So Gracie goes for her first vet check tomorrow morning. I'm a little nervous of how she's going to react. I've been getting her use to being toweled. So I dont think that will be an issue. Anyone have any advise?

Take her favorite treat with you and lots of them. Work through her exam with baby steps and let her know how good she's doing through the whole thing. Then at the end when it's all over, give her the motherload of treats. Good luck with a great outcome. Let us know how it goes.

Thanks I didn't think of taking her treat! I"ll let yall know how it goes!

She will do fine. You will be a nervous wreck, but she'll do fine! You also get to play the role of "rescuer" when you whisk her away back home.

Like Lara said, definitely bring her favorite treat. Also, stay calm. She'll pick up on your mood. Talk in soothing tones. That's great that you've already introduced toweling. That's one less stress to have to worry about. You'll both be fine!

Klamb85, here's a thread I put up with a lecture to vets from a vet on how to conduct a visit. They're focusing on birds with an acute problem, but it's still interesting. There's a funny part about being careful the small guys dont sneak out under the door LOL.

My advise is always to write everything down you want to ask or say since time is limited and you're usually distracted. I'd also suggest you talk a bit first, before removing her from the carrier so you can focus on what the discussion is instead of focusing on her. Like, tell the Dr your concerns if any so they can talk to you about it first then keep them in mind during the exam.

Also I'd advise you spend a large part of your visit discussing diet. If the bird isn't eating 85% pellets then they will want to know it and discuss vitamin and mineral needs. Well, even if they ARE eating 85% pellets they'll want to know it, too.

Finally, IME most vets are going to tell you what testing, if any, they recommend and they should tell you why. IME alot of people get nervous at this point but I think any vet will work with the people to prioritize what's "really" necessary at what time, and ongoing, if the people are budgeting.

Finally, it wouldn't hurt to ask about what to do and where to go in an emergency if this facility isnt a 24 hr ER, and also get them to advise you on what to do about a broken blood feather. If there's no AV around you you'll need to know how to yank one, or where to go to have it done, especially now since she'll be having a juvie molt if she's a baby, or perhaps a regular molt in the fall if she's an adult. It happened to my 5 mo old Parrotlet and he broke two wings next to each other, he was covered in blood and there was no way I could steel myself to do it. I couldnt get any vet around here, mine was out, and finally I took him to where I got him and they saved the day. But it was traumatic even for them since they were broken pretty low.


Hospital Precautions and Procedures to Avoid Disaster in Avian Medicine

Great advice Cindy. I wrote down beforehand all the tests I wanted to be sure they ran on Ollie. I would have forgotten the moment we got there otherwise.

Do you know if you will be with Gracie for the entire appointment? My vet advised against it (for the reason that Ollie would associate me with the mean, bad vets -which I think is hokey), but I insisted. There was no way I was letting her out of my sight.

I would also be prepared to jot down notes while you're there. They're probably going to say a lot of things that you're going to want to remember.

I use a lot of our vet checks as socialization time also. For my flock it really works. Rico still gets excited to go to the vet, until he sees Dr. O.

[quote=cfulhage;48688]

Do you know if you will be with Gracie for the entire appointment? My vet advised against it (for the reason that Ollie would associate me with the mean, bad vets -which I think is hokey), but I insisted. There was no way I was letting her out of my sight.
\QUOTE]

Camille, I'm not sure I would say it's all hokey, but I definately would never let my birds out of my sight as my advice. One of the reasons I say I don't think it's all hokey is I just took Murray in on Tuesday to be trimmed. Murray has a past experience, and a bad one with vets. Unfortunately this has carried over to his life with me. I thought I could spare him the stress the other day and towel him myself and then hand him over to be trimmed. It didn't work in my favor. Since Tuesday he's been very untrusting of me and has given me many warning nips and will no longer come out of his cage willingly to me. How am I going to resolve this? I'm going to start desensitizing him to the towel.

I think a lot of this depends on the bird, and also depends on your relationship to your bird. Rico....I towel myself everytime and then hand him to the vet. I've been toweling Rico since I brought him home and not just for trims, I towel him for bathing and playing.

I can definitely see how playing a roll while at the vet may have a bit of an impact on the bird. I just stood in the corner and observed Ollie's exam. As soon as they were done they put her in her cage and then let me coddle her. She made her typical I-love-my-mommy Coo sound and cuddled under my chin. Maybe if I had toweled her myself she would be been a bit wary of me as well. I think that by being completely uninvolved, just a "mommy standing in the corner" I stayed away from any bad associations with the vets. I like to think that by having a familiar face in the room it made it less stressful for her, but without having a control situation to base it off of I can't really say for sure. I doubt that I'll ever let her out of my sight at the vets so I'll probably never know for sure either. I just like to always know how she's being handled and treated. I think that's the most important.

I agree it probably depends a lot on the bird and your relationship. Perhaps with Murray having prior bad history that also played into it as well? I'm sure he was probably already more nervous/stessed because of that.