Matt Bird died about an hour ago. My husband got up for work and he was laying on the bottom of his cage, feet out behind him, his whole body shaking. He brought him to me to hold while he got his little cage out to move him to our bedroom where he would be undisturbed by our toddler when she woke up and while I held him I could feel his heart beating really fast, his tail was bobbing with each beat - and then it stopped.
He took a turn for the worst last Monday and we were due to leave for vacation on Tuesday so we hospitalized him, which we probably would have done even if we were going to be home to tell you the truth. When we dropped him off we asked the vet to do whatever she needed to to keep him alive. He had shown some improvement the week before that but suddenly Monday he started falling off his perch again. Anyhow, I know she started him on Baytril because his re-check came back abnormal for bacteria, and we gave ehr the go ahead to start medication for fungus as well even though his tests came out clean she thought that might be the problem. He was also on calcium syrup and vitamins. I don't know what the vet did as far as further testing, we left her a $400 deposit when we dropped him off to cover the hospitlization and medications as well as x-rays (they ended up not doing them - too risky because of the anethesia) tried to call twice during the week to check on him but the vet was busy so I just left a message saying if he was getting any worse to please call and leave a message so we could come home. My sister in law had to pick him up on Saturday as no one would be in the clinic to care for him Sunday. SHe said he acted like he was having seizures, which I had witnessed in the past and told the vet about but that he ate (he had gained 7 oz while at the vets) and at times seemed to perk up. We brought him home and he sat on his perch for the whole car ride, and talked to us a little. When we got home we debated to put him in his cage or leave him in the little cage but my husband felt he would bem roe comfortable in his own cage so we padded the bottom and his perches were as low as they could go - about 3 to 4 inches from the bottom. He stood on his perch and looked around. Then we gave him his medications and after that he started acting funny again. He never "perked up" after that - was standing on the bottom of his cage looking a little unsteady when I went to bed last night - but we've had other nights like that so I was pretty confident he would straighten out and get back hi perch.
I am thinking that either the stress of being moved from my sister in laws (he seemed ok there when we picked him up but she's afraid of him and he needed his meds so we couldn't leave him there - she's a 45 minute drive away) back here killed him, or the medication itself. I don't know. It was very sad, my husnand and I both feel like we should have done something different with his treatment. I wish I had been able to find a second vet to take him to for another opinion. The one we used came recommeded by 2 different people but maybe that's because she is the only one around? Well, it's easy to want to blame others in circumstances like this. I am glad he died while I was holding him and petting him, although he looked too out of it to care. My daughter will be up soon, and I have no idea what to tell her. She loves Matt and asked about him all throughout our trip. She was so happy to see him come home. I feel sick to my stomach over the whole thing, and am sure I will end up crying later.
Maybe I am so inclined to blame the vet because we have been so spoiled with our other vets. If one of our other animals is sick, our vets will run the gammet and tell us later and make arrangements on the money. They know that our animals are our family and they treat them that way. I feel that our lack of ability to cough up whatever she needed all at one time hindered his care. As is, we have invested over $900 into this. For that kind of money it seems like we should have had more answers. Now I am just being bi---y - sorry.
Ok, I am done trying to work things out here in this novel, no fun for you all to read. Thanks so much to everyone who offered advice and support and prayed for Matt - I appreciated it greatly.