Skye is home!!

She had prepidil (prostaglandin) applied topically but hadn't pasted the egg when I came in to visit her. On my way home from the visit, I got a call saying she had passed the egg! She passed it as they were preparing to put her under anesthesia for ovocentesis. She didn't have to have it done and now my Skye bird is home where she belongs!

Skye is at Angell Memorial. She was admitted last night and is egg bound. She has an abnormally large egg in her. She's getting an additional calcium shot tonight, but if she hasn't passed the egg by morning our options are ovocentesis or prostaglandin. Both are risky. purpleglitter and I have decided on ovocentesis because we believe skye is more likely to be able to fight the risks associated with ovocentesis. We are also considering having her oviduct removed. The procedure is risky on a budgie, but so is her reoccurring problem with egg binding. Further, while introducing its own risks, having her oviduct removed would eliminate one of the key risks of ovocentesis: remaining bits of shell creating a future blockage.

Please keep Skye in your thoughts and prayers.

found via rm:

Known for gliding along local waterways with statuesque grace, the mute swan is rarely thought of as an environmental hazard. Wildlife experts in Connecticut say that mute swans, like these at Holly Pond in Stamford, devour shoreline vegetation, displace waterfowl and other creatures, and can even attack people. But wildlife experts say that the swan’s elegant facade conceals an ecological menace that devours shoreline vegetation, scares away other waterfowl and can even attack humans. The bird is now a target of a campaign to reduce its numbers in the state’s delicate coastline habitats. The leaders of the effort are conservationists, including the Connecticut Audubon Society, which in the coming months will intensify a campaign to urge state officials to control the swans’ population, which stands at about 1,100. ... Kathryn Burton, president of SaveOurSwans U.S.A., a nonprofit organization in East Lyme, Conn., said the group would actively oppose the Audubon campaign as well. “I’m not going to let it go,” Ms. Burton said. “They really don’t care about the birds. It’s just unjust.” Connecticut’s swan population has more than doubled in the last three decades. Mr. Bull said that one idea for reducing the number of swans was to disrupt the nesting birds’ eggs to limit reproduction, a tactic known as addling. He said the Audubon Society was not suggesting that any of the 1,100 swans in Connecticut be killed — though other states have taken that step. full story

Humans are far more of a threat to the environment than swans. There are only 1,100 mute swans in Connecticut, if the human population of the state were only 1,100 the humans would still have more of an environmental impact, especially if those humans were typical modern Americans.

Environmentalists wanted to kill of the cherry-headed conures in San Francisco, the monk parakeets are always under attack even though they are essentially a replacement species for the extinct Carolina parakeet. Even here in Arlington, the Friends of Spy Pond still hate the geese.

The Audubon society wants to get rid of swans, well in this world nothing should surprise me anymore. Sometimes things still do, but they shouldn't.

Project Three Meals went completely off today. I got no healthy snack, got no exercise, and went on a junk food binge. Don't worry, I am not following that binge up with a purge, those days are very long gone and I'm not going back.

I did get in my three meals, though, if that matters. For breakfast I had egg and swiss on an everything bagel, for lunch I had linguine in a tomatoed alfredo sauce, for dinner I had pizza. Oh well, tomorrow's another day.

For breakfast I had creamy parmesan noodles, for lunch I had eggs and hashbrowns, for my healthy snack I had a mandarin and a sugar-free popsicle. I got in well over an hour of exercise walking from my place to merryperseis's place and back.

I would have made, except that my dinner wasn't exactly reasonable. I went to Rudy's with purpleglitter, zarthon, and Jeff. I ended up eating chili con queso, a jalapeño poppers, and a bean & cheese burrito. The popper and burrito would have been fine &ndash but the chips and chili con queso were not only too much, it's hard not to categorize them as junk food.

swiped from dan4th:

another year I thought that the version of PhotoShop that came with Orac (the name I have given to the used computer purpleglitter recently bought me) was the scaled down version, unlike the professional version on Clementine. I woke up well this morning and was hoping for a very productive Project Schedule. Skye is egg bound with a soft shell egg. sometimes the only thing that makes death unappealing is that I do not believe it ends existence. dan4th took a couple pictures of me in the sunlight last weekend. Take also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it. I thought that I could not be any more disgusted by the Bush administration, but his response to the Israeli assault on Lebanon has proved me wrong. I've improved some of my old userpics. I had a great time this evening celebrating purpleglitter's birthday with zarthon, recoiling, and of course purpleglitter. The paste of purity has run its course and I have scrubbed it off the wall of corruption. Yesterday, President Bush told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, "This business about graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all."

For breakfast yesterday, I had a fried egg sandwich with mozzarella and cheddar on a toasted focaccini roll; for lunch I had pizza; for dinner I had spaghetti in a tomatoe sauce with parmesan, mushrooms, olives, and peppers; for my healthy snack I had pumpkin seeds. Not to much different than the day before. However, I ate a several unhealthy snacks including chai cake and mustard won ton chips. I also only got in a 15 minute walk instead of the 30 minutes of exercise I need.

For breakfast yesterday, I had a fried egg sandwich with mozzarella and cheddar on a toasted focaccini roll; for lunch i had spaghetti in a tomatoe sauce with parmesan, mushrooms, olives, and peppers; for dinner I had pizza. For my healthy snack I had pumpkin seeds. I while eating the pumpkin seeds, I devoured some olive tapenade on mini toasts – which really brought it into a more mealsworth of food. Additionally, my walk was far short of the half hour mark for exercise.

