| weather | : | drizzles | |
| outside | : | 13°C | |
| mood | : |  | bleh |
The amount of feather loss that we've seen since Sunday is at least partially because of that, but it looks like we also caught him during a molt — they molt about once or twice a year. But there were two down feathers that had black tips, which means blood, which means he plucked them.
We got oral antibotics, vitamin loaded food, two topical creams and instructions to do an epsom salt rub. He overgrooms, which is understandable because of the boredom.
His claws were way too long and we got them trimmed but his crooked feet are probably from a calcium defficiency as a baby.
He's getting a full blood test panel, fecal panel including testing for Giardia. We have to make sure Skippy doesn't get anything that might be airborne communicable.
Sid is looking like about $500+'s worth of work (and that's IF he doesn't test positive for anything else wrong), plus more in terms of effort from us. He's not hand-friendly and we'll have to hold him down, medicate him, rub all kinds of gucky stuff on his armpits, hose him down with the spray bottle every day for the first little while... which I can't imagine he'd be used to, much less enjoy... =P
Realistically, any cockatiel we adopt will be at least $350+ of tests before we can feel safe putting it in the same room as Skippy after the quarantine period.
We're not going to put them in the same cage, just in the same room so that they have some companionship during the day while we're gone.
