I haven't forgotten to update, in fact I've often considered it and went to sit down and got distracted or got started and didn't quite finish. Trust me there have been many times I could have updated and with PLENTY to share.
Meisha man...oh man! Where do I start?!?
This guy is a hoot, a handful, a gentle guy and a real character. He's a busy bee! Always moving, shredding toys, shredding paper...and so you must be wondering if he's so busy and shredding everything else, how's his feathering in going?
It's been a rollercoaster! Ups and downs and honestly if he feathers in, fine. If not, fine. We have changed his food, watched his weight, done blood work, done a course of meds for a minor respiratory infection. Done more blood. He's healthy. No concerns, aside from a mild heart murmur. We've dressed him, and done showers, TONS of shreddable toys, he gets special lighting. He's treated like a bird king. Yet he still goes through phases where he feathers in well....and then for unknown reasons plucks. Right now he's looking pretty good but just the end of June he was a rough looking guy with no tail. Right now we have tail feathers coming in!! YAY....and.....
Speaking of tail feathers and how nervous they make me...so months back Meisha had a broken blood feather. Never in his near 19 years has he had a broken blood feather which may be a bit incredible since he's a plucker. He's always left feathers alone to grow in and snipped after until there was nothing left. I'm not sure when this broken feather happened exactly. He's out of his cage all day since I work from home and is in a room with glass doors. Our layout is fairly open so I can glance and see him throughout the day. Anyways it was around dinner and I went to feed him and it appeared he had somehow gotten JAM on his tail feather. After a moment I realized it couldn't be jam and it hit me...it was blood. I immediately snapped a picture and asked the land of Facebook and my bird friends for help! I have to say I got SO many answers, many different, and so because it was clotted I left it. I kept the monitor on him in his sleep cage and checked on him through the night. By the next morning he was chipper and all was good. No blood. So I didn't book him into the vet. BAD decision. By late afternoon his tail feather was bleeding again....bad! I went into panic mode calling all over. How could it be that on that day NO vet was available anywhere that had avian vets? It's not that there were no avian vets but rather those I called were booked, or had never dealt with a blood feather (WHAT?!? I know!) or were out of the office. Even the emergency 24hr vet couldn't get me in when I called. Worried he would fade fast and we'd lose him we took him to a vet who said they could try and help. They wanted to put him under to do the work but with a heart murmur and blood loss I was concerned that would equal certain death so instead the vet towelled him, snipped the broken feather and cauterized it and put him on short term antibiotics. It worked, thank goodness!
I want to take an Avian First Aid now or learn HOW TO deal with a blood feather on my own in the event it ever happens again. That was stressful! We also spoke with the vet he sees and explained how we couldn't get him in anywhere and were told to just BRING HIM in, he would have been seen. So for future that is my plan, just go.
Anyone else ever dealt with blood feathers?
Aside from that scare Meisha has been pretty easy going. He has developed temper tantrums and they come as feet stomping, screaming, lunging and growling when my oldest daughter leaves. She moved out on her own just before Christmas and that brought on the beginning of temper tantrums. He adores her, she is his person and so now every time she comes over he gives her the cold shoulder for a few, growls and then becomes mush in her arms. When she leaves he has a scream fit and then mopes and treats the rest of us with growls and strikes for a bit and then is fine.
When I figure out how to add video I will share the abundance of videos we have on this character. Oh he's a comic! Quite the talker and loves to laugh.
I will try to update more frequently now that my husband is back working in town and balance has been somewhat restored to life. I also hope to start my own life blog so I will share that here when it's up so that any of our followers can check it out and stay up to date as I'm sure I'll be posting lots about him in as he's part of our family and day to day happenings.
Thanks for reading and following!
