Awesome Saturday!

Had an awesome day today.  Dr. Scott Ford, who is the new board-certified avian vet at Brook-Falls Veterinary Hospital and Exotic Care, stopped in to see the Center, so I gave him the Grand Tour.  Cooper, the bronze-winged pionus who has been in foster care to adopt, was formally adopted today.  Charlie the plucked Senegal also was adopted today.  Doc the Goffin Cockatoo went home with his new family as well.  We DNA'd an amazon, who will have a brother or sister once we know what sex he/she is.  People stopped by to meet Big Lou, the Blue and Gold Macaw, and that went well.  Peaches the Moluccan Cockatoo has an adoption pending and should be going home sometime this week.  This all kept us busy all day long; now home, dinner and relaxing with the dogs.  Have a great Sunday everyone!

Off to a New Life

As I write this post, Katie, Gabby and Snowball are on a plane heading to the Seattle, WA airport.  They will be picked up by Lori Rutledge, who runs Cockatoo Rescue & Sanctuary, where the three birds will be living out the rest of their lives.  They will be living in huge flights with their own kind.  Katie and Gabby are Moluccan Cockatoos that have lived with us since 2000 and 2004 respectively.  Snowball was a surrender who is not interested in living among humans.  It is a great day for the girls and Snowball - they will finally be able to live as close to being in the wild as possible in captivity.  I am so happy for them.  But I've been crying since they left this morning.

Katie has been my girl for 13 years.  I love that bird so much.  We've been thru hell together.  She bit me so hard in the chest when she first came to us it took me a month to heal.  She learned to trust, she learned to like men.  She loved to go on PR visits with us.  But something was missing because a couple years back she started to mutilate.  The syndrome is actually called Moluccan Mutilating Syndrome, although it can happen with any type of bird.  She'd get better and then go two steps back.  About 10 days ago, on a Friday, I went to check on her and there was blood all over the cage.  She opened herself back up again.

Lori Rutledge told us that the mutilators usually heal up once they are in a flock environment.  I've been talking with her on and off about this for about a year or more.  When I saw Katie on that Friday I knew the time had come.

Gabby is also a mutilator, and she and Katie have lived next to each other for a long time.  So we decided it was best that they go together.  Gabby didn't like to leave the shelter, if we tried to take her out she would instantly start to chew on her neck.  She took a liking to Jess, who is one of our volunteers extraordinaire, and loved when Jess would come and play with her.  She also loved Steve, another volunteer, who would bring her treats on Saturdays.  However, again, after all these years she was still mutilating as well.

I'm sure Jess and Steve and a lot of the other volunteers are grieving today cuz we're missing our best girls, but we all know in our hearts it was the right thing to do.  Have fun, girls, and we expect reports from Lori in a few months that you're all healed up and loving being in a flock of birds for the first time in your lives.

Lori Drew
 

Katie and Gabby

Katie and Gabby will be going to Cockatoo Rescue & Sanctuary this coming Tuesday.  Katie and Gabby are both mutilators who we've had under control for several years.  However, the last month or so, both have been picking themselves again, so we made the difficult decision for them to go and live with their own.  They have shared a double cage for some time now, and it feels good knowing that they will be going together.  We've had Katie since November 2000 and Gabby since July 2004, so this really was a very difficult decision.  I love Katie as if she were my own.  Many tears have been shed.  However, it's the best thing for the girls, and that's what it's all about, isn't it?  What's best for them.  So Tuesday is the big day.  Prayers for a safe trip and I hope in a few months we'll see pix of them all healed up.  That would make it all worth it.

Saturday Review

Charlie the Jenday Conure was adopted today, as was Peepers the Senegal.  Millie, the Patagonian Conure, went into foster-to-adopt care.  We're hoping that Millie has finally found her forever home.  We had five birds surrendered as well:  an older Red-Lored Amazon with corkscrewing nails; a Meyers Parrot; and three Cockatiels.  Trish and Tom worked on cleaning up the small bird cages and Carolyn and Jackson pressured washed for us today - all the dirty cages from over the winter are now sparkly clean and disinfected.  We didn't expect them to do that today, so it was a very welcome surprise.  We really truly have some awesome volunteers - don't know what we would do without them.  Have a great Sunday everyone!

