Navre
Meeting neighbors


This is Tanya. She is at least 26 years old, perhaps older. At some point she was surgically sexed, so she may have been a breeder at some point.
She was surrendered to a parrot rescue at which I volunteer. She had been on an all seed diet, and it had taken its toll. She was very weak, foot injuries had left her unable to perch, and she was covered with fatty limpomas. Her tests showed liver disease and high cholesterol.
Despite her problems, Tanya seemed to be happy, and loving. The staff at the rescue, and the rescue's vet, carefully weighed what was best for Tanya, and decided that with medical care and rehab, she had a chance at a happy life.
The rescue, with its many birds, loud noise, and rotating volunteers was not the best place for Tanya. A volunteer offered to foster Tanya at her home. Tanya was put on a low-fat pellet, and given healthy chop in the mornings, She was started on milk thistle and dandelion extract, and she was started on some exercise every day. She couldn't do much, at first, but as she got stronger, she was able to do more and more.
It became apparent that her feet would never get better, and she would always be a ground bird. Her foster mom made her pads of memory foam, and covered them with layers of fleece to give tanya the soft surface she needed. The sores on her feet were treated daily, and a few times a day she was taken out to have her bottom cleaned. Her foster mom really saved her life, by showing that although it seemed like a lot of work, it really was possible to give Tanya a safe, healthy space in which to recover, as much as she can, from years of poor care.
I adopted Tanya at the beginning of December, 2015. I put her in a ferret cage. It has a big floor space, which tanya can utilize, but not too much vertical space, which tanya can't use, anyhow. I hung woven seagrass mats from the back wall, on which to hang toys. We cut a thick piece of me more foam, sewed mattress into a much to protect it, and sewed fleece covers into pouches over that. Over this we put lawyers of fleece to protect her and absorb. I have small squares of felt or fleece that I place over her droppings as soon as I see them. Once a day, I change the whole thing. I'm doing more laundry now than when I had 2 human babies.
Tanya is under the care of a very qualified Avian vet at Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston. We make the drive into the vet quite often, and she has had a lot of tests, so far. Our biggest concern right now is getting her very high LDL cholesterol level down. We have tried a few drugs, with no results, and right now we are trying an amino acid. I also add oatmeal to her frozen chop/gloop mix that she gets in the morning. I mix aloe vera juice into her water, and give her drops of milk thistle/dandelion extract. If we can get her cholesterol down, then we can biopsy one of her limpomas, and start to work on her liver function. We will also consider some long-term pain medicine for her feet. We are tying to do as much as we can without overtaxing her. The big thing is that she knows she's loved
She has been with me about 3 1/2 months, now. She is getting more vocal, and wandering around more when I have her out of her cage. (I'll post a video to show you how she moves.)
She's very sweet. I'm so glad to have her.