I wanted to thank you for your support during these scary weeks, and let you know that Luna finally got in with the Avian specialist at the vet school (who was WONDERFUL! BTW), and she is in good health!!!
The man was so nice to reschedule us when he wasn't even on clinic anymore because I had been sick and missed our first appointment. He told me he did make house calls in the Baton Rouge area when we got there (we're still too far away).
He sat with us for 30 minutes letting Luna sit quietly undisturbed in her carrier and discussed everything, then took her in the back (he said he didn't want her to hold anything against me) for 30 minutes where he dremmeled her beak back into shape. It was misaligned from trauma, he said (remember our discussions of her scary wall landings?
), and he gave her a thorough exam, palpations, etc. checked her feathers, her skin, her nares and choanal slit. He said she had probably had an infection of the follicles that produced the nasty feathers and he saw no signs of PBFD like bare spots or any other odd pin feathers. He looked at the crusty bases of the natty feathers that had fallen out and said that supported the diagnosis of infection of the follicle. She has cleared it he thinks. So he didn't even draw blood for PBFD (which I appreciated, sparing her the loss of blood), but did a CBC just to check.
He found her choanal slit to have a rare abnormality he said he has only seen a few times and usually in African Greys. He said her choanal slit barely even opens into her throat so her sinuses can't drain, hence her constant sneezing. Saw no signs of inflammation however (tough bird!) but did a swab for a culture to make sure and will let me know about that before he decides on antibiotics and will even do a sensitivity test first. WOW, I mean, as a former medical student, I wish every doctor treated human patients this way. So all good news. He said her beak and nails really were overgrown and peely and it may well be the switch from a poor diet to a nutritious one has caused lots of growth in a short period of time. He refrained from dremmeling her nails; a decision I really appreciated, as he said that would be too much stress in one day and that was not a priority. So, phew! The bumpy one hour drive both ways was probaby the more stressful part of the day as she tried in vain to stay on her low perch (my driver was not very accomodating with the braking and accelerating and it made me nuts!) We're happy today. Yesterday she wouldn' t talk or come out of her cage all day, but today she seems to have recovered from the traumatic visit with that "bad man", I'm still recuperating too, but we have a healthy girl and peace of mind! He said, "see you next year!"
Allie