Paco Goes Home!

Tuesday was a great day for our Alexandrine Parakeet, Paco.  She went to her new home.  Her new owners previously adopted a Pionus and a naked Alexandrine

, so they know the ropes.  Congrats to Kim, Kurt and Paco on their new life together.

Malakai Goes Home!!!

Malakai (Kai Kai), an Umbrella Cockatoo who has lived here at CARE since March 1, 2011, went to his forever home today.  He's going to be living in the Madison area.  We are just thrilled for him.  Oh boy is he going to be spoiled.  What a great way to start the week.

Saturday at CARE

Josie, the yellow-sided Green Cheek Conure, went to her forever home today.  She's been here awhile.  She's one of those birds that we have no reason why she didn't go home sooner - nothing wrong with her at all.  But she's going to a green cheek conure-savvy home.  Surrenders today were a blue-headed pionus and green cheek conure who live together in a HUGE cage - they will be adopted out together in the HUGE cage; a little peach-faced lovebird named Rosie who's mom had emphysema; and six budgies from the same home.  Total birds surrendered to date in 2013 is 97.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Saturday at CARE

Pepper, the female cockatiel with the horrifically trimmed wings that was terrorized by children, went home today to one of our volunteers from a few years back.  Pepper loved her and was actually cuddling with her - there were a lot of teary eyes around here.  That bird has been tortured and now she has found a very loving and knowledgable home.  Maui, the white dove, also went home on Thursday.  That was one tame dove.  We have four doves coming in on Monday, two ringnecks and two pieds.  Their cages are ready and we can't  wait for their arrival. Have a great weekend everyone!

Phred Goes Home!

Phred, an approximately 30 year old Umbrella Cockatoo, went  to his new home today.  Phred has been with us since April 24, 2012, almost a whole year.  He was surrendered due to his owner having lung disease, not behavioral or medical problems.  Umbrella cockatoos, all cockatoos actually, usually are here for awhile - they are hard to place cuz of their loud calls and being like velcro to their owners.  Phred went to a family with lots of bird experience - we are so happy for him.  Great way to start the week!

Saturday at CARE

Hi Everyone!  Another great adoption day at CARE today.  You never know what the day before a holiday will bring, and this one was busy.  We had about 10 grooming appts. as well as adoption appts.  We had a male lutino cockatiel go home today; Peeps, one of the hoarding amazons went home; Cooper, a bronze-winged pionus with fatty liver disease (under control) went home; and one of our really sweet female doves went home.  There were no surrenders today.  Happy Easter everyone - it was a good day.

Monday

Knew it was going  to be a busy day cuz we weren't open on Saturday.  And it was.  Poco, the Blue-Crowned Conure who has been with us for quite awhile, went home today.  So did Skittles, a dilute Fischer's lovebird.  We had just the one surrender yesterday, a ringneck dove, at the Green Bay Pet Expo, and none today.  Several boarders went home and a new boarder came in.  The boarder coming in today is for behavioral adjustment - she is starting to pluck and we want to redirect her energies into learning how to play with toys.  Hopefully it will work.  Tomorrow looks to be just as busy ....

Green Bay Pet Expo

We just came back from spending three days in Green Bay doing the WBAY Green Bay Pet Expo.  We have a lot of customers from the Green Bay area and it's nice to be able to take our toys and info to them.  We had a great time, made some new friends, sold lots of toys and brought back a surrendered dove.  All in all it was a great weekend.

Snortin' Norton

Norton, a Blue-Fronted Amazon, came to us a few months ago and was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, which is a fast-growing cancer.  He was spoiled rotten while he was here, learned to play with toys, loved his fruit bread with his meds in it, and enjoyed shouting "hi" at us whenever he saw us.  Unfortunately, his cancer caught up with him and we had to make the sad decision to send him over the Rainbow Bridge.  We will miss you, Norton. We really enjoyed the time we were able to spend with you.  Fly free, Norton, fly free.

WBAY Green Bay Pet Expo

Just a reminder that we will be closed this coming Saturday, March 23rd.  We have two booths up at the Green Bay Pet Expo this weekend.  This is a very good event for us and we have lots of customers from up in the Fox Cities/Green Bay area.  We will reopen again as usual on Monday the 25th.

