Angel was 6 years old when she died yesterday.

We were gone for the weekend, which my flock handles fine, and she must have become egg-bound. A few hours after we came home I walked by and she was hanging upside down like normal except I could see the egg in her prolapsed cloaca. I tried gently massaging the sphincter with olive oil but I knew it was not going to help. She was acting normal except breathing heavy and waddling around to avoid knocking her wound on the perches. She was preening Yoshi, too, and singing.

We took her to the nearest emergency avian vet (an hour away). After a half hour they confirmed what I had feared: Angel was going to die no matter what I chose to do. There were three options: 1) get the egg out and try reinserting the cloaca, which most likely would not stay in her body cavity once it got so stretched out; 2) surgically remove the cloaca and use purse-string stitches to make a new sphincter but it would most likely get infected if she survived the surgery (10% chance); 3) put her down.

It was sad but I decided to put her down, which was extremely hard. I feel so guilty since she trusted me and was looking to me to help her. I wish I could have held her while it happened.

I miss her a lot. She used to fly onto my shoulder and preen my face. She would sing softly and try to feed my 'beak' (my nose) some regurgitated seeds. She was the only one of my flock who was finger trained. Nick really misses her too. We'll be sad for a while, but Damien, Littlefoot, and Yoshi keep us smiling and carry on her memory.

I am so sorry Kelly. She sounds like a wonderful loving and sweet creature. Let yourself feel the grief. It sounds like you made the right call, but I know it isn't easy. hugs, honey

Oh gosh what a sad thing. I'm so sorry this happened.Bless your heart! So sorry for your loss

One of my birds will lay if I don't take steps to make it uncomfortable for her to think about laying. I worry she will become egg bound. Had she layed before? Poor baby.

RIP little Angel

Oh my yes!! Angel laid over 100 eggs in her 3 years of maturity. I only allowed her to raise one clutch in hopes it would make her slow down, but no luck! For the past 6 months we'd been doing really good becauase I had her in the cage where her feet couldn't reach through the bars to the floor so it was uncomfortable to nest in. I also kept her separate from everyone else except to visit (supervised, of course). Good luck with yours, keep switching her house up that's the best I could come up with. Thanks for your kind words, too.