Pepito's been to the vet today...

[ruthpaton]

Hello everyone! I haven't been on here recently as my Grandma became very ill in September and passed away a couple of weeks ago. We were down at her funeral in Exeter last week - a hectic four days away! Pepito went to stay with my friend again and had a lovely time. He doesn't seem to miss us too much which is probably a good thing! But he looked so surprised when I took his cover off on Saturday morning (my friend kindly brought him home at bedtime on Friday night before we got back) then got all excited and happy. It was so cute!

Anyway, I took Pepito to the vet today as I was very concerned about him last night. He fell asleep among his toys on the table and, when I said his name and called him to come to me, he started acting like he was trying to be sick. He does have a tendency to regurgitate food but he was shaking his head from side to side and, although he didn't bring up much, a couple of bits of seed did go flying. He then got really sleepy, playing for a while then going for another nap and was quieter than usual. He was back to his usual self this morning but since we were told to get on top of any potential infections early due to his chronic megabacteria problem, I decided to take him along for a checkup just to be on the safe side. The vet examined him and said that, although he seemed healthy enough, he would give him a mild course of metronidazole for four days as budgies can get infections of trichonomas or canker which make them sick, but they can develop slowly before the budgie gets really ill with them. He weighed him and he is now 40g! So, we'll try the medication and hope he remains as lively and bright as he is today and has no recurrence of the nasty problems!

[birdguhl]

Sorry to hear about your grandma, Ruth

Welcome back though.

Fingers crossed for little Pepito! Take your medicine well, wee one!

[mizloco]

Sorry for your loss Ruth, but I'm glad pepito is a bit better today.

[stace]

Sorry to hear about your Grandma. I hope Pepito is back to his usual self very soon.

[Hezz]

So sorry you lost your dear gran, Ruth. I am sure she lead a very fulfilled life. May she rest in peace.

I think you have managed Peppie's potential problems admirably, and sincerely hope that the vet is on top of it all. It certainly sounds like it. Keep him safe and well; we all need a "Pep"-talk now and then.

[samwiseg]

Aww my sympathies to you and your family for the loss of you gran

I hope this is just a minor thing with little Pepito, would love to see some pics of him soon! Welcome back to you both x

[lemonade]

I hope you are ok after the loss of your gran
Sounds like Pepito shaking his head with the seeds flying out was him being sick. My Sprite done this quite recently and I freaked out a bit. Like Pepito, she went to sleep for ages then quietly preened, then started getting back to normal. She fell though and got quite a bump. My thoughts were that the bump upset her tummy / crop and being sick helped settle it again.
I hope the wee man is ok. Better being safe than sorry and that's good the vet gave him a good check.

[ruthpaton]

Thankyou for the kind words everyone! Although we are sad about my Grandma she would have been 103 years old this month and had a very full life. She went through a lot of suffering in the past few years so there is a feeling of relief that she is at peace now. She loved budgies too and my aunt always took her wee budgie Benjieboy to visit. Grandma taught him a little whistle which he always did for her. As she was in hospital for several weeks before she died he stopped doing her whistle so my auntie thought he'd forgotten it. But on the day of the funeral, as we all left the house, Benjieboy suddenly did Grandma's whistle! Not a dry eye from that moment I can tell you..

Anyway Pepito is doing fine. He actually only had that one little episode of appearing unwell but we still gave him the medicine to be sure he was ok. He's sitting on my shoulder as I write chatting and chuckling away! The vet weighed him & found him to be 40g. Mum isn't used to metric measures so I did a rough conversion for her and told her it was about 1.41 oz. Pepito must have thought that was too much as he said loudly,'no chance Pepito budgie!' ? Funny boy!

Ruth

[ffiscool]

Ah very poignant re the whistle! Makes you wonder, eh? And very funny re his weight
I think pets (maybe not goldfish etc) have thst ability to make us smile when sad, laugh, cry, and just feel wonder.

[stace]

Ah, Pepito's little Gran whistle. That's so sweet. Many people believe birds have spiritual symbolism and it does feel like that sometimes.

[Hezz]

It must be a relief to know Gran is now at peace, and how beautiful for Pepito to time his whistle just so. Glad he seems to be well again, Ruth. Lets hope he stays that way.

[samwiseg]

Oh bless him! I know how you feel about those little whistles very tear jerking. My Mont used to have this little "wee-o-wee" she always used to do when I said goodbye to her if I was going out. She did it without fail every time! Even my OH couldn't believe it.

One night I went to cover her up for the night and she gave me her little "wee-o-wee" sound. I said night night to her and not to be silly as I wasn't going anywhere.

She passed away half an hour later.

It breaks my heart to think she was saying goodbye to me like she already knew

[ffiscool]

omg.. that is SO sad...... i think they do know things... and she was saying goodbye

funny how certain things can still upset us so much, however long later...

but then you cannot be a caring pet lover and not feel these things, eh

[samwiseg]

Nov 7, 2013 13:55:01 GMT ffiscool said:

omg.. that is SO sad...... i think they do know things... and she was saying goodbye

funny how certain things can still upset us so much, however long later...

but then you cannot be a caring pet lover and not feel these things, eh

It was soo sudden! And makes me feel like I wasn't observant enough to perhaps detect something she may have had.

But she gave me the love of budgies enough to encourage me to get multiples and learn as much as I could about our little featherd's!

Mont will always remain in my heart and my avatar. She was the start of my budgie addiction and madness and I will be forever grateful

[ruthpaton]

I think there are a few things that can take a budgie suddenly without any warning so don't spend too much time wondering if you missed something. When our Bobby died and I informed the vet they said that does happen at times and its impossible to know why. I think the best way to be aware of changes in budgies is to know their healthy state well and those of us that spend a lot of time with them probably do. This site is great for making us aware of what we should look out for too. I try to have a wee check over Pepito and his cage every day to see if anything looks out of the ordinary. It made me very sad once to have to point out to an owner that their budgie's claws were grossly overgrown and they admitted they hadn't really looked at her recently! There's no excuse for that - budgies need attention so they will feel loved and happy, and have a good relationship with the people in their lives as well as to keep them healthy. Anyway - rant over, I know I'm preaching to the converted here!