Saturday's Results

Another busy day here - Saturdays have been crazy lately (which is a good thing) :)  Larry and Pete, the fiery-shouldered conure and green cheek conure who came in together, were adopted and went home today to a great lady who had her previous gcc for 24 years!  Izzy, the green cheek conure, went home with a previous adopter.  One of our female cockatiels also got to go home.  Yay!!!  Emma, the Congo African Grey who came in as one of the Vilas County birds, was adopted earlier in the week and they picked her up also.  Because she is so insecure and frightened, they purchased her cage, so she would have something comfortable and familiar with her.  Super nice people who are willing to take the time to give Emma a chance to heal and learn to love.  There were no surrenders :)  All except one of the Vilas County birds are now available for adoption - we will be getting descriptions and pix up on Petfinder this week.

Tuesday's Happenings

Emma, one of the Congo African Greys from the Vilas County birds, was adopted today.  She will be going home by the end of the week.  This was an especially wonderful adoption because Emma is a very frightened little Grey.  We thought it may take months to find the right home for her, but her new mom is a nurturer and will take her time getting to know her.  This adoption totally made our day.  On the darker side of today, we had a cockatiel surrendered.  This poor little girl had her wings totally mutilated by someone's stupidity.  They cut off most of her wings, and she will not grow them back.  She's also missing a couple of toes.  She's afraid of everything.  We put her in our girl cage.  The other girls we have are sweet and were already taking care of her.  She is going to need special care.  Pictures to come but we didn't want to stress her out anymore today - she's been thru enough.

Kizzi Went Home!

Another busy Saturday for us.  But the awesome news is that Kizzi the Congo African Grey from the Vilas County birds went home.  She is the first of that group of birds to go.  We were soooo happy for her and her new family.  We had one surrender/return - a little hybrid lovebird that we adopted out about a year ago.  No time for him :(  He's a nice little guy and we'll find the  right home for him this time around.  Lots of people interested in adopting, so hopefully we'll have a few more go home soon.  Derek built a new shelving unit for us in the back, which will help us be able to store more stuff in clear plastic bins.  Also thanks to Joni who has been organizing our back room for us - that is NOT an easy job.  That back room is really coming together thanks to all the volunteers who have helped us reorganize.  Have a good weekend everyone.

Friday's Update

The last three of the Vilas County birds went for their wellness exams today:  a yellow naped amazon, a double yellow headed amazon and a mealy-cross amazon.  Because they've been here for about two weeks already, they were in much better shape than we ones we previously took in, which is great.  Once we get bloodwork results back, these birds can go up for adoption.  They still all need really extra special nutrition for right now, but almost all are handlable and we're actually seeing some of them destroying their toys (which is a good thing).  We will be open tomorrow from 12-5 if you want to come and take a look.

Today at CARE

Today we had one female cockatiel go home and one scissor beaked female lovebird was surrendered.  We have a bunch of birds coming in on Monday so we set their cages up.  You never know from day to day what's going to happen, so we try to get things done as early as possible.  Derek is coming in on Saturday to put up some heavy duty shelving in the back room for us to store things in bins - something we've really needed for a long time.  We're closed tomorrow so we're gearing up for Saturday.  Have a great evening.

Funds for Hoarding Birds

Thank you to everyone who has donated towards our hoarding birds' vet bills.  We are so appreciative of your support.  We are close to our goal but still need to raise $555 to completely pay off the bill.  This for me is always the hardest part of what we do - having to ask for money - but we want to make sure we do right by these birds and get them what they need to have a healthy and happy life from now on.  Please help out if you can.  If you can't, thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers for these birds.  A few of them will be going up for adoption in the next couple of days - we'll be getting them up on Petfinder soon.

Rechecks

Sydney, the severe macaw, and Peeps, the yellow-naped amazon, both went for their vet rechecks today.  Both were from the woman hoarder who died up in Vilas County.  Good news on both of them!!!  Sydney's preen gland was full of hard material and actually had to be lanced last week to get all of the material out.  She's been on oral antibiotics plus we had to put SSD cream on the gland to keep it moistened for the past week.  Her preen gland looks normal and did not fill up with fluid at all.  We'll do one more recheck next week and, if all is well, she'll go up for adoption at that time.  Peeps is very obese at over 600 grams, and had slight liver abnormalities on her bloodwork.  So, to be on the safe side, we did radiographs to make sure she didn't have any physical changes or masses on her liver.  She doesn't - liver is normal size and we didn't see any tumors.  So, for the time being, a change in diet, some antibiotics and milk thistle is our choice of treatment and we'll recheck in a month, if she's still here.  She is a sweet bird so we're all hoping she's in a new home in a month and the new owners can take her in for a recheck.

