written by Mommy Marinda
After we got back from the vet, I was convinced she was going to make it and she would be my ‘hop along baby’. I started doing research on how to set up her cage for her , due to the fact that she would not be able to sleep on a perch at night. I feared that her one remaining leg would get tired and she would fall off the perch. We started working on eating platforms so that she would not have to concentrate on balancing whilst eating. She was starting to walk more upright and even attempted to fly once. She did not really make it off the ground but she did try. Her stories on Facebook were becoming very popular and kind hearted people started contributing towards her vets bills which really helped us. Her prayer circle got wider and wider and this gave us a lot of hope for our little sweetheart. She loved the attention and realised that if she tried to climb up her cage people would come running to help her. This delighted her as it became her little game.
On the 11th December 2019 we had to take her back to the vet for her second check up. Skiewie was in high spirits, posing for us like a little ballerina on the steering wheel of the car.
The vet arrived and commented on how well she looked. She was climbing around her cage as sweet as could be.
She was taken into the theatre to remove the dressings and to check her wound. We were all holding our breath as she was put under anaesthetic. I watched the vets face and could see in his eyes that all was not well. The wound was looking bad and had not started healing. In fact it looked terrible. The only thing the vet could advise was to amputate further up the leg right into and against her body. He explained that the infection she had had before the operation must have still been lurking and had now attacked the new wound.My heart sank. My Skiewie had to go in for a second amputation!!!
Skiewie was prepped for the second operation and I went back to my office and waited with bated breath for the phone to ring once she was out of theatre.
The vet said that during the operation she had had an episode and had stopped breathing. He had managed to bring her around thank goodness and I could hear her little sounds in the background which was like music to my ears.
The vet said she could do her healing at home and I immediately went to fetch her. She was her usual happy little soul chatting away (completely minus one leg). In my mind I thought this would be our last visit to the vet for a while. She did not have any bandages to change as there was no leg stump. We just had antibiotics to apply to the wound as it healed up .
Once we were home it was as if nothing had changed! She could still balance without falling over. Walking around was a bit of a challenge as she first had to learn to walk with the big cast then had to learn to walk with a stump and now had to learn all over again to walk with no second leg at all. This did not however break her spirit. She still tried to climb up her cage and sit on her perch as she always did.
Every night we would have to clean the wound. This was difficult and she did not like it at all. She would make these small noises and complain as I did it. This broke my heart as you can imagine and after wound cleaning I held her against my chest just like a baby to calm her.
She loved her toys and would sit for hours playing with them. A dear friend bought her a box of toys and blankets. I placed all the toys around her and she was in her element. She did not know which toy to play with first, She was in a birdie toy shop – a place of birdie heaven . – which one should I bite first mom?
I truly believed we were done with vets and medication. She was doing so well. I was teaching her to move from point A to point B and she made little sounds. She slept in her little sleeping cage in my bedroom with me. I would cover her with a blanket and say a little prayer to God that she was making progress and that we had had another day with her and would have many more.
My husband would ask . when she would be moved to the other room with the other birds and my answer was “when I feel it is time to move her”. He just laughed and said that that time would never come. He could see how I adored her and how protective I was over this little girl.
Slowly she started seeing herself as a BIG GIRL!! She did not want me to feed her anymore and wanted to feed herself.
TO BE CONTINUED/…………
