue pain relief and antibiotics.
She has been back twice for rechecks since then and is looking fabulous! She is now returned to the happy noisy macaw she previously was. Hopefully she’s learnt home really isn’t that bad a place to be!
