She is in Seattle, I am in Virginia. But I am the only one of my siblings who will answer the phone when she calls. I see her number and almost didn’t answer as I was sleeping. But I pick up and my mom is FRANTIC.
African Greys typically don’t love playing in the water as much as other parrots and macaws do. Typically. Some do. My 2yo female will NOT bathe anywhere but her water dish on her terms. Spray Zoe and she acts like you are ripping her wings off with your bare hands and the neighbors think you are murdering someone. My mother’s male grey, Rocky, is probably about 10 and is a bird she got free from a very BAD home about 3 years ago. He has come a long way, from plucking his entire chest and refusing any human affection to only having occasional behavior issues now and most of his feathers grown back. BUT he never learned to like the water either.
Yesterday while she was washing dishes in the sink, he was happily shredding paper on the counter next to her. At some point, he stuck his beak under the sprayer and discovered he actually liked the taste of running water. She is telling him “good birdie” and encouraging him to continue exploring the spray. Apparently she turned away for a moment to move a dish and when she looked back he was obviously drowning. Having not been there, I can’t say for sure how but my GUESS is that he opened his crop, got too much water and as he gagged it back up he aspirated some. Given the chance, my dog will drink running water to the point of gagging it back up too - she really likes the taste apparently.
Approximately 10 minutes into his distress, she called me. She lives on HUD housing and disability so has no money for an exotic vet, even if she had time to get him in to one in a short amount of time (PLEASE don’t waste time on the “why does she have a parrot then” - I’ve already had that disaster of a conversation with her, and at this point all I can do is help her when I can as I can’t change the fact that she has one). The only saving grace is that my sister in law is 30 minutes from her and is a vet who specialized in exotics during her post-grad training and typically helps her by treating her pets for just the cost of any medications or vaccines. While my mom is on the house phone, I’m trying to get sister on my cell hoping she has better advice than I do, but of course being at work she isn’t picking up her cell. And if love can make up for lack of money, that bird won the lottery when my mom got him. She lives alone with only her pets for company and they are like her children to her.
I’ve never experienced drowning with a bird, only human patients. She was too distraught and crying to hard to think clearly, but I used my customer service voice and at least got her to turn him over and gently compress his chest a little to try and help him. She was seriously too frightened and distraught to think reasonably and hadn’t tried turning him over yet. I understand the paralyzing fear as I went through it in October when DD went into anaphylactic shock and her throat started closing. It was heartbreaking in the extreme to listen to Rocky gasping in the background while she cried and asked God not to take her birdie. She just lost both her small dogs a couple months ago to age-related causes. Gradually over 10 minutes or so, he went through vomiting water, gurgling, foaming from his nares and beak, and finally his eyes closed and wings completely dropped. For the first few minutes I was trying to make her understand that if he was gasping at least he was getting air, and vomiting is a good thing as that means some or most of the water is in his crop and/or digestive tract. At this point he’s been gasping and fighting for about 20 minutes or more, and as she tells him he’s a good birdie and she loves him she is telling ME she wishes if he’s going to die that he would just die and be done suffering. He was gone far enough that I reminded her that if she thought he wasn’t going to pull through she could mercifully end his suffering with a twist of the neck.
It was that bad. I could no longer hear him gasping and she said he didn’t seem to be breathing any longer.
I personally am a woman of faith. So is she. At this point I’ve tried to calm her down and tried to get her to keep him upside down. I know that in humans once you see foaming from the lungs you are usually past the point of no return. All we could do at that point was pray, which is what I had her do with me. We said a brief prayer, and then she said she thought he was gone. No muscle tone in the wings, head and neck drooped.
Now, I am not trying to convert anyone on this forum. But I will tell you that not 2 minutes after we have prayed together as she is crying because her bird appears to be dead, he starts to pick his wings back up. 30 seconds later, as she tells me he is opening his eyes I hear him say “sorry, it’s okay” in the background.
Maybe he wasn’t as far gone as we both thought, maybe she got a miracle. I personally believe he was pretty gone and am on the miracle side of the fence. You may not agree with me and that’s fine. The important part is that after 25-30 minutes of drowning symptoms and all the horribleness he endured, he is now talking. A few minutes later he took a sunflower seed from her hand and seemed to be fine.
What I would like to know is if anyone else here has ever experienced having a parrot in their care go through anything similar? Or as a vet has seen a parrot patient that has gotten that far gone and then recovered? Because what I really want to know is if there is ANYTHING else to be done other than turn them upside down and try and stroke/compress their chests. Or did that not actually help? I know with a human you want to turn them on their side so if they start to pass up the water they don’t re-aspirate it. And foaming is a BAD sign. Plus hours later with people you are often dealing with pneumonia as a secondary consequence. Do birds get pneumonia after drowning incidents? My SIL didn’t get back to me, and I really am concerned about what she needs to watch for over the next 24 hours or so. I told her if he turns for the worse again to take him to the closest avian vet and send me the bill. I searched the net and only found advice on keeping the toilet lid shut and pet bowls empty if you have a flighted parrot in the house. No one has really put information out there about how to save a bird in the midst of drowning. We both really thought he was dead, so I am pretty amazed and happy he pulled through. Is it helpful to use a straw and try to suck out the water or will that just make things worse?
So many questions, so few answers. I know that this was pretty terrible to deal with and I’m glad that he recovered. If you’ve been there before, please let me know what you did to help and if it worked.
