On Wednesday at around 3 pm I got in the shower with Nani. She loves the shower and sings away the whole time. Afterward I always put her on top of a towel hanging from the curtain rod. She always rubs vigorously all over the towel (see Caique surfing). Well she was up there on her towel as I was blow drying my hair when the towel, and Nani, came crashing down to the floor. Now to be honest I wasn't that surprised as this has happened a time or two before. So she waddled over to the counter and climbed the cord to the sink. When she got to the top I looked at her right as she shook her head, and I saw some blood on the wall. My heart just sank and I quickly turned off the blow dryer. There were drops of blood coming from the very tip of her beak, although none of it was broken off or chipped. I blotted with a kleenex and it stopped bleeding within a minute. She didn't lose much blood at all which is good because birds can bleed to death very quickly. She seemed startled so I brought her to her cage to rest.

I had two appointments that night so after coming back from the first one at around 5 pm I noticed she was acting kind of strange...making no sounds, not eating, and sleeping a lot. I was somewhat concerned but thought she may have just been shaken up from the bathroom incident.

I left for my second appointment around 7:30 pm and came back around 10:00. She didn't make a peep when we came in which is very out of the ordinary. I went right away to check on her and she was all puffed up and sleeping with her beak tucked in her back feathers. She never sleeps like that. I've heard most Caiques don't. She would also shake her head every few seconds as if to shake off the pain. Now my mild concern went straight to panic. She could hardly keep her eyes open! But it was late and I decided to give it time to see if she improved by morning, after a good nights sleep. I didn't fall asleep until about 3 am because I kept going to check on her.

Bright and early Thursday morning my husband came in to wake me and tell me she didn't look so good. I jumped out of bed to find her puffed, shaking a little, and struggling to keep her eyes open (like extreme fatigue). First I called the emergency vet's office but they said even though they could see her it would be better to take her to an avian specialist. I didn't think they were open that early but they did answer when I called. The girl told me the doctor was booked all day, but if I could drop her off as soon as possible the vet would see her between visits. What a sigh of relief! So I drove the 30 minutes to the vets office and dropped her off. Thankfully it got in the 40's today so it was relatively warm for taking her out. Now normally she loves car rides and sings and talks as loudly as she can. Today she was silent, although alert.

At around noon the avian vet called and told me that Nani has a hairline fracture from the very tip of her beak up to right below the middle (I cant see it at all). She said it wasn't a serious break but that it is extremely painful for her because all of the nerve endings are in that area. Being parrots use their beaks for almost everything - climbing, eating, playing, preening - she is a bit handicapped right now. She was given pain medication called Metacam which I have to give to her every 12 hours.

When I brought her home I tried mashing up some of her pellets mixed with freshly squeezed orange juice, but she only stuck her beak in a few times and gave up. I took her in the bedroom with me and she slept cuddled up to me for an hour until I had to go to my daughters conferences at school. Before I left I offered her a saltine cracker (not the healthiest of options, I know) and she took it! It was sad to watch though as she tried picking up more pieces of the cracker with the side of her face/beak which is almost impossible.

After coming back home I decided to give her some hulled sunflower seeds - which I normally reserve for trick training only - to see if she would take them. To my surprise she ate about 4 of them! yay! She also drank some water which was excellent. I was still dead tired from lack of sleep so at about 8:00 pm I took her in the bedroom to sleep with me (I am a VERY light sleeper, bat your eyelashes and I'll wake up). She didn't want to be pet at all but did snuggle in against my chest. She slept motionless for 4 hours! That is unheard of with Nani. The only reason she woke up at all was because I needed to go pee. I got a bit of video of her behavior right before we fell asleep. You can see her beak is obviously bothering her, and she can barely keep her eyes open.

I will keep updating her progress.