Do You Trust Your Avian Vet?

My first experience at the Avian vet with my second Cockatiel, Beenie was just awful.

I do not recommend buying a bird anymore because there are so many unwanted birds that need homes. Adopting is a better option.  But I bought Beenie about 7 years ago at a Baby Parrot store and he came with  a free vet check up.

When I took him to the Avian vet I was nervous to begin with.  I did not know this vet.  When we were called into the exam room by the vet assistant she asked me to put Beenie on the scale.  But he did not want to come out of the cage.  So I asked the assistant to help.  It was less than a week that I had bought my little baby, and I did not know that much about birds back then as I do now.  When the assistant went in the cage to get Beenie with her hand, she got Beenie's wing caught on the cage door.  She didn't realize this, and I told her that his little wing was caught in the cage.  When she put him on the scale I saw blood dripping from his wing! It was a blood feather.   I was just devastated by all of this at the time because I did not know what a blood feather was.  And when the Avian vet came into the room she needed to wrap Beenie up in a white  towel and put pressure on his blood feather.  She was a very nice and caring lady, but not the assistant.  The assistant even said Beenie was a bad bird because he was afraid to come out of the cage.

Poor little Beenie was squirming and screeching to get away for the Avian vet.  He got all stretched out and skinny looking.  I thought my new baby was going to die!  I never saw a bird like that before!  This was all so terrible to me because I had just lost a little parakeet, I had for 8 years and was a good friend of my other cockatiel, Baby.  I bought Beenie as a new companion for Baby and Me.  We missed my little parakeet so much.

Well anyway, Beenie got a clean bill of health, but was scared for life by hands and the color white!

Beenie would not step up on my hands for many years.  He was terrified of hands!  He would step up on my flannel covered wrist, but not if my wrist was bare.  He did not like any kind of skin on hands or wrists, even arms.  I would get nipped if I got my bare arm too close to him.  But it was not Beenie's fault that was so terrified of hands and arms.  The vet assistant had bare arms that day she got his wing caught in the cage.

So please go and read this blog  Do You Trust Your Vet? with some great advice from Chet and Dave Womach.  And a must read of Lucas's story of his bad experience with a vet that is listed there, also.