vet visit

Last weekend, when I uncovered the cages for the bird's morning routine I noticed that little Eddie Scizzorpoop was covered with vomit.
The entire cage was covered with seeds and sticky goo. Later that day she seemed Ok and I gave her a bath. Regardless, this puking warranted a vet visit.
The thing about birds is you need to find an avian vet that specializes in birds.
I have to travel to Windham, NH which, with traffic, takes close to an hour to get there. It's a busy office sort of like the grand central station with all kinds of animals coming in and out. I kind of enjoy going to the vet because it is interesting to see all the different cases coming and going.
There was a love bird there with darkened spots by the ears awaiting a check-up.. I correspond with a lady out in western Massachusetts via a cockatiel chat-line. She also has a lovebird. This time of year her lovebird develops an ear infection. It appears as darkened spots by the ears.It is possibly due to seasonally allergies. This lovebird at the vet looked like he was suffering from the same thing.
The vet office also has been a drop off of unwanted animals too.
I've seen a crate full of kittens at one time. This time they had a Hahn's macaw up for adoption. The vet assistant asked if I would like to adopt the Hahn's macaw since they knew I had birds. The poor little guy was a feather plucker. His owner is sick with cancer and the family did not want him. He started screaming and plucking due to the neglect.
He was a friendly little guy, however, he definitely needed some serious one-on-one attention. I spent some time with the little parrot alone in an operatory talking to him and letting him climb on my arm. I had a bit of a wait since it was very busy there with emergencies.
When the vet came in the room to examine my cockatiel and to see how I was relating to the mini macaw, the macaw reached down and took a chunk of my finger.
Blood was everywhere.
The assistant was horrified but I know even my budgies will bite me when they aren't getting the attention they feel they deserve. (At least budgies have little beaks).
This mini macaw was pissed that my attention was now focused on the vet and not on him.
As a result, I thought this bird needed more attention than I could give him since I have eleven birds already that all scream for my attention.
It turned out that Eddie, my little cockatiel, had something similar to strept throat. Her throat was all red with white patches. I came home with antibotics to give her and instructions to add apple cider vinegar to the water to help get rid of any residual bacteria.
Eddie had a choice of flavors for her meds. It doesn't really matter what flavor it is because she hates getting meds. I chose 'banana bread" flavor since she will attack my banana bread if I have it sitting on the table..
In order to give a bird their meds, You have to wrap them up in a towel like a little taco so that just their beak is exposed. You put a little syringe of prescribed meds placing it at left the side of their beak and inject. This way it goes down their gullet rather in their lungs. It's take a bit of getting used to but I have had years of experience in giving meds to birds and hand feeding fledglings. She hates it and I give her a bit of millet as a treat.
Ahhhh.... never a dull moment in birdy town!