Monday at CARE

Holy Cow!!!  What a Monday - we actually had to call in extra help this afternoon!  Sinbad and Jessica, the two Greys that were adopted on Saturday, both went home with their cages today.  Luckily  both ages fit in their respective vehicles without having to be broken down.  A little lovebird, one of the 20, also went home to live with another lovebird.  They were doing very well while they were visiting here.  Then we had three surprise surrenders - a pineapple green cheek conure, a cinnamon green cheek conure and a fiery-shouldered conure.  We are pretty much filled up again.  We'll get the surrendered birds checked out and up for adoption ASAP.  They are all handlable and should be able to be adopted out quickly.

Saturday at CARE

Whoo-Hoo!  Another of those whirlwind days!  Beaker, the Nanday Conure, went to his forever home today.  Jessica and Sinbad, both Congo African Greys who have been with us for awhile, also were adopted today and will go home on Monday (separate homes).  All have been with us for months so it is especially nice to see them going to their respective homes.  On the down side (or maybe not), we had a Scarlet Macaw surrendered due to his owner's death; an Indian Ringneck Parakeet in not so good condition (broken pelvis perhaps?) and a Green Cheek Conure from the same home.  We will call our vet first thing Monday morning about the IRP.  Looks painful.  And last but not least, a little lovebird was also surrendered. As of today, we have had 68 birds surrendered this year.  We've got a lot of really nice birds all vetted and ready for adoption.  We have bloodwork back on most of the hoarding  birds as well, and most of them will be available to experienced bird people by next week.  Hope you all have a great weekend.

Vet Visits

We took the four worst looking birds from the hoarding situation in for thorough exams and bloodwork on Monday, and took three more in today.  The good news is that most of the birds are underweight, but look to be in reasonable condition.  We don't have bloodwork back yet due to some computer malfunctions, but all in all I think in a month or two, these babies will be in good shape.  The bad news is that the oldest guy, one of the amazons, was full of cancerous tumors, so much so that they were growing out of his cloaca, so of course our vet recommended euthanasia.  Although we were hoping for the best, we were prepared for the worst.  So, we are hoping that if the bloodwork comes back okay on these birds, we will be able to put them up for adoption soon.  They need, and deserve, to be with people who will love them and take good care of them the rest of their lives.  Some of them had their first showers this week and loved it.

We have raised $550 of the approximately $2,000 that we'll need for the vet visits, so if anyone can spare any change, we would greatly appreciate it.  I took a $550 check to the vet today.  You can use our Paypal button at our website, www.centerforavianrehab.org, or call in a credit card to our vet, Brook-Falls Veterinary Hospital & Exotic Care, 262-781-5277.  We weren't expecting two confiscations in one month, so again every little bit helps.

I'd like to leave you with this comment.  When the transporter brought these 11 birds and 1 dog down here from Eagle River, as she was carrying them in, she said to me "this is probably the first time in a very long time that these birds/dog have seen natural sunlight."  Think about that for a minute.  Is that sad or what?

I Can't Believe I Have to Write This...

I can't even believe I have to write an entry like this.  In mid-January, we had to ask one of our long-term volunteers to leave for a laundry list of reasons.  It has come to my attention that, although she tried to split up our cohesive group of volunteers, and that didn't work, she is spreading half-truths and outright lies to other people in the bird world, including some of our customers.  Many of you know me and know that I have been involved in animal welfare since 1989 and started this group in 1996.  My whole life is spent rescuing birds and dogs.  So, if you hear anything about me personally or about CARE that doesn't sound right to you, please let me know.  Every once in a while this kind of situation happens, and frankly, with the two confiscations this month and the usual routine in the life of a rescuer, I don't have time to deal with it, so today I have retained an attorney to nip this in the bud.  Thanks to all of you who support CARE and me.  Lori Drew

Saturday at CARE

Another super busy day!  No surrenders.  Mickey the green cheek conure; Sonny the green cheek conure; Bananarama the canary-winged parakeet; three lovebirds and three budgies all went home today.  The new birds from the hoarding situation are starting to settle in a little bit - we start the vetting on Monday.  I'm going to be spending a lot of time at the vet's office this week -  hopefully all the testing will come back okay.  Have a great weekend and we'll see you all on Monday.

