Last night was a very long night....

As some of you know MaiTai doesn't like other birds and especially hates b&gs. Last night they were all riled up and Ciccio flew from the playroom into the kitchen between Noah and MaiTai's cage and in front of the door to the macaw room. Why he didn't go into the macaw room or up Noah's cage (he was closer to his) I don't know but John could get to him quick enough. Ciccio started to climb up MaiTai's cage and she was in a mood.

She caught him on one of his back toes and went through the bone and tendons. We quickly put all the macaws away and then I had to start making phone calls. The one vet office (an hour down county) use to be private and would have an exotic expert on call all the time, well now that they're not they gave me several different phone numbers to call. I spent the next 30 minutes call different vets. I remembered that another friend of mine who was an avian vet had a practice in CT so I called his office, thank God they ONLY hand EXOTIC emergencies at night. It took us an hour to get there. It was now 10pm

It was John myself and a young doctor from Scotland that handled everything. John held Ciccio while I held onto his leg and foot so the doctor could clean out the wound so we could see how bad it was. Now came for the not so fun part of wrapping his toe/foot. If we just wrapped the toe it wouldn't have the support he needed because she bit right through it so the entire foot had to be wrapped. Ciccio wasn't happy. As soon as we put him down he started pulling at the bandage.

Now...how to get a collar on a large macaw????? The hard collar she had was too small. I know from making collars for Noah my quaker that it's easier to use pipe insulation from Home Depot and vet wrap. He started getting upset so we knew we had to move quickly. We used half a piece of the pipe insulation because what the vet office had wasn't big enough. We used a piece of the pipe insulation, gauze wrap and vet wrap to make a collar.

When we put him on the floor to see how he would do I got very upset. He couldn't balance and was constantly rolling on his back or side and getting up set. I started crying and had to leave the room. I came back in and just cuddled him while we talked about where to put him for the night. I knew he would be alright and just needed to adjust to the extra weight of the collar but it was still very hard to watch.

We thanked the vet and told her we'd give her a call Monday after he goes to his regular vet. We sat in the car with me holding him and crying. For those of you who know a bit about me back in 2004 I lost my b&g of 12 years, she died in my arms on the way to the er vet. I had huge flash backs and was so worried.

We got back from the vet around 1pm. John walked the dogs while I went around covering everyone. We set one of the larger carriers up for him, we rolled several towels and created a soft place for him to rest, the towels prevented him from rolling over and getting upset. When John's allergies are bad he sleeps down the hall, well I had Ciccio next to me on the bed so down the hall John went. At 4am I carried Ciccio down to him and asked him to sit with him, I hadn't slept at all and had a headache.

At 7am John came and got me, Ciccio had settled down and could even hold his head up and waddle. He had been playing with newspaper and as we discovered playing Shawshank Redemption ... he had chewed a bit hole in the back of the carrier that was covered with a towel.

John went over to storage and got the small dog crate for me to setup for Ciccio. Ciccio is bonded to Lulu (GW) so I let them spend some time together this afternoon, supervised of course. Ciccio has been eating, drinking and playing all afternoon and is not bothered one bit with not being in his cage.

I couldn't take any pictures last night but here's some from today.

How long will he be in that collar? Poor little guy, so scary! Can you explain how to say his name?

His name is pronounced Che-che-o He came from and old italian family in Jersey City.

I'm assuming he'll have to wear the collar until his toe is healed. I have a feeling though that he might loose the toe.

Oh God I hope he doesnt lose it! AT 40 yrs old he is so special. I wish you all the best with this. Keep us posted.

Oh that poor love! Macaws are so good at finding trouble, I seriously hope he improves.. how is he coming along?

Sending healing prayers to Ciccio. I hope he doesn't lose his toe. He looks in good spirits. Please do let us know how the appointment goes with your regular vet tomorrow.

Oh, Jeanne, what a stressful night, but so great you were able to find emergent care only 1 hour away. Please keep us updated and get some sleep!

All the fids here have said their prayers that everything works out ok. Keke and Simon say that going to the doctor means you get extra goodies from mom and dad (they use any excuse to get goodies). Keep us posted on how he is doing

First off what a lovely lil boy you have there. Thank goodness you were close at hand to get to him fast enough before anymore damage was done. This is a good lesson to others to keep a close eye on our feathered friends they can get into so many problems without constant supervision. I am hoping for a speedy recovery.