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Meet Darcelle
Jan. 21st, 2008 07:14 pmA) The lameness in my budgie's right leg is probably caused by an enlarged, infected kidney.
B) My budgie is gender confused.
C) I managed to get my car stuck at the vet and had to call a tow truck to get it unstuck.
This day has officially cost me over $200. I LOVE MY ANIMALS (and my car). I must, if I spend this kind of money.
The story thus far...
As yesterday's little rant told my last remaining budgie, who is, by the way, a mix of normal-sized pet store budgie and English Budgie, went lame in hir right leg over the weekend. Today I took hir in to the vet, who did a X-ray to figure out what was going on. We found out that s/he has a full stomach (yay! birds usually stop eating when they get sick, so this is Really Really Good), a big liver (not yay. probably fatty liver disease), and big kidneys. The fecal matter in hir poop looks good, but the urea had bacteria in it, so the vet thinks she has infected kidneys. Swollen kidneys can also press against the leg nerves and cause lameness, just like I was worried about with the ovaries. She sent me home with Clavamox, two drops twice a day. Awesome, yes?
So, if I was so worried about hir egglaying or having ovarian cancer, why am I refering to hir with a somewhat made-up non-gender specific pronoun? Well, it turns out that s/he's a bit... confused.
You see when I bought hir two and a half years ago, and as little as four months ago, s/he had a pinkish-brown cere (that's the fleshy bit above the beak, where the nose is). In budgies this means GIRL. Today when I caught hir up to go to the vet hir cere was blue, this means BOY. Now, young budgies (under six months old) do change cere color, but this isn't a young bird. This is a bird that's about 6 years old. It turns out that there are a couple different types of benign tumors that can cause a female bird to secrete male-level testosterone, and male birds to secrete female-level estrogens. Oh, and they can switch back again. My bird, despite the blue cere, is PROBABLY a female. When the vet did the X-ray she saw female-patterned calcium deposits in hir wings. But we don't know for sure. (or, as one of the vet techs said, "sometimes we find out more then we want to know" when they do the X-rays). There's still a possibility that this is a male bird, however. Only a DNA test will sort this out for sure. Until then I'm naming hir Darcelle.
Both me and one of the vet techs came up with that name independently. Go Portland. Darcelle is the closest thing we have to a local celebratory around here.
Oh, and while I was waiting for the vet (it was an emergency appointment so she had to fit me in whenever) I decided to go gas up my car. I backed out, and ran over curb and GOT STUCK. Had to call a tow truck to get me unstuck. Yay. AND I don't have AAA.
Ah well, at least there's Yostuba&!.
B) My budgie is gender confused.
C) I managed to get my car stuck at the vet and had to call a tow truck to get it unstuck.
This day has officially cost me over $200. I LOVE MY ANIMALS (and my car). I must, if I spend this kind of money.
The story thus far...
As yesterday's little rant told my last remaining budgie, who is, by the way, a mix of normal-sized pet store budgie and English Budgie, went lame in hir right leg over the weekend. Today I took hir in to the vet, who did a X-ray to figure out what was going on. We found out that s/he has a full stomach (yay! birds usually stop eating when they get sick, so this is Really Really Good), a big liver (not yay. probably fatty liver disease), and big kidneys. The fecal matter in hir poop looks good, but the urea had bacteria in it, so the vet thinks she has infected kidneys. Swollen kidneys can also press against the leg nerves and cause lameness, just like I was worried about with the ovaries. She sent me home with Clavamox, two drops twice a day. Awesome, yes?
So, if I was so worried about hir egglaying or having ovarian cancer, why am I refering to hir with a somewhat made-up non-gender specific pronoun? Well, it turns out that s/he's a bit... confused.
You see when I bought hir two and a half years ago, and as little as four months ago, s/he had a pinkish-brown cere (that's the fleshy bit above the beak, where the nose is). In budgies this means GIRL. Today when I caught hir up to go to the vet hir cere was blue, this means BOY. Now, young budgies (under six months old) do change cere color, but this isn't a young bird. This is a bird that's about 6 years old. It turns out that there are a couple different types of benign tumors that can cause a female bird to secrete male-level testosterone, and male birds to secrete female-level estrogens. Oh, and they can switch back again. My bird, despite the blue cere, is PROBABLY a female. When the vet did the X-ray she saw female-patterned calcium deposits in hir wings. But we don't know for sure. (or, as one of the vet techs said, "sometimes we find out more then we want to know" when they do the X-rays). There's still a possibility that this is a male bird, however. Only a DNA test will sort this out for sure. Until then I'm naming hir Darcelle.
Both me and one of the vet techs came up with that name independently. Go Portland. Darcelle is the closest thing we have to a local celebratory around here.
Oh, and while I was waiting for the vet (it was an emergency appointment so she had to fit me in whenever) I decided to go gas up my car. I backed out, and ran over curb and GOT STUCK. Had to call a tow truck to get me unstuck. Yay. AND I don't have AAA.
Ah well, at least there's Yostuba&!.