written by Mommy Marinda Jooste
It was a quiet Sunday afternoon and my husband and I were at home when I received a message from my friend Ilsa Meyer who runs the bird rescue group called ” Last Waai Papegaai”.
She told me the a little baby African Grey Parrot with a broken leg needed to be fetched from a nearby breeder. She said that if he wasn’t fetched from the breeder they stated he would be drowned in a bucket of water!!! We left immediately to fetch him.!!! I called on a friend who made an appointment for him to see a vet to get the leg set. We then made an arrangement for him to see another avian vet on the Monday morning.
The first vet we saw confirmed that the leg was indeed broken and very swollen and he was injected with pain medication for the night. So we made our way home with a small baby African Grey with hardly any feathers and a broken leg. We would take him to an avian vet the next day and then our plan was to find a permanent home for him. Ilsa had named him “SKIEWIE”.
So Monday morning arrived and I got SKIEWIE ready in his travelling cage. We waited for the traffic to settle and then set off for the avian vet. It was the longest trip of my life!!!! We were gridlocked in the traffic behind a traffic accident and SKIEWIE was becoming dehydrated and overheated!! After almost 2 hours on the road we finally arrived at the avian vet.
The vet did the necessary blood work and I was called in and told that SKIEWIE had a severe bacterial infection and inflammation due to the broken leg which looked like it had been broken a few days earlier. Her honest advice to us was to euthanise him due to his bad condition. I was told he had less than 10% chance of survival. My heart ached but I figured that 10% was good enough for me to help him fight for survival. I was in a state crying my eyes out for the precious little bird but was prepared for what lay ahead in helping him to live………..
STORY TO BE CONTINUED