My Blue and Gold Macaw pair had just come off a long 6 month rest and had their first clutch of the year due to hatch on the 17th of April, 2002. By that evening we had a 19 gram fuzzy baby crawling around in the incubator. Both she and I were quite tired from hatching, but the baby had great feeding response. The next four days were uneventful and the baby was gaining nicely. Held up her head and tried her best to stand and solicit food. Every thing looked normal. Life is good!
Mother Nature's Curve Ball
DAY 5 - Sunday On the 5th day (Sunday) at one of the evening feedings ( babies are fed at least 12x per day when tiny) I noticed baby seemed a bit fussy and seemed to be straining a bit. So I mixed a drop of baby prunes into her formula. (for the first few days the babies poops are normally darker and thicker).
An hour had barely past and I heard her calling loudly so I peeked in the brooder to see what was the matter. It was almost feeding time again but I had wondered if she had emptied faster than expected. Baby Emily was stretched out with both legs in front of her again.
By now it was obvious something was amiss. When I touched the legs one returned to a normal position and the other just stayed jutted out at a strange angle. I know for a fact she was fine a few hours before.
My first thought was this was a splay leg, but really not possible as she was in deep soft substrate. I had never seen anything like this so I called a few fellow breeders and picked their brains about this baby..
It was quite obvious the 2 decisions that lay before me. Both made me shudder. As Emily is now, there certainly would be no quality of life. Letting her lay prone and twisted, as in the photo, for the next 50 years is not fair to her.
I had to take a deep breath, sit down ,relax and think this through.
So I called my vet of 8 years (Dr Kathy Polley) in a panic. When she answered, I glanced at the clock and gasped in horror to find it was 3 am. After all these years I still find it amazing how this woman can be so sweet and caring at that ungawdly hour. I was to bring her in promptly at 9 a.m. Monday.
