Birds are delicate animals and they tend to hide injury and illness because, in the wild, other birds may shun them if they detect weakness. We aren’t sure when or how it happened but, according to the veterinarian, she probably accidently flew into a sharp object because her wings were not clipped as often as they should have been yet she wasn’t trained to fly. The wound on her breast festered until at one point, probably about a month later, the wound burst in the middle of the night.

Maggie is normally a quiet bird and doesn’t make a fuss like some of her larger cousins. Maggie’s mom (my wife, Cat) woke up one morning while it was still dark, as she normally did, and quietly let Maggie out of her house. This was a morning tradition, to have a quiet cup of coffee with Maggie before waking the other two (louder) birds. When Cat and Maggie went to the kitchen, mom turned on the lights and discovered Maggie was covered in blood.

Cat woke me then called the animal emergency room at Mississippi State University (I was in the Air Force, stationed at Columbus Air Force Base at the time). I checked the cage and discovered about 1/4 cup of blood at the bottom and a sharp corner on the inside of the King cage had a lot of blood and feathers on it. Maggie was rushed to the hospital and her vet (Dr. Sheila Johnson) met Cat and her there. She was admitted to the ICU where she would spend much of her time over the next couple of months.

Nobody expected she would live; she had lost a lot of blood, was very weak and the wound (where her keel bone was visible) was nearly as large as her chest. The first order of business was to sedate Maggie and clean the wound. The vets didn’t take any photographs at this stage. That’s fine with us; they would be too hard to look at now.

Maggie made great progress; better than anyone hoped. She had a great veterinarian team and was very healthy; we only fed her Harrison’s Bird Diet (the bird food recommended by her vet). Her better-than-normal health had a lot to do with her ability to survive the whole ordeal, according to her doctors. Also, although Cat was working full time, she travelled 30 minutes to the college, twice each day, to spend an hour with Maggie. The doctors later told us that visiting Maggie twice each day probably had a lot to do with her quick recovery; she knew she was loved and missed.

Maggie has always been a remarkable bird. Cockatoos are notorious for being loud and needy; Maggie never was. But while she was sick, she was very affectionate. She knew she was in trouble and all she wanted was for her “mom” to hold her as much as possible. She even went to the lab techs readily although she normally shied away from strangers.

Today, many years later, Maggie is very healthy and happy (she’s watching me type this right now and I think she suspects she’s the topic of the post).  To this day, I can hardly stand to look at the pictures!  Keep in mind, the pictures were taken after she was well into her recovery.