Weekend Guest (Part 2)

Despite her visit to the vets yesterday, Sprout still wasn’t any brighter this morning (Sunday). She nibbled at a few grapes but wasn’t interested in her pellets or water so a tube feed was clearly on the agenda – something I’d been hoping to avoid. I filled the syringe with warm water, (only 25ml but it looks a lot), attached the tube and got my husband to hold Sprout. Following the vet’s instructions I gently held her head and neck with my left hand and opened her beak putting my left thumb between the top and bottom of it to keep it open. Then, the bit I was dreading; I had to start sliding the tube down her throat and into her crop – it amazed me how much tube went in and I was a little bit freaked out when my husband said he could actually feel the tube in her crop. Strange as this was, at least this meant that we knew the tube had gone down the right way. I pushed the plunger on the syringe and almost immediately you could see her crop expanding. I gently took the tube out and it was all done – first attempt at tube feeding was a success.

Unfortunately, Sprout didn’t improve throughout the day and actually started to look worse. Richard (the vet) had said to do a tube feed of 25mls of water three times a day so we attempted another one but this time it wasn’t as easy. I couldn’t get the tube down and I had to decide whether to have another go or leave it as I didn’t want Sprout to be uncomfortable. I tried again and thought I’d got it right but as I began to push the water through the tube, Sprout spluttered and almost coughed it out. I stopped immediately, panic stricken that I’d just pushed water into her lungs. I took the tube out and decided enough was enough for this attempt. Sprout didn’t seem to have suffered as a result of the near drowning I’d given her but I felt awful.

Sprout hadn’t shown any signs of improvement by the evening and seemed to be going downhill. We managed another tube feed – no drowning incidents this time but I’m really worried about her. I felt her abdomen and there was a round lump which made me think that maybe there was another egg stuck causing her to feel poorly. At a loss, I filled a bowl with warm water and gave her a bath. She lay there with a towel over all but her head whilst I was willing the warmth & steam to work its magic and to help her pass the egg. I put her to bed knowing that tonight was likely to be a sleepless night worrying about how much worse she would be by the morning.