Well, as luck would have it, we seem to of had some sort of illness here since Emily went back to school and I back to work. Just when we thought it was all over, at 2:23 AM this morning ( I say that exatly, because it is what the clock said when I looked at it and groaned) my daughter called out with news that her tummy hurt. My husband had beaten me to her, and was tucking her back in. I sat with her and asked the right questions, decided to make her go potty since she had drank a full 8 oz glass of water before bedtime, put a pan along side her bed just in case and went back to bed. At 3:20, I heard a faint sigh-ish sound, sat poised , heard her bed move, and sprung to action, a little too late, after changing the bedding, cleaning her up, redressing her, scrubbing the carpet, and putting the solied sheets in the washer, I waited up to put them in the dryer after the wash cycle, cut a phenergen in quarters, gave one to my daughter, and went back to bed, hoping that would be the last of it. At 4:00 AM, I was enlightened that indeed it wasn't the end.... change of sheets, clothes, clean up, and the start of laundry yet again. (thank goodness I had the foresight to of waited to dry the only other set of sheets for her bed, they were warm and just dry) Just as all had settled down, and we were drifting off to what was surely a temporary sleep, my birds went nuts in their cage in the other room, I got up, turned on the lights, to find my beloved peanut (cockatiel) siezing on the bottom of the cage. I gently righted her, and took up postition on the couch, bird on chest, and knowing darn well, any chance of sleep was now over.
At 4:20, right on schedule, I heard Emily rise with a choke, and called for dearest husband to help, as I could not get off the couch with said bird on chest fast enough. I met him in her room, bird in one hand ( I couldn't put it down or it went into convulsions again) and pan and wash rag in the other... He handled it, luckily for him, she was mostly empty by now and just going thru the motions at this point.
I took up my vigile on the couch once more, said bird twitching, and gearing myself up for the final convulsion that would end it all and inevidibly start the tears a flowing, when Emily hit the doorway running with pan in hand, it was now (you guessed it) 5:20..... after getting her back to bed, I looked over, and gasped, she looked dead. Not just sick, but truly grey, blue lipped dead. Completly void of all color, sunken eyes, grey around the edges, I felt the panic creeping in. Tony was the first to "rattle" her, and she gasped for a breath.... Some color came back, and she slept through it all... So now I sit, with said bird in hand, at the edge of the bed, daring not to leave less she stop breating again, and wondering if a trip to the emergency room was next in order.... No fever, the vomiting had finally stopped, and she seemed well, the clock ticked on, Tony got up, showered, and headed off to work at 7:30.
At 8:00 I called the local avian bird clinic, only to find that there was no bird specialist on staff today, and that the closest one was in Oak Grove. I called there, as Emily got up cheerfully on the couch, and began to chatter away as if nothing had been wrong only an hour earlier.
End of the story, I make Tony come home from work, I rush the bird out there, they suggested leaving it there for treatment, seems it is typical of a calcium deficiency, and she has been laying eggs like mad these last couple of weeks. I get home, to a chipper and pink little Emily who is ready to play and dance with me now, and I get to go back to pick up the bird, hopefully well on it's way to recovery at 5 (mind you this is about 40 minutes drive ea way in good traffic, 5 will be murder!) My luck, my boss will call and ask me to come work a night shift tonight, fimgers crossed that he doesn't!
Now all I need is a shower and a good nap.........
Ah, to be a Mom!
