Pidge was a little quiet when I got him up this morning, but we'd had a late night last night and I figured he was still tired. He took a few bites of seed and stared out eagerly at me as I ate some oatmeal; pretty normal.

We had the shopping to do today and also stopped at Lowe's and Target. When we'd finally put the milk up, it was about three o'clock. Pidge was ensconced near his mirror and looking sleepy, which is his wont in the afternoon; it's when he usually has his nap.

We ran to Michael's and checked out the new Costco, then came home. I was immediately concerned because Pidge usually perks up the minute we get in and he didn't. I was planning to wash clothes, but instead I took him out of his cage along with his little toy, "Girlfriend." Instead of pecking at it like he usually does, he gave it a halfhearted nudge and then jumped on my shoulder. Uh-oh. Pidgie is not a snuggly bird like Bandit was. He wants to be doing stuff or in his cage, except when he sits on James' shoulder and makes pleats in his shirts with his beak. He only snuggles when he isn't feeling well.

I even sent James to get dressed when suddenly he began gagging and then raising his wings—he seemed to be having some problems breathing, although he wasn't gasping. It was an hour before our vet closed, so I called them, but they told me the vet had already left. Pidge had settled down by then and the advice nurse told me it might be better to keep an eye on him and take him to the emergency vet if necessary.

So I settled down with him on my finger. He was very lethargic and only occasionally pecked at "Girlfriend." James made me some oatmeal, which I tried to feed to him, but he didn't want more than a bite. So I sat with him there while I ate my dinner. I knew he wasn't feeling well because he didn't try to share it.

The best thing to do with birds when they get sick is to keep them warm, so I cleaned out his little carry box, set "Girlfriend" in it, and him with it and half covered the box with the heating pad on medium. I have a little thermometer that told me the temp was about 80°F. He sat there, eyes half closed and ignoring everything except me checking the thermometer occasionally. Every once in a while he'd try a bite of seed or peck at the mirror, but his heart wasn't in it.

So there we sat, through a load of clothes and all of the Molly movie, probably a little over two hours.

Then all of a sudden he perked up, started bouncing around, and didn't want to stay in the box anymore. I lowered the heating pad temp gradually, then took it off, then let him out because he was bouncing around so. He flew back to his cage and promptly tossed one of his toys off the top.

He's back in there now, having eaten prodigious amounts of seed (I gave him completely new seed) and fruit pellets (new too) and several drinks of water, and now he's singing like he would have when we came home had he felt good.

I have no idea what just happened.

I just hope it's not a sucker hole...

(A sucker hole is when it clears up briefly in the middle of a storm, like the eye of a hurricane.)

Labels: pets, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:25:00 PM

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