For as long as I can remember my family has always had a pet bird, usually a parakeet or for the last 10 years or so a lovebird. The first of these birds was named Laces, she got her name because of a fixation she had with shoe laces. She would find shoes either left on the floor, or sometimes still on a persons feet and do everything possible to get peices of those laces or in some cases the entire back into her cage, I guess in hopes of making super lovebird condo. Laces devoloped a wheez and my mom took her to the vet, at that time the vet prescribed injections of anti-biotics and suggested that she be kept in a small cage where she could be kept warm. After two days of treatement I found Laces dead. At the time I believed maybe we started treatment too late. The next lovebird to enter my life was Opus.
Opus, was the first pet I had when I moved out of my parents house and was a incredibly attached to this bird. Her main claim to fame was an intense dislike for my girlfriend at the time as it turned out opus may have been a good judge of charactor, she also enjoyed popcorn and at least once a week we would watch rental movies an eat popcorn. When I heard the first sign of a wheeze that had claimed laces I rushed her to the vet. The vet prescribed a similar round of treatment including a small warmer cage and injections of anti-biotics, three days after the treatment started she died, not before she seemed to devolope a dislike for me for giving her the injections and moving her from an area that she was comfortable with to a darkened area, that I think may have made her quite unhappy.
Recentely I adopted another lovebird from a bird rescue, Darwin. Darwins main claim to fame is she lures my beagle near her cage by dropping food on the floor and then bites his hears and pecks at his head while he eats the bird food, her cage is a floor to cieling affair that allows her to get almost level with the dog. I am not sure who is the winner here as the beagle has a very hard head and I doubt cares that a little bird is biting him, especially when it leads to a tasty treat and the bird seems to like the idea that she s outsmarting the dog. The only loser is me, when I have to clean up all the bird food that the dog pukes out.
About a week ago, Darwin started to devolope the same wheez that had claimed my previous two birds, I didn't think that taking her to a vet would do anything but stress her out and to be honest I did not have the money to pay large vet bills anyway. I accepted the idea that Darwin might die, and she did get weaker, I gave her what I think are her favorite treats, seed sticks and corn, which at first she was not eating. She was not making the usuall amoount of noise either, normally she would talk over the TV, especially if their were bird noises, and you would be surprised how many tv shows have bird noises in the backround. None of that was happening, until about a week ago, I heard her throwing food on the floor and saw my beagle rushing to the cage, she seemed to be back to "normal". Since then she seems t have made a full recovery and I now have to turn the volume up on te TV in order to hear most of the time, and I am happy to do it.
The point of all this is that in this case at least leaving Darwin in a nice enviroment and not starting any treatments may have allowed her own immune system to do what it does best, which in this case was fight off a virus. In the past I wonder if by taking the birds to the vet where they were exposed to other viruss' and also starting a stressfull treatment didn't make the situation worse. I think it is worth looking a health care especially as the debate heats up about a single payer system as to how much health care is really needed and how much is too much. In some cases over-medication and over-treatment may cause more problems, and while figuring a way to pay for medical treatment is important maybe it is also important to figure out what kind of treatments are worth pursuing.
Oh well, I have to go clean up some dog puke.