Mags0104
Moving in
- Joined
- 7/5/24
- Messages
- 7
- Real Name
- Margaret Martinez
Hi all!
This is my very first post (yay)!! (Original post in Emergency Highway Thread).
Unfortunately, it is because I am at my wits end and am engulfed with concern for my sweet girl, Scooter (cockatiel, 10 months).
We are new bird owners, and I mostly want to shed some light on some mistreatment/lack of care/struggle that I have been experiencing from professionals (VEG).
We got this girl (or boy, we don’t know yet) from Petco about 2 weeks ago. Her urates were a little yellow, but my friend who was shadowing at a bird clinic said all of the cockatiels droppings looked similar notably from stress. We noticed she was breathing really hard too. Poor girl was left all alone and was super stressed out while at Petco, so we summed it up as stress. A week goes by and her urates are becoming darker yellow and some green with really liquidy morning poops (see below). Her breathing did not get better or worse, but there was two episodes of stress that made her wheeze and open-mouth breathe (pulled out blood feather and escaped cage, respectively). When she pulled out the blood feather (we did not know she had one at the time), we saw a pool of blood and heard her wheeze at the bottom of the cage. We IMMEDIATELY took her up to St. Louis VEG in Brentwood, MO. They were nice and welcoming. They asked their usual intake questions. We told Dr. Cassandra Kroncke our concerns about the blood, the wheezing, how we were on standby recently watching her breathing. They tried examining her but had to eventually sedate since her wing was so painful. They saw it was “just” a blood feather and did not have to do anything. They sent us home with Meloxicam. During examination, I made many remarks about her breathing incidents to both the technician and doctor. Doctor said she’d do X-rays and never bothered to listen to her lungs. Tech said we could put her in an oxygen tank. I also mentioned (to the tech) about her urates and yellowing feathers and she said that “her gums are pink if she had liver disease she would be jaundiced” and “her poop could be discolored from what they were feeding her at Petco”. She has a cockatiel at home. Never bothered to look at her poop or tell the doctor. Doctor never followed up with X-rays or any diagnostics for that matter. Fast forward 4 days and we’re at an avian vet clinic who said she came back positive for bacteria (spirochetes) and yeast and does have abdominal swelling. She is on baytril and fluconazole currently. Well, today I am taking her back to the avian clinic to get radiographs and blood work since she is becoming more and more painful and breathing harder and faster (no tail bobbing yet). And get this, surprisingly, Petco of all places has been more helpful that VEG, the new emergency clinic meant to help ALL animals. Here’s the real slap to the face, Dr. Kroncke supposedly loves working with exotics, has experience working with birds, and has won many awards for animal welfare competitions.
VEG in Brentwood is great for CATS and DOGS. NOT BIRDS (yet). It truly breaks my heart that they charged us $342 for sedation, reversal, and Meloxicam and ignored our concerns. They actually said her breathing “looks” normal. Doesn’t mean it is.
I am thinking about calling the medical director to get some sort of refund and seeing if I can surrender Scooter back to Petco so that her surgery (if she needs it) can be covered and then adopt her back. The Animal Care manager at Petco has been really concerned and understanding with Scooter and is more than willing to help us out. I am well aware of Petco’s scandals which is why I am even more frustrated!! What kind of world is this?!
Anyone else have a problem like this?!
Any advice is appreciated
This is my very first post (yay)!! (Original post in Emergency Highway Thread).
Unfortunately, it is because I am at my wits end and am engulfed with concern for my sweet girl, Scooter (cockatiel, 10 months).
We are new bird owners, and I mostly want to shed some light on some mistreatment/lack of care/struggle that I have been experiencing from professionals (VEG).
We got this girl (or boy, we don’t know yet) from Petco about 2 weeks ago. Her urates were a little yellow, but my friend who was shadowing at a bird clinic said all of the cockatiels droppings looked similar notably from stress. We noticed she was breathing really hard too. Poor girl was left all alone and was super stressed out while at Petco, so we summed it up as stress. A week goes by and her urates are becoming darker yellow and some green with really liquidy morning poops (see below). Her breathing did not get better or worse, but there was two episodes of stress that made her wheeze and open-mouth breathe (pulled out blood feather and escaped cage, respectively). When she pulled out the blood feather (we did not know she had one at the time), we saw a pool of blood and heard her wheeze at the bottom of the cage. We IMMEDIATELY took her up to St. Louis VEG in Brentwood, MO. They were nice and welcoming. They asked their usual intake questions. We told Dr. Cassandra Kroncke our concerns about the blood, the wheezing, how we were on standby recently watching her breathing. They tried examining her but had to eventually sedate since her wing was so painful. They saw it was “just” a blood feather and did not have to do anything. They sent us home with Meloxicam. During examination, I made many remarks about her breathing incidents to both the technician and doctor. Doctor said she’d do X-rays and never bothered to listen to her lungs. Tech said we could put her in an oxygen tank. I also mentioned (to the tech) about her urates and yellowing feathers and she said that “her gums are pink if she had liver disease she would be jaundiced” and “her poop could be discolored from what they were feeding her at Petco”. She has a cockatiel at home. Never bothered to look at her poop or tell the doctor. Doctor never followed up with X-rays or any diagnostics for that matter. Fast forward 4 days and we’re at an avian vet clinic who said she came back positive for bacteria (spirochetes) and yeast and does have abdominal swelling. She is on baytril and fluconazole currently. Well, today I am taking her back to the avian clinic to get radiographs and blood work since she is becoming more and more painful and breathing harder and faster (no tail bobbing yet). And get this, surprisingly, Petco of all places has been more helpful that VEG, the new emergency clinic meant to help ALL animals. Here’s the real slap to the face, Dr. Kroncke supposedly loves working with exotics, has experience working with birds, and has won many awards for animal welfare competitions.
VEG in Brentwood is great for CATS and DOGS. NOT BIRDS (yet). It truly breaks my heart that they charged us $342 for sedation, reversal, and Meloxicam and ignored our concerns. They actually said her breathing “looks” normal. Doesn’t mean it is.
I am thinking about calling the medical director to get some sort of refund and seeing if I can surrender Scooter back to Petco so that her surgery (if she needs it) can be covered and then adopt her back. The Animal Care manager at Petco has been really concerned and understanding with Scooter and is more than willing to help us out. I am well aware of Petco’s scandals which is why I am even more frustrated!! What kind of world is this?!
Anyone else have a problem like this?!
Any advice is appreciated
