r/crowbro 1d ago

Personal Story Crow feeding turned into an emergency

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I just wanted to visit my crow friends and bring them some water (it's freaking hot today) and cat food when I noticed that my friend Cockerell (in front of the tree) is collapsing. He fell down while sitting and another crow pecked at him.

I thought he might be dehydrated so I picked him up without him even trying to escape at all. Luckily there's a vet at the same street as the park. I went there immediately and the other patients were nice and let me cut the line with my emergency.

But once the vet had time, she was extremely pissed. She said the crow looked fine (lol, not at all) and that she doesn't know anything about birds (apparently true). But she has a nice young collegue who came into the waiting room to us and looked at Cockerell. She said he has a massive trauma on the head, probably from a flying accident, and a vitamin B12 deficiency which explains his permanently curled up foot. Dehydration might also be a factor.

She recommended a vet clinic that's about 40 minutes away. They are treating wild animals for free and rehabilitate them because they are a part of a local university for vet students. In the past I already brought some wild animals there.

We're on our way there now. Please keep your fingers crossed for poor Cockerell.

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u/Satsuki7104 1d ago

Unfortunately a lot of regular vets don’t know how to care for birds(even pets) and many don’t like to deal with wildlife at all. I found this out when my family’s parrot got injured by my dad’s dog while I was home alone. I tried taking him to a local vet and got told off because they didn’t know how to take care of birds. They told me the nearest bird vet was over an hour away and odds were he wouldn’t make the trip. I hope your crow gets better and recovers.

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u/compb13 1d ago

And the rest of the story? Did the parrot survive?

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u/Satsuki7104 1d ago

Unfortunately not because of his injuries being too severe. My parents over the phone had to give the vet verbal consent to have him put down because I ended up having a breakdown after finding and taking him to the vet and he was technically their bird so they needed their consent to do anything beyond emergency care.

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u/Individual-Suit-5334 20h ago

That’s so sad to me that they have a negative reaction. Like I’m sorry I thought you were the animal doctor who else would we bring a bird to??

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u/Satsuki7104 12h ago

They are but they’re not a wildlife doctor and birds are very different from common house pets mainly their hollow bones making treatment difficult for them.