My Bird Got A Stroke

Over the last week, I had diagnosed two patients with prostate cancer, one patient with liver cancer, a patient with pulmonary embolisim, a whole bunch of patients with diabetes, and a 37 year-old patient and a 40 year-old patient with a stroke. Too many sick patients at the same time. Too many bad news to break to patients.

Then, when I came home last night, I found one of my female canaries limping. Several days ago, her leg got caught in the bamboo nest and one of her toes was cut off. I didn't know that until last night. I saw blood on her before but thought that the calcified scales on her foot broke off. She likes to lay on her nest, usually. Yesterday was no different. I thought she was just sleeping. When I reached in to touch her, she didn't move. When I tried to picked her up, she flew down but couldn't land on the perch.

I picked her up. She looked hypoglycemic. I guess she had not been able to get to the feed bowl to eat. I mixed some baby bird food and fed her with a syringe. She woke up. I put her in a small cage by herself. That was when I found out she could not use her good leg. It just exaggerated to the side. I checked the joint, and it was not dislocated. She sat in the cage with her head drooping to the side. This was very heart-breaking--a tiny bird suffering a stroke.

She's still alive this morning, but she still looks the same.

I feel sad for my patients and my bird all the same. We never really know what's going to happen next in our lives. It's kind of scary.