Another Hoarding Situation

We received a call at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night from Humane Society of Vilas County.  A woman with a hoarding problem passed away in her home and was finally found on Wednesday.  She had 14 large birds and five dogs.  This house has already been condemned and the animals all were removed Wednesday night. None of them had any food or water in their cages - we were told they thought the woman had been dead for possibly a week.  She had no running water and there was no food or water in any of the cages.  She also had no toilet facilities in the home.

Today, we took in 11 of  the 14 birds (they kept three to use for education up there).  There were 6 amazons, 3 macaws and 2 congo african greys.  They are in very poor condition and we will start vetting them on Monday. 

They also brought me a senior female Pomeranian who has poor eyesight.  I will get her vetted and foster her for Wisconsin Chihuahua Rescue.

We are now, of course, at capacity and could really use some help with vet bills.  We will have to do more testing on these birds than we would normally do - this is going to be expensive.  If anyone can help, we'd really appreciate it.

Thanks to Melissa from HSVC for transporting the birds and the Pom down to us.  That really helped expedite getting these birds down here.

We have now reached 61 birds surrendered this year already.  That's more than one per day.  Not getting off to a very good start.

Saturday at CARE

Today 2 of the 20 lovebirds that came in last week went to their new home together.  Also, a cockatiel that we've been working with cuz he came in not handlable went home today.  He's come around and still needs some work, but is a cuddler and really wants to be around people.  I've been working with him so I'm very excited that he's gone to an excellent home.  We had a 20 year old Jenday Conure surrendered - really nice bird.  We'll have him vetted and get him up for adoption soon.  It was a nice steady day today.  We'll be open again on Monday.  Have a great Sunday!

20 Lovebirds and a Citron Cockatoo

Friday was a really busy day - we had to set up for the Great Lakes Pet Expo and we had to pick up 20 lovebirds and a citron cockatoo from MADACC.  So Carrie S., one of our awesome volunteers, drove down to Milwaukee to pick up the birds.  While I was packing up for the Expo, Bobbi and Carrie did health intakes and trimmed wings.  Luckily, most of the birds are tame (including the cockatoo) so that will make it easier to find new homes for them.  Pix coming soon.

We Will Be Closed On Saturday

We will be closed this Saturday, February 2nd.  We will be attending the Great Lakes Pet Expo.  It is being held at Wisconsin State Fair Park from 10-5.  Admission for Adults is $5 with a canned food donation and children under 12 are free!  CARE will be at Quad 13.  Please stop by and say hi.  Joey, Ruthie and Daisy Mae will be joining us for the day.  We'll have lots of toys available for sale.  We have a prize wheel and will be giving a talk on the side stage (time to be determined).  This is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year and we hope to see lots of our friends there.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact us today at 262-628-3719. 

Saturday at CARE

We had two special needs birds go home on Saturday.  Guido, who is a female White-Capped Pionus with a badly broken tail which healed kind of sideways, went to her new home as an only bird (which she will love), and Hawkeye, our senior female Red-Lored Amazon with extremely bad feet, went home with an awesome woman with large bird experience.  Hawkeye needs to be on pain meds for the rest of her life and her new owner is fine with that.  It is always nice to see the birds go home, but it is especially heartwarming when our special needs birds go home.  Good luck to Guido and Hawkeye and their new families.

Thursday at CARE

Today we had three budgies, a not tame cage pet cockatiel and Kyle the green cheek conure go home.  It was pretty busy there for awhile.  We also did some grooming and got a cage ready to go home for Zeus, who is going into foster care on Saturday.  Zeus is a U2 and came to us from a sister shelter.  He was dumped there with a very bad skin infection.  That has now resolved and he is ready to start learning that people are good and that he is loved.  Ruthie, our Ruby macaw, got a clean bill of health so can now be adopted.  We are gearing up for a busy Saturday - hopefully we'll see you then.

