We went to visit Oboe in the hospital again this evening, and he seems to be improving. His breathing still isn’t great, and the vet says it might be a punctured air sac. She’s hoping it’ll resolve itself over time. She says we’re basically keeping him alive and buying him time so that Mother Nature can heal him. She’s less concerned about his wing now than about his breathing. It might not be broken after all. He can’t fly, but at least it’s not drooping. It might get better on its own too.
Here’s an 11-second video I took of him tonight.
Also, he finally chirped! It was only one little chirp, but it was the first sound he has made since all this happened. He’s still not eating, but he got excited about a corn kernel I offered him, and he wrapped his beak around it. He nibbled a bit of millet for me, too.
I’m especially happy to be able to report that he’s coming home tomorrow night, assuming he doesn’t take a turn for the worse between now and then. The vet wants him to have the extra insurance of another day of injected antibiotics, since cat bites are so incredibly deadly, bacteria-wise.
He’ll still be on oral antibiotics and anti-inflammatories for pain. And I’ll have to handfeed him baby bird formula with a syringe three times a day until he can feed himself. As long as I can keep him well fed and hydrated and warm and safe, he should be okay here.
Which is great, because I was starting to think the ultimate irony would be that I’d spend all my reserves on “buying him time” and then when he was finally strong enough for treatment to fix him, I’d be out of money and unable to afford it.
He’s a little avian vet humour for you: A bird goes to the vet and the vet says “The bad news is that you’ve got a serious case of chirpies. The good news is that it’s tweetable.”
Ha ha ha ha ha!
glad to see that the little “twirp” is coming home. Love is what is going to cure him.
LOVE HIM UP!!!!! I’m so glad to see he’s better
Hi Zoom,
That is AWESOME news! I’m very glad Oboe is feeling better and is tweetable :). Being able to come home to his family and gets lots of TLC will have him healed in no time.
Just in case, I will continue to send good recovery thoughts to little Oboe while he is on the mend.
Oh my goodness. Just getting to this story now. I hope all goes well, the poor wee thing.
I was also glad to hear that Rosie has gained some weight. When she fixates on anything (like Oboe) next time, poke her in the ribs like Cesar does, to snap her out of the fixation. Then she’ll watch you and not the target prey.
Good luck!
Yah… Oboe will be really happy to come home I’m sure. That and all the positive vibes being sent his way by so many people ought to help with healing process. Hope things keep improving!
Oboe is one tough little bird and I am sure now that he is back home he will do much better. Oboe sure loves you Zoom, you are such a great Mom.
Glad Oboe’s improving.
So pleased to hear this! I’ve been thinking of you, GC and little Oboe over the last few days. I know you’ll give him tons of TLC at home and hope he improves steadily.