Not bad, but not quite there.

Not even close yesterday. I had cheese-stuffed ravioli with tomatoe sauce and parmesan cheese for breakfast, hot and spicy scrambled tofu with baby corn drenched in soy sauce for lunch, half an egg salad sub for dinner, and a pickle for my healthy snack. However, I had an additional pickle, some cheese crackers, a bowl of ice cream, and no exercise. I can do better. I will do better.

For breakfast I had pizza, for lunch an egg and cheese on an everything bagel, for dinner spaghetti in a tomatoe sauce with green and black olives and parmesan cheese, and a pickle for my healthy snack. Would have been a perfect day if I had gotten my 30 minutes of exercise in. A definite improvement from yesterday, but not quite there yet.

Not a good start, but I'm determined to make this attempt work.

For breakfast I had faux duck ramen, for lunch I split an egg salad sub with purpleglitter, for dinner I had sloppy joes, and for my healthy snack I had soy jerky. However I ate a bunch of sixlets as well as way too much chips and salsa. I didn't get any exercise too boot. Tomorrow's another day and I will do better.

Sky passed her egg!! The vet says that while having 5 male budgies around stimulates her egg production, being part of a flock is also very good for her in other ways, and that she should remain part of the flock. She wants to put Skye on hormone treatments, which means a trip to the vet every three weeks. Skye isn't going to like that, but it's for the good of her health.

Dilly will be very excited to see Skye's return later today. He's been flock calling her ever since she left. It will be so lovely when they are reunited.

With treatment, the egg has hardened. It only appeared deformed on the x-ray because of it's soft shell and it's position, it is actually a normal egg. The egg has started moving and they expect the egg to be passed later today or overnight, and she can come home tomorrow. I can't wait to have Skye back. Yay for Skye!

Skye is egg bound with a soft shell egg. It is pressing against her nerve, which is causing her limp leg. They are going to try some treatments on her overnight to try to get her to pass the egg on her own. If she doesn't she will have to undergo surgery. I hope she can pass it on her own, as surgery is very tramatic for small birds. Poor Skye. I love her.

Skye's lead test came back normal, meaning lead exposure is not the cause of her foot paralysis. It seems the two most likely causes now are a tumor or damage done due to possible egg binding. Either way, we'll likely find out tomorrow after her x-rays are done. She'll have to be knocked out for the x-rays, but she should be fine with that as the vet said other than her foot she is in excellent health.

I'm very worried about poor Skye. I don't think anything bad should happen to budgies ever.

Dilly is helping take care of Skye. He is such a good budgie and loves her so. I'm very impressed with him. We all love Skye. Skye is a pretty budgie bird.

For breakfast I had one and a half bagels with cream cheese, for lunch I had an egg and cheese bagel, for dinner I had spaghetti in a tomatoe sauce with portabellas and parmesan, and for my healthy snack I had apple sauce. While I did okay with food, I didn't get any exercise in today. Tomorrow I plan on walking to the library, which should fulfill my exercise quota.

I had a bagel with cream cheese form breakfast, an egg and cheese bagel for lunch, breadsticks with mozzarella for dinner. I had no healthy snack, but I did eat ice cream and a small amount of fried potatoes. Didn't get any exercise.

Whatever.

I went down to Spy Pond to do my meditations, but couldn't really get in the mindplace. I don't think I'm going to end up doing anything on Project Schedule today. It has been suggested to me that I cut back on Project Schedule as it really doesn't seem to be happening.

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Much of the park on the shore of Spy Pond has been blocked off for over a year, and still is. Why? Because the "Friends of Spy Pond" succeeded in getting the city of Arlington to finance their anti-goose renovations. The two cornerstones of this plan have been the building of an fence between the pond and the park to keep the geese out of the park and the planting of species of grass that the geese supposedly won't eat.

The main reason the majority of the park has been blocked off for so long is that the anti-goose grass takes much longer to grow than standard species do. However, the geese don't seem to be waiting to chow down on it. They love it and seem to think of the "grass the geese won't eat" is the best grass they've ever tasted. I've never seen them packing the grass down at such a rate before.

The anti-goose fence doesn't seem to be doing a very good job keeping the geese away from the anti-goose grass. I can see two obvious reasons that fence does not work: 1) The geese can walk through the gap in the fence that allows boats to get to the water. 2) It's a fence and geese can fly.

What the "Friends of Spy Pond" have really accomplished is wasting a bunch of tax payer money and blocking off access to the park for over a year. The improvements that were included with the anti-geese measures have been minor and on their own would not have required blocking off access to the park for so long, if at all.

I imagine they'll be back to addling eggs and griping about people feeding the geese. Yet, they themselves have provided the best evidence that the geese are not attracted to Spy Pond by the people feeding them, as they are still flocking to the fenced off section even though no one is allowed in, much less people "illegally" feeding the geese. Furthermore their years of egg addling have only served to keep Spy Pond free of goslings. The number of adult geese around the pond has actually increased slightly over the years. The "Friends of Spy Pond" would be much happier if they'd just relax and watch the beautiful birds.