healing vibes please, for my budgie Perwinkle...UPDATE! HE'S SINGING W/THE EAGLES!

[magical thyme]

11. well not surprisingly, just as I was getting ready to go, Peri started chirping and singing

Violet and Sage were both visiting him and for the first time since Friday, he was welcoming their attention.

I considered canceling the appointment, but was afraid I'd find him tomorrow headed back downhill, so went on ahead. Everything is fine. He handled the trip well, weighed in at 29.75 grams (I had him at 30 grams on my kitchen scale -- close enough!), lungs clear, heart good. His poops looked fine, but I had him do a gram stain anyway jic. Came back perfect, with a good mix of nearly 100% gram+ and no yeast, which is what you want for budgies.

So vet said to just keep him in, quiet and extra warmth until he's rattling the bars to get out again.

My guess is that he got exposed to something while rooting around on the floor, which he and Sage kept doing last week. Dog saliva contains reeeeally bad bacteria for birds and Jake drools everywhere. So I'm thinking he got exposed and his immune system was working overtime to stop an infection. If so, he'll be immune in the future & just needs some recoup time.

That's the good news.

The bad news is the bill was ridiculous. While we were there, I had the vet remove his leg band since they can potentially cause problems. Every other vet has either done band removal as a courtesy or, at most, charged a nominal fee, say $5. This guy charged $20 for that alone!!!

Then pushed me to switching to a pelleted diet and sure enough, as I'm paying the bill, they're selling me pellets. I bought a pound to get the eff out of there. $12/pound!!!!!!

With the exam and the gram stain on top of it, the visit ended up costing nearly double what I expected.

As if that wasn't bad enough, my appointment was for 5:40. I arrived half an hour early and they ushered me right in. I then waited, and waited, and waited. I spent a bucketload of time waiting for...the vet....the gram stain....the vet....the bill... I didn't get out of there until 7pm. I was ravenous so drove through a McD's in desperation. Ordered a buttermilk crust fried chicken sandwich as comfort food and waited....and waited....and waited. Got so frustrated I nearly drove off, but was too hongry. Then they gave me the grilled chicken instead of the crispy buttermilk crust, but I was too starving and exhausted to return it.

Bottom line, I didn't get home until 9pm (I'd expected 7:30, 8 latest), broke & worn out.

But Peri should be ok. I realized on the drive down that I was reliving my budgies Kiwi and Mango. I lost Kiwi ~20 years ago. I loved that little bird and his mate, Mango, who I lost just 2 weeks later. That whole experience was just so sad and traumatic...

If I hadn't taken Peri to the vet, he probably would have gotten better faster because the drive down & back were tiring and will be a setback for him. But if he'd turned out to be sick, I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself.