Peacock hospital

Jade ready for a force feed and a night in the warm box

Poor little Jade, one of our new peachicks, has been off colour lately.

I first noticed her all hunched up a couple of days ago and some online discussions with other peacock keepers got me fearing a very serious parasitic condition called blackhead.

I got her in for a night on the hot water bottle and some vitamins then called the only vet worth taking your birds to in Canberra, Dr Sandy Hume. We agreed that, although a trip to see him would have been too stressful for Jade, I should at least bring in some some poo.

A good look at that revealed a terrible infestation of worms, in spite of having wormed her when I got her.

Armed with stronger pills for all my birds, and having now more that doubled Jade's monetary value (not that we worry about that... right?), I returned home to catch the two peachicks and treat them.

I am used to giving pills to cats, so peachicks are an easy target in comparison. Nonetheless, Luna made it very clear that SHE is feeling just fine, nice and strong and scratched me all over my arm to prove it.

Luckily, all of this seems to be working. Jade was still pretty shaky today, but when I got her and fed her tonight she seemed moderately interested and even had a feed on her own in the box... Fingers crossed she's on the mend!

Luna's not-so-gentle reminder that she is fine, NOT sick!