Monday morning I was awaken by a neighbor's dog at 6.18AM. Way early. With a bit of fear I reached down inside the cage next to me, still in the dark. And Ciro bit me! I don't think I was ever before happy when she bit me. :)
She got some energy back! She was still sitting in the little hide-out place I made for her, and I don't think she left that place the entire night. But she had enough energy to stand on it and not be laying down.
My brother came in around 8am to stay here while I went to work. Before I left I managed to hand-feed her 10-15 seeds and couple of bites of grapes. I think I also managed to give her two bites of mashed carrots, but she didn't like that texture. She usually likes to bite on cooked carrots, but she was not happy with that mush. And she seemed to get tired from me handling her and forcing her to eat. It was now harder to use the dropper because she wiggled and turned her head away.
I called the vet again, Dr. J. and left another urgent, sweet message. I finally got to talk to her around noon, but her schedule was full for most of the week. She told me maybe Tuesday afternoon she might have one opening, but it was very iffy and she wasn't going to know for sure until the morning. She recommended I get some baby-bird feeding formula and start feeding her that. My brother tried feeding her at home and she slid down his legs on the floor. So, he concluded he can't do the feedings. I then got the formula, went home and did my best to feed her a little bit of that mix. I think she ate maybe just 2ml, though. I felt like she was loosing more energy fighting me off than she was gaining from the little formula I got into her.
She was relaxing the rest of the day on the towels in her cage. I put a heating pad underneath so she wouldn't loose extra energy trying to stay warm. Lovebirds' body temp is 104F and they burn quite a bit of energy just to keep that temp going. In the evening, when she was all cuddled under my chin as we were both relaxing on the couch, I offered her some food again. She took, and I counted, 60 seeds over 10 minutes. I was so happy to see her eat by herself and not get tired after every bite! Couple of hours later she again took grape from my fingers and ate for another 10 minutes!
That was amazingly hopeful end of the day. We both slept better that night; she with a full belly, and me knowing she ate something willingly.
Tuesday morning she seemed alert again, even groomed herself a bit. But she was not interested in eating at all. I stayed and worked from home that day.
Mid morning was a complete 180 from how she seemed first thing in the morning. She all of a sudden seemed really weak. So much so that I thought it was the end. She was flipping to the side, couldn't hold her head, and I even thought she twitched couple of times. My first thought was to try to make her eat again, so with one hand I managed to mix that formula and give a bit to her. Maybe half of that little dropper. Even that weak she was wiggling away.
I got in touch with Dr. J. again, and she unfortunately was not going to be able to see us that day. She recommended another vet at a clinic where we were before, and in the meantime to try giving her something sweet for immediate energy. I gave her some mashed apple and honey, and she came back a bit.
Luckily, that vet agreed to postpone his surgery and see us in the afternoon. Ciro did pretty well, was more alert but it was probably a mask. She was 60gr, vs 64gr last time at the vet. He stated that to really know what's going on with seizures, he'd have to do testing, starting with blood work and on. I liked that he didn't push any testing at the moment. He concluded that we should give her nutrients to make her stronger. So the decision was made to give her few feedings, with a tube down her throat. We had couple of those in the afternoon, 4 hours apart. He also gave me a little bottle of Valium, syringes, and lube, for if she has another long seizure. I would give her the smallest doze, 0.02ml, and more if that doesn't have effect.
In the evening she was again more alert and grooming herself. So she got a burst of energy she needed. We boarded for another night in the ICU - towels and heating pad in the cage sitting next to my bed.
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