Joey’s Pet of the Week – Pretty Parrot

By Scott Lackenby | Dated November 26, 2015

Hey everyone! How are you all? Hasn’t there been some extreme weather around the country! Fires in SA, wind storms in VIC and parts of NSW. Mother Nature is certainly in a bad mood! It goes without saying, but please make sure your pets are safe in this crazy weather.

Not long until Christmas now. My fave part of Christmas, apart from getting presents off Santa, is setting up the decorations. I love tinsel!! I’m not sure that Nurse Layne appreciates my form of helping when it comes to tinsel. But the main thing is that I had fun!! I’m working on my list for Santa, and given how good I’ve been this year, I’m pretty confidant that I’ll be getting extra spoilt this year!!

Hooray for Christmas!! And hooray for tinsel!!!

My star this week is a gorgeous King Parrot, who was brought in by one of our fabulous wildlife carers. This handsome man was not using his left leg, he was missing some feathers and he had some bruising. Heike the wildlife carer has a big aviary that she uses for rehabilitation of native birds, so she was keen to be able to save this little fellow. We gave him an anaesthetic and did some Xrays which revealed that there was no obvious fracture of his leg, which was great news. He also had food visible in his crop, which meant he was eating, another good sign! The only thing we couldn’t rule out was the possibility of nerve damage. The King Parrot was given an injection of an anti inflammatory, and sent home with Heike for some TLC. King Parrots live either in pairs or family groups, so hopefully he will be able to be released back to where he was found soon so he can re-join his friends. Our wonderful wildlife carers do an amazing job of rehabilitating the vast array of wildlife that comes through not only GVH but a huge number of Vet hospitals. If you ever find a sick or injured native animal, bring it in to us ASAP. Because they are wild animals, it’s important to take some precautions when handling them. Stressed animals can be aggressive, so be sure to wear gloves and have some towels on hand. Obviously snakes should not be handled! If you find a snake that needs medical attention, call the lovely people at either WIRES or Sydney Wildlife for assistance. Once caught, put them into a box and get them to a Vet straight away. If there is going to be a delay in the time between catching them and getting them to a Vet, place the box in a dark room away from dogs and cats. If you think the animal needs immediate attention and it’s outside of our opening hours, most after hours Vets are more than happy to take in injured wildlife.

Well, better go. Enjoy your afternoon and I’ll catch you all again soon. Meows for now, love Joey xoxo