As I mentioned in another post, Pinto, my 11 year old parakeet, has an inoperable tumor. The vet said even trying to xray her to figure out what kind of tumor it was would probably kill her. She's so elderly and frail that she couldn't take the trauma.

I just spent a half hour standing at the cage, hand feeding her millet and lettuce - some of the lettuce was medicated with pain medication. The problem right now is that the other two parakeets - in fully natural parakeet behavior - are trying to drive her out of the flock at times. In the wild, an ill parakeet would endanger the whole flock. They are trained by nature to try to keep ill keets away.

I think I have gotten Pinto to eat her fill. I realize millet and lettuce are not high nutrition foods but my aim here is to make her last days happy ones.

It bothered me a bit, at the vet's office, how they handled it. The vet told me to euthanize Pinto, and I disagreed. Pinto still flies (which she didn't believe), still sings with music, is still happy. She is not ready to give up. So after that the vet prescribed me some pain medication and then sent in an intern to do the "wrap-up talk". The intern started trying to convince me to switch Pinto to pellets for her health!! In her last three weeks of her life!! I was polite and said I would consider it, but I found that to be an unreasonable path to take.

We did just switch the light right next to their cage to a full spectrum light. We had other full spectrum lights in the room but we figure if the light will help her feel better in her final days, it is worth it.

omg lisa i hope you feel better =) im sure in the 11 yrs u had her she lived to the fullest and had an amazing life being cared by you.

i feel terrible

We got Pinto in December 1998 as a hand raised chick, so she's just about to turn 11. So I should say more properly that she is aged 10 years and 11 months right now.

Here is a picture of Pinto from a few years ago -



She has gorgeous feathers, a blue-purple. She was very sad when Nazo died last year and I have a feeling that really had her going down hill.

I am working in my office right now - where the cage is - so I can keep an eye on the other two birds. They don't mean to be cruel, they are just acting instinctively. I am contemplating putting Pinto into a separate cage, but she gets really upset when we do that. She wants to be with the other keets even if they're being mean to her. I'm sure we all know that feeling - we are not getting along with siblings or friends, but we don't want to be ostracized either. We want to be accepted by our group.

So far, so good. The keets are all sleeping together, which is always sweet to see. I just worry about the morning. When Bob woke up this past morning, Pinto and Santo were eating each others' toes. They hang on opposite sides of the cage and harass each other. Even if I put Pinto into a separate cage, I'd have to keep her in a separate room because they'd just do that "sibling squabbling" stuff on the little cage. Pinto would be absolutely miserable if we separated her from her flock like that. Maybe I can stay awake until Bob wakes up, and always have an adult around to mediate.

She is really spectacular. Poor little girl. You are so nice for doing everything in your power to make her last days peaceful and joyous. Does she have special music she likes to sing to?

They like all sorts of music, but especially "happy" music like the Beatles

Birds have good taste.

It's always sad to see one's pets suffering; we get so attached to them.

Well that's the thing. If Pinto was curled up in a ball not eating, just moaning, then I would let her go. I don't want her to suffer. But she seems happy, she sings, she eats, she enjoys her lettuce, she flies around. She still seems like she's enjoying life.

In fact here it is 7am and I am still awake because I want to keep an eye on her, I don't want to leave her alone with the other two. They've been behaving but I want to be sure. So I'm trying to stay awake until Bob wakes up so he can take over Pinto Watching Duty. I want to keep her safe. She deserves her last days to be content ones.

So I'm damaging my own health, to keep her happy

But that's what a mommy does. It's well worth it IMO. When does bob get up normally?