Meet Polly

Meet Polly, a blue and gold macaw who's around 20 years old. She's been here a couple of weeks now, and is doing much better, but when she was surrendered to us, she was in horrible shape.

She'd had an e-collar on for over 6 years with no respite, because of plucking. She was over 250 grams underweight, and over 1 inch had to be taken off of her overgrown beak. Just by looking at her you could tell that something wasn't right.
We rushed her to the vet, where science confirmed our suspicions that she wasn't in top health. Her white blood cell count was around 45,000; 11,000 would have been normal. Our vet did a barium series and found a "mass in dorsal abdominal coelom composed of dilated intestines."

She was placed on three medications -- Baytril (antibiotic), Fluconazol (antifungal), and Metacam (pain relief). She needs to take these for 30 days, and then she goes back to the vet for reevaluation.Despite her illness, Polly has a wonderful macaw personality! She sings several song snippets and loves to dance!



Obviously, Polly is not yet ready for adoption. We need to get her healthy first.

Polly is yet another example of the importance of yearly vet checks. She was much loved by her owner, who is a wonderful person. However, had her owner taken her in for yearly vet checks, it's very possible that Polly could have been saved years of pain and would now not be facing a shortened lifespan.

Birds are experts at hiding illnesses. In the wild, a sick bird is frequently driven out of the flock to die and also becomes more susceptible to predators. Often, by the time physical symptoms are such that humans recognize there's a problem, it can be too late. Yearly vet checks can keep an eye on trends and resolve problems before they start.

We'll update Polly's progress here. She's an incredible girl!