Lovebirds

By Penny Stone - USA

Bert and Ernie came home with me one day after work. My fiancé knew they were coming. Still, he wasn't quite prepared for my new fascination. Bert and Ernie first appeared in my life when their owner came to the pet clinic where I work part-time. She was looking for a new home for them because she was leaving for the Florida show circuit for a few months and didn't have enough time to spend with them. She had had the Lovebirds for years and Ernie was at least 13 years old and Bert was seven. We kept them at the clinic for a few days to observe their behavior and hopefully find a new home for them. It was immediately obvious that Bert appeared normal, although extremely unwilling to be handled. He would go to the far side of the cage and stay away whenever the cage door was opened. Ernie was more gregarious and was the "protector;" and even though he had some type of disability, he would attack any hand that entered his domain. As the days went by, we saw that Ernie was in bad shape. He could not move normally. His right side was seriously impaired. His right wing had a large bald patch. He could not walk, just vibrate, and fall on his face. In order to get from his perch in the top center of the cage down to the food, he would hang from his good leg until he was as close as possible to the floor, then fall, landing with a thump on his side or back.

This was followed by seizure behavior, then trance-like behavior and finally he would pick himself up and climb slowly and with difficulty to the food perch and totteringly eat his food. Any movement of his perch would send him into fits of shaking and wild tottering, and usually plop onto the floor. We all felt sorry for him, but admired him because no matter how many times he fell, nor how difficult climbing and walking seemed to be for him, he just kept trying. When he tried to fly, even though his wings were not clipped, he could only fly backward, or flutter forward and fall on his face. I knew that if anything could help Ernie, it would be TTEAM. So Bert and Ernie came home with me. That night I changed their perch and added "stair step" perches to make it easier for Ernie to make it down to the food. I caught the little "protector" in a leather gloved hand, and gave him his first TTEAM session. At first he shivered and bit while I used long strokes and tiny, one finger circles. After a few minutes, he stopped shaking and relaxed. Soon he was lying nestled in my hand in that relaxed state we see so often with TTEAM. When I had to return him to his cage, he was not all that interested in going there.
Each day I spent at least one 15 minute session doing circles and long strokes on Ernie nestled in my hand. Within three days, he would fall asleep and rest soundly for as long as Mike or I would hold him.

Six days after I took him home, he went back to the vet for x-rays. The vet was amazed at how much his balance, strength, co-ordination and movement had improved. He could now climb down from and back onto his perch without the wild tottering and falling. He no longer fell to the bottom of the cage when he climbed down. After one week, Ernie allowed me to turn him on his back and do circles all over his front side. He stayed calm and relaxed and loved it.

For the next 3 1/2 months Ernie got TTEAM work a couple of times a week. His seizure behavior disappeared, as well as his curl to the right. He now could make short flights upward and forward and climb up and down in his cage and walk. Ernie continues to improve. He functions at about 75%. He is a happy bird who at first glance appears pretty normal. A few weeks ago I took him to work with me to use as an example of the things that can be accomplished with TTEAM. I was giving a short demonstration to our vets and technicians. Dr. Carter had seen Ernie when he first became dysfunctional and thought that Ernie probably had had a stroke. The doctor presumed that Ernie was done for, much less that he would regain function. He was absolutely amazed at the changes we had made with TTEAM

I've been using TTEAM since l987, mainly on horses. This is the first bird I've worked on and one of the most amazing recovery stories. As nothing else was changed with regard to nutrition, medication or environment in Ernie's life, I cannot attribute these changes to anything other than TTEAM. Nor can my veterinarian.

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Nellie the Budgerigar

By Toni Shelbourne P2

Whilst away on a TTeam training in Canada I received an e-mail from my Mum saying they had rescued a budgie which was flying around their garden. The bird was promptly named Nellie and was described as being a bit feisty and unruly. On returning home I was asked to look at Nellie. She or should I say he as it turned out, (Nellie became Billy), was very underweight and not adapting to well to being in a cage. He was also reactive if you approached the cage. He was not being let out to fly as he was hard to catch and the process was very stressful for him. As I had no equipment with me I improvised with a couple of pencils with kitchen tissue attached to the ends. I quietly held both pencils in the cage for a while, whist Billy became accustomed to them and then began to work touching him gently with the kitchen tissue. The affect was amazing. He quickly became quiet and calm and really enjoyed the work. I started with long strokes and gradually worked up to some clouded leopards. By the end I could touch him all over. Over the next couple of days we continued working with him and he improved greatly. Even getting to the stage where he would step calmly onto the pencil when asked. A tool which would be vital if he were ever able to come out and fly.

The day before I was going to leave, my mother and I returned home to the terrible sight of my dad gazing at a budgie which appeared to not be able to sit on a perch and had lost all balance. Billy was also screaming his head off and panicking. At the time the only indication of a possible cause was Dad had walked in to find one of my cats on the table calmly staring at Billy. Had Billy flown away and hit his wing or had he suffered a stroke? Either way he was in deep distress and needed help. I immediately dispatched my dad to ring the vets and I began work with the pencils, using one to hold him up and one to do the TTouches. There were times when I thought I was losing him but each crisis was overcome and in time he became calm and quiet. The vet thought he may have hurt himself flying way from my cat. He gave him a shot and said only time would tell.

Well the next day Billy was fine. He was still slightly stiff but recovering well. I went home pondering the problem and reassured my cat he had done nothing wrong. He'd only looked at the bird - my cat only hunts earth worms! Don't ask.

Over the next few weeks things progressed well for Billie. He began to come out to fly everyday as he was now easy to catch, stepping up confidently on to a finger or wooden spoon when offered and eating millet out of your hand. All seemed well until 2 weeks later he had another funny turn. After another vet visit it was decided Billy was suffering from a lack of vitamins and minerals due to his time in the wild. Quickly Billy began to gain weight with the supplements and the 'funny fits' stopped. At this time the sex change happened. If Budgie's are ill the budge on top of the bill lose their colour so often the blue indicating a bird to be male isn't present until they recover.

Billy now only spends the night in his cage. Each morning he wakes, eats and when ready noisily demands to be let out to fly. He spends all day out and about flying around, looking out the window at the wild birds and only comes in when it gets dark and he starts to roost. There's even talk of getting him a friend.

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