Tuesday at CARE

Kyle, the green cheek conure, has an adoption pending and is going home on Thursday with one of our regular customers and previous adopters.  Taj the Indian Ringneck Parakeet was surrendered to us today.  She needs work on "step up" but looks to be a pretty nice little girl.  Took Zeus the U2 in for his recheck and his skin infection is all healed.  Tomorrow we'll find out if his bloodwork is normal.  Ruthie, the Ruby Macaw, also went for her wellness exam - if her bloodwork is normal, she will be available for adoption right away.  We'll know for sure tomorrow.  Stay warm and have a great evening.

Saturday Update

Today was a typical Saturday here at CARE.  We had four adoptions - 2 budgies, Pickles the Senegal and Gucci the Sun Conure.  One of the unique things about Gucci is he loves guitar music and we were told he loves to sit on a guitar while it's being played.  Both of his new owners play guitar - how cool is that!  We had no surrenders.  Jackson braved the elements today and pressure washed cages all day long.  He was my hero today.  Derek came in and did handyman stuff and we got lots of those little irritating jobs done.  Bet we'll all be in bed early tonight!  Have a great Sunday and we'll talk to you again on Monday.

Durante FINALLY Goes Home!!!

Today was a very special day. Durante, our greenwing macaw, who has been with us for over a year, finally went to her new home today. A year is way too long to be living in a shelter. She is going to be sooo loved. These are macaw experienced people who intend on making her their new child. She is a great bird and deserves the best.

4 New Budgies and More

I met Kathy from HAPPE Parrots yesterday and brought back four beautiful little budgies - two males and two females.  They all look to be in good health and will be up for adoption soon. 

For those of you who watch our Facebook page, we have a new admin coming on starting Saturday.  She is very experienced in FB design and I can't wait for her to take over the page.  I will continue to do the blog, so this will be nice, we'll have two different avenues of getting info out to you.  Stayed tuned for more.

Saturday Update

I was out of town this weekend, but this is what I know: Finley the Quaker, Nicky the Quaker and Mikey the Canary-Winged Parakeet all went to their new homes today. Guido the White-Capped Pionus was surrendered. He needs to see the vet, then we'll get him up for adoption.

Great Lakes Pet Expo 2013

The Great Lakes Pet Expo is happening on Saturday, February 2, at the Expo building at State Fair Park.  This is a huge event for the rescues/shelters in Wisconsin.  You will find everything pet-related at this event.  We will be at Quad 13 - we'll be sharing it again with Wisconsin Chihuahua Rescue.  It is open from 10-5.  Kids under 12 are free and adults are $5 with canned food donation.  We will be showcasing a few birds as well as selling our toys, etc.  I am hoping to see a lot of friendly and familiar faces there. 

Tuesday at CARE

Tuesdays are usually pretty quiet around here, but not today.  Pam came in to feed, Joni came in to help reorganize the back room and we had three adoptions, plus one adoption pending.  We had a sweet male tiel, Lucky the female green cheek conure and Jimi the female canary-winged parakeet all go home today, plus Finley the Quaker Parakeet has an adoption pending and will go home on Saturday.  Pretty great Tuesday for the birds and CARE.

Ringo and Angel

We love Happy Endings!! This from one of our recent adopters:

Hello there!

My daughter and I adopted a cockatiel with no name (now Angel), and Harry the Dove (now Ringo) last Thursday. They are doing very well. Angel steps up right out of her cage with no problem, and her absolute favorite place to be is my right shoulder.  She will preen herself, and fall right asleep there. She is just awesome. Ringo is becoming more comfortable, as he started cooing again yesterday. We are still working on him coming out of his cage, but once he is out he will sit as long as we are sitting still. Once we move, he gets nervous. So we will just continue working with him. He is such a sweetheart.

I did get Angel her own toys instead of using the ones from Ringo's cage, and both seem happy with it. I will be upgrading Angel to a new (bigger) cage within a month or so.

Thursday Adoptions

Kind of a busy day today.  Harry the Ringneck Dove and one of our tame female tiels went home today to the same family.  They will have a little girl to play with and love.  I really love it when the doves go home with well-behaved children.  They can be such good pets.  Stay warm everyone - we'll be back open again on Saturday.