Guinevere

Many humane societies do a fantastic job with the animals they see most often -- dogs, cats, rabbits, small animals, etc. But birds are different, and many traditional places are unable to properly care for larger birds or birds with special needs, or to properly vet new homes for these animals.

We have developed relationships with many local humane societies in order to help them out when birds are surrendered to these organizations. Last week, we received a call from an area humane society. Two cockatiels had been surrendered. A kind employee called us up and said, "I don't know birds, but even I can tell that something isn't right with one of them." We quickly made arrangements to have the tiels transferred to our facility. This humane society is located about 3 hours away from us, and they made a herculean effort in order to bring her to us. Their actions were instrumental in saving her life.

The male was OK; a bit neglected, but proper care would fix him up in a few weeks. The female, on the other hand, brought tears to everyone's eyes. She is one of the worst abuse cases we had seen in quite some time. The people who surrendered her to the humane society refused to tell them how her injuries had been sustained. Our vet confirmed that there is no way her injuries could have been caused accidentally. She was abused; her wing intentionally broken.

We renamed her Guinevere, in hopes that a new name will bring her a new life and happiness. She's about 10 years old. Here are pictures of the cage she lived in. We didn't remove anything -- this is how she arrived:

Here is a picture of Guinevere:Aside from the obvious wing injury (fracture that healed improperly due to lack of vet care), her tongue was bleeding and she has sores on her feet. The tip of her tongue was ulcerated and the inside of her beak was red and inflamed. She attempted to eat, but the obvious pain she was in made this difficult.

Here are more pictures of her wing injury and poor feather quality:

We weren't sure whether she'd survive and, a week later, we're still not sure. She's making huge progress and we are hopeful.

The most amazing thing? She's tame and loves to be around people! After being handled in the above picture in order that we could document her injuries, she jumped up to the shoulder of the person who had been handling her, in order to snuggle a bit and feel safe.If we can get her healthy, our vet has told us that her wing will need to be amputated, in order to give her the best possible life. She has a recheck at the vet in a week; we'll keep you updated.