emergency vet call for the new puppy

Last night I found a beak conditioner block laying on the floor and partially chewed. This was one of the ones with the sand particles in it. I picked it up thinking, I thought I threw this in the trash when I took it out of the cage…..
About 20 minutes later the puppy, Ryder, began vomiting pretty badly. I was immediately on the phone with the animal emergency center and then we were out the door with this little puppy that we have only had for one week.
I drove, Douglas held the little guy, not a sound out of him and he just laid in his baby blanket all snuggled up.
An x-ray was promptly taken when I showed the vet the beak block and told him what I thought happened. Sure enough there were small pebbles on the x-ray. Being a puppy the course of action taken was the least invasive for him. He was given an injection at the back of the neck for dehydration due to the vomiting. Then an anti vomiting drug which has greatly helped him. An adult formula is to be administer for two days and the extra anti vomiting drug every 12 hours if needed.
As for the clinic and the vet that saw our little bugger…..wonderful. Dr. Thomas Hass, DVM, was amazing. He took the time to explain everything for us and provide anything and any information we could have asked for. He went well beyond the call of duty to help us and to inform us.
Update: Ryder woke up with us to get ready for work and was his peppy old self, drinking water and chewing on some of his puppy chow. The little trooper drank his formula and seems to be a lot better considering his terrible night.

how we got each.....

Someone told me recently that i should post about each animal, so I'm going to tell all of you a little bit about how we ended up with each one.  i will try not to make this real lengthy. 
phoenix:  umbrella cockatoo:  we had gone to the pet store for some supplies and i was allowed to go in the room housing all the baby birds.  i talked to each bird a bit and then turned around to find this beautiful three month old cockatoo staring at me.  i began talking to him and he raised his hand and clutched my finger and did not want to let go.  my heart melted and as we turned to leave i looked at my future husband with tears in my eyes.  he ran to the cashier and put down a deposit, came back and said "as soon as i get the rest of the money around he is yours".  boy did i cry and was so happy and excited.  phoenix will be 2 years old on April 19th of this year.

Kasha:  latino cockatiel:  i knew a woman who breed cockatiels and i went over to look at them with the intention of getting one.   when i got there he was in a cage with another cockatiel but get this, it was an extremely small parakeet cage.  i was blown away by this and knew i had to get him home and into something a lot bigger.  i bought him a parrot cage. 

Bella:  white faced gray:  kasha needed some company from another bird.  when i picked her out the woman at that particular store got pissed off because Bella would not co-operate with her so she very viciously used the net to get her and in the process broke a blood feather on her.  we took her to the vet the very next day as soon as we realized what had happened.

sumoc and cayenne:  sun conure and Nanday conure:  funny story.  last thanksgiving we drove all the way to Illinois and back to adopt these wonderful birds.  seems they have had numerous homes due to their vocal ability.  this will be their last unless they outlive us.  we love them dearly.

okay, Bella and kasha laid their very first egg last year in the spring.  we did not remove the egg and were very excited.  in the end she hatched two very beautiful babies.  weather is a pure white latino and raine is a normal.  in the fall, four babies were hatched.  we sold one baby to a wonderful older couple that love Silas so much. 

next post I'll tell you all about our four dogs and three ferrets. 

This week, Douglas (my wonderful husband) got me an 8 week old shih tsu. He is beautiful, great personality, and very cuddly. He will not replace Mikey but he does help heal all of our hearts including the three other dogs.
I’ve not found a picture of Mikey to post yet, but I will. I know I have one on disk somewhere so I will do my best to find it and get it posted.
Here is a picture of “Ryder”.
　

aviary is up and occupied.......



the new aviary for phoenix, our cockatoo



well, here it is!!!!  phoenix is loving his new house and so are we.  when we purchased this cage we had expected some sort of general instructions to come along with the cage.....well, not so!  douglas built the base the night before, then we are up and at the assembly of the cage right after morning feedings.  needless to say, without instructions, it proved alot more difficult than you would think.  all the sides were up and ready for the top to go on until we realized, to our utter astonishment, the cage panels were upside down!!!!!  at the time, we really didn't see the humor in this newly realized problem.  my husband was quite the trooper, as i was not, and he immediatly began unscrewing and flipping panels.  let me say that if you intend to purchase one of these amazingly cool cages, please plan ahead by having a few extra hands and well as brains to do this job as well as plenty of extra time for mistakes lol.  the cage was not completed until 2pm!  i have to say now that it was well worth it.  the cage construction itself is very very good and i give it a five star rating.  the one thing that is a problem is the door.  the latch, at the top of the cage, seems to loosen up easily so we will be removing that.  the reason being, i don't want to be locked in the cage during the day when my husband is at work lol.   the key can not stay in the lock or the bird WILL be able to open the latch and as many of you know can be quite distructive.  thankfully we have not, as of yet, experienced this.  knock on wood.

when the base was built the linoleum was brought down over the sides, which was fine or so i thought at the time, but now that i look at it i am thinking a very nice and attractive fix to this problem would be some metal stripping tacked on to hide as well as hold the linoleum. 

you can purchase this cage at http://www.birdcagemart.com/ for about 950.00 with free shipping.   the origional price is 2495.96, so as you can see you have quite a nice savings.  its actually an outdoor aviary so you would not need a base if used outside.   

cage is here!

the new aviary arrived yesterday.  next step is to build the base for the aviary and then set it up on the base.  we will be using 2x4's, sheets of plywood and swivel casters so we can move the aviary around easily.  we opened one box to look at a panel when it came, it looks to be well worth the price.  anyone thinking about purchasing one of these aviaries, i will be posting pics after  set up and will then rate the ease of assembly and the quality of the cage.  the cage we ordered actually runs 2500.00 but got it on sale for 900.00.  A&E called me to tell me they were out of stock on the one we ordered (62x62x79) so he was upgrading the cage to 85x61x79 for free.  so the price posted above is what we would have paid without the sale for this particular size. 

well, yesterday was a very trying day for my husband and i.  we got up to mikey (one of our dogs) not being able to breath or walk.  we rushed him to the vet and had to make that very difficult decision....his organs were shutting down and there was the question of a tumor.  we could have had blood work done and all kinds of things but we were not about to prolong his suffering knowing that because his organs were shutting down on him, there was nothing left that could really be done.  i held him in my arms, daddy and the wonderful vet talked softly to him and made him feel more at ease.  during the process douglas and i both wanted to say "STOP", don't put him down.  of course we knew what we had to do.  our poor dear was suffering and we needed to end it for him.  putting down any pet no matter what the size or what kind of pet is one of the most difficult things us pet lovers have to deal with.  my heart goes out to anyone who loses a beloved pet and yesterday mine broke.