Birdbrainguy
Checking out the neighborhood
- Joined
- 11/22/14
- Messages
- 1
My cockatiel is 14 years old, I've had him since he was a fledgeling. He recently started to regurgitate a little, I didn't think much of it. A few days ago, he started spending some time sleeping on the bottom of his cage. I thought this was because it just turned cold a few days ago (southwest, winter starts in November) and he liked it down there because it was warmer. However, considering his age, I thought it'd be safe to take him to the vet and see if anything was up.
Well the vet dropped a bomb on me. He told me my cockatiel has a distended crop and stuff is sitting in there longer than it should be, which is creating bacteria in his crop. It's also apparently causing some malnourishment because the bird isn't getting the full nutrition from his food. He told me that he wanted to flush the stuff out of his crop, and there was a 25% chance he'd die during the procedure. He then told me that after that it would be only a 50/50 chance he continues to survive, because his crop has been stretched irreparably by this extra stuff. So there's another 50% chance it'd reoccur even if he makes it.
These odds are garbage to me. It's $1000 for the procedure (which is quite a lot of money to me) and I couldn't bring myself to leave him there with a 25% chance I'd never even see him again, so I brought him home to think about it. But I'm not any closer to a decision now than I was 4 hours ago. He acts 100% normal other than small amounts of regurgitation (which he's done his whole life to some extent) and a little extra sleeping at the bottom of the cage. He's still playful as ever, sings with you when you whistle at him, and sleeps at night up on his usual spots. Basically, he doesn't act sick at all.
I have no idea what to do. Someone please help me.
Well the vet dropped a bomb on me. He told me my cockatiel has a distended crop and stuff is sitting in there longer than it should be, which is creating bacteria in his crop. It's also apparently causing some malnourishment because the bird isn't getting the full nutrition from his food. He told me that he wanted to flush the stuff out of his crop, and there was a 25% chance he'd die during the procedure. He then told me that after that it would be only a 50/50 chance he continues to survive, because his crop has been stretched irreparably by this extra stuff. So there's another 50% chance it'd reoccur even if he makes it.
These odds are garbage to me. It's $1000 for the procedure (which is quite a lot of money to me) and I couldn't bring myself to leave him there with a 25% chance I'd never even see him again, so I brought him home to think about it. But I'm not any closer to a decision now than I was 4 hours ago. He acts 100% normal other than small amounts of regurgitation (which he's done his whole life to some extent) and a little extra sleeping at the bottom of the cage. He's still playful as ever, sings with you when you whistle at him, and sleeps at night up on his usual spots. Basically, he doesn't act sick at all.
I have no idea what to do. Someone please help me.