JeffreysDad
Meeting neighbors
- Joined
- 9/11/13
- Messages
- 32
First, I just want to say thank you to everyone here. I hadn't been here before a recent emergency when I was desperate for information and the stories and advice I found here helped my wife and I get through a really rough time with our little boy, Jeffrey. Thank you all for being so giving and generous. Thought I would share my story here on the off chance someone else might find help or hope in it.
My little guy is a cockatiel named Jeffrey and we've had him for a few years now. He is a very talented singer with an enormous repertoire. He can sing the Addams Family theme song (complete with clicks), the song from the Bridge Over the River Kwai, the theme from the A-Team, Darth Vader's march and a couple of others and his favorite place to curl up is under my chin where I can scratch his head, usually when I'm on a phone call and trying to be professional.
A few days ago, Jeffrey was playing on the couch while my wife Kim and I were watching a movie. We had the door open about 12 inches because it was so hot, something we've done many, many times in the past. For some reason, something spooked Jeffrey and, despite his wings being freshly clipped, he bolted for the door. We live on the second floor and before I could get down the stairs, he had flow around the building and down a full city block, navigating between trees, fences and parked cars and landing directly into the busy street that runs perpendicular to ours. I remember screaming, in a voice so loud I thought for sure it was somebody else's, for the black SUV to stop but they didn't. Jeffrey's scream was stopped by a wet crunch as the car ran over him. I scooped him up and his wings were bent at strange angles and there was blood coming out of his mouth. Feathers were everywhere but he was still breathing and his eyes were open. Kim grabbed her keys and we drove as fast as we could to the animal ER about 5 miles from us. Not being avian specialists, the best they could do was put him on oxygen and give him some pain meds until the avian doctors could see him the next day. Kim and I spent the next four days waiting in animal ERs and constantly asking ourselves if it was time to say goodbye, questioning if we were fighting (and paying the doctors to fight) for him or for us. At one point, we stood over him in his little oxygen tent, discussing whether we should put him out of his misery and he perked up out of nowhere and dragged himself over to his food bowl on his belly and started eating. Kim says I'm a dreamer, but I took that as him saying he wasn't done yet, that he was fighting and we shouldn't give up on him. First it was, "if he makes it through the hour, he has a chance". Then it was the first 24, then the first 48. I don't think either of us slept for the first 72.
Well, last night the doctor called us about 8pm to tell us our little guy was the toughest cockatiel he had ever seen and that he seemed to be out of the danger. The fluid had somehow cleared in his lungs. Despite having the car tire run over his wing and rip out all his feathers, the wing wasn't broken. And he was starting to eat solid food. The worst part is that he has a broken femur that he'll have to learn to work around as he gets stronger. I am an ex-stuntman and somehow, a bit of his ex-stunt guy owner must've rubbed off on him, although I think he probably hates car hits even more than I used to, for good reason.
The doctor said we could operate on the leg, but as weak as he is from the trauma, there is about a 1 in 5 chance he wouldn't make it, so we are opting not to do the surgery. It is a clean break directly in the center of the femur, so it may take a while but he should heal fine and not even have any of the arthritis that I have read can sometimes occur from breaks. We are just going to have to spend some time working on his physical therapy every day, which is the tiniest price to pay.
We knew we loved the little guy before this, but both my wife and were shocked how much this hurt and how much we cared about the little boy. We sat there night after night, holding each other and sobbing making a lot of promises to a lot of higher powers if he would get better (that we now have to fulfill).
I just wanted to share this here, as a lot of your stories helped us through the last few days and I really wanted to pay it forward somehow. Hope this helps someone somewhere down the line.
- Dan (aka Jeffrey's Dad)
p.s. if you need avian care in the Los Angeles area, I can't recommend Dr. Levac and his team at VCA Wilshire enough. They were fantastic through all of this.
My little guy is a cockatiel named Jeffrey and we've had him for a few years now. He is a very talented singer with an enormous repertoire. He can sing the Addams Family theme song (complete with clicks), the song from the Bridge Over the River Kwai, the theme from the A-Team, Darth Vader's march and a couple of others and his favorite place to curl up is under my chin where I can scratch his head, usually when I'm on a phone call and trying to be professional.
A few days ago, Jeffrey was playing on the couch while my wife Kim and I were watching a movie. We had the door open about 12 inches because it was so hot, something we've done many, many times in the past. For some reason, something spooked Jeffrey and, despite his wings being freshly clipped, he bolted for the door. We live on the second floor and before I could get down the stairs, he had flow around the building and down a full city block, navigating between trees, fences and parked cars and landing directly into the busy street that runs perpendicular to ours. I remember screaming, in a voice so loud I thought for sure it was somebody else's, for the black SUV to stop but they didn't. Jeffrey's scream was stopped by a wet crunch as the car ran over him. I scooped him up and his wings were bent at strange angles and there was blood coming out of his mouth. Feathers were everywhere but he was still breathing and his eyes were open. Kim grabbed her keys and we drove as fast as we could to the animal ER about 5 miles from us. Not being avian specialists, the best they could do was put him on oxygen and give him some pain meds until the avian doctors could see him the next day. Kim and I spent the next four days waiting in animal ERs and constantly asking ourselves if it was time to say goodbye, questioning if we were fighting (and paying the doctors to fight) for him or for us. At one point, we stood over him in his little oxygen tent, discussing whether we should put him out of his misery and he perked up out of nowhere and dragged himself over to his food bowl on his belly and started eating. Kim says I'm a dreamer, but I took that as him saying he wasn't done yet, that he was fighting and we shouldn't give up on him. First it was, "if he makes it through the hour, he has a chance". Then it was the first 24, then the first 48. I don't think either of us slept for the first 72.
Well, last night the doctor called us about 8pm to tell us our little guy was the toughest cockatiel he had ever seen and that he seemed to be out of the danger. The fluid had somehow cleared in his lungs. Despite having the car tire run over his wing and rip out all his feathers, the wing wasn't broken. And he was starting to eat solid food. The worst part is that he has a broken femur that he'll have to learn to work around as he gets stronger. I am an ex-stuntman and somehow, a bit of his ex-stunt guy owner must've rubbed off on him, although I think he probably hates car hits even more than I used to, for good reason.
The doctor said we could operate on the leg, but as weak as he is from the trauma, there is about a 1 in 5 chance he wouldn't make it, so we are opting not to do the surgery. It is a clean break directly in the center of the femur, so it may take a while but he should heal fine and not even have any of the arthritis that I have read can sometimes occur from breaks. We are just going to have to spend some time working on his physical therapy every day, which is the tiniest price to pay.
We knew we loved the little guy before this, but both my wife and were shocked how much this hurt and how much we cared about the little boy. We sat there night after night, holding each other and sobbing making a lot of promises to a lot of higher powers if he would get better (that we now have to fulfill).
I just wanted to share this here, as a lot of your stories helped us through the last few days and I really wanted to pay it forward somehow. Hope this helps someone somewhere down the line.
- Dan (aka Jeffrey's Dad)
p.s. if you need avian care in the Los Angeles area, I can't recommend Dr. Levac and his team at VCA Wilshire enough. They were fantastic through all of this.
..that certainly is one touch cookie though
OMGoodness, what an amazing story! I'm so relieved to hear Jeffrey made it and is persevering. Please post some pics of your miracle boy and I hope you hang around and join the fun in our neighborhood. So many of us will now be wanting regular updates on Jeffrey's progress. 
