I have been delaying to write about this until we are completely out of the woods. I don't think we are there yet. So, I am writing this with cautious optimism.
At 4.50 AM last Sunday morning I heard Ciro banging in his cage. It wasn't too loud as when she has her regular seizures, but it was still more loud than her moving around. I hesitated for a moment before leaving room, and then I heard it again. I got to the cage to find her trashing at the bottom of the cage. I picked her up as she was twitching and contorting.
Her regular seizures last 1-2 minutes, and then she feels week for 10-15 more minutes after which she is fine. So, I didn't even turn the lights on thinking this will be short. But it kept on. She was stiff, her wings twitching, and head tilting. After 10 minutes she got few minutes of break, but then the seizure started again. This went on and off for about 30 minutes.
But then the breaks stopped and she just kept seizing. It was actually not exactly the same as the regular seizures. She was twitching inward, instead of tilting her head backward. It still had a strong hold of her. I kept holding her, folding her wings and straightening her head. It was painful to watch. I turned the lights on and started praying.
I called one emergency animal clinic in Round Rock at 6.30AM, but since they don't accept birds they referred me to another emergency clinic on 183. When I called that place I had to repeat 4-5 times that I have a lovebird. The girl couldn't understand the name, even asked "what, a lab bird?" That of course didn't give me any confidence that they are bird experts, even though the girl said they see birds. She said they would try to stabilize her until I can get her to an avian expert on Monday.
At around 8AM she finally calmed down. We laid down on the couch to get some more sleep. That lasted around and hour, and then I felt every now and then she breaks a little twitch. She was still in my left hand. Around 10AM the twitches became more intense and frequent.
At this point she has been in my hand for 5 hours. She was in the same position, leaning with her right side onto my fingers. I could see her left side twitching, her little head bobbing to the left side, her left wing/shoulder raising up and the left leg twitching up toward the head. I wrapped her in a towel and left on the couch while I went to wash my hands and face.
Then I went on the Internet. Ciro was still twitching every two seconds with her left side. She was wrapped up to her head because her left leg was uncontrollably hitting her head. With one hand I was stroking her head and with another looking for answers on the web. I even called one place in Arizona that was open on Sunday and they told me to keep her warm and try to feed her something.
When we had baby lovebirds in Sarajevo, we used to mix sweet cookies, hard boiled egg yolks with some water and give that paste to the parents to feed the chicks. So I combined that with orange juice and some mashed apple and force fed her with my fingers around noon. My brother and his wife came around 4PM and brought syringes, so it helped with the feeding and water.
I left a message to the only good avian vet I heard about in Austin, Dr. Jakubowsky who has a traveling clinic. I also posted on several web sites looking for some answers. On justanswer.com I got in touch with a great avian pet S. August Abbott (who is also an ordained minister!) at around 5.30PM. We had several communications that day, and were in touch over the next days.
Ciro's twitching slowed down around 6PM, but she was making little noises with almost every breath. She was very weak and was leaning/falling on the right side. I kept trying to feed her that egg mixture, few bites of grapes and some mashed carrot. By 9-10PM the twitching finally stopped. That's around 15 hours.
I made a little fort with kitchen towels for her in the bottom of the cage, put all her food bowls around it, and another towel on the top. I placed the cage next to me overnight. She was calm but completely exhausted and was just laying down.
I was exhausted too.
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