Phoenix goes to the eye doctor (part twelve or something like that)

Phoenix had her six-month post-surgical follow-up appointment with the eye doctor today, and she passed with flying colours.  She can’t see all of the flying colours, because she’s blind in one eye, but she thinks they’re pretty, just the same.  The vet believes that her vision and comfort are as good as they can possibly be expected to get, and we notice that Phoenix’s eyes are a lot more healthy-looking since the surgery (less discharge, less redness, etc.).  The vet then went on to commend us for being the rare pet owners who actually follow-through on treatment protocols, because when he treats our pets, he can find out if his treatment plans work (they do).  With most other people, they don’t follow instructions so it’s tough to know if a procedure failed, if a medication isn’t working, or if a problem is being caused by owner noncompliance.  Noncompliance must be something that just the rich clients do, because it costs us about $200 every time we step into this vet’s waiting room, so I’m not going to waste that money by not following instructions.

Although this vet is an excellent specialist, his office is sort of rundown and in an older part of town.  It’s located off a busy street with lots of older office buildings, some car dealerships, stuff like that.  Today I saw two stray cats wandering around in the empty lot next to the vet’s office, and one of them must have been just a few months old because it was small.  The other was older but scrawny.  We also saw a pigeon, just sitting on the sidewalk looking at us as we approached.  I reached down to pick the pigeon up (to make sure it could fly), and it just allowed me to hold it.  It could move its feet and head, the wings were fine, and it seemed in perfect physical condition but it wasn’t flying, it was just doing a bit of walking.  I put the bird in a garden area where it would be safe from the cats while it regained its wings—I thought perhaps it had hit its head or something.

When we were finished with our appointment and went outside, the pigeon had moved to another part of the shrubbery, and the largest of the two cats was hovering over it.  I again reached down to move the bird, and while it could resist me a bit, it just wasn’t “right”.  As I held it, its head started to roll and jerk, and I think it was having a seizure.  I took it back inside to the vet’s office, where the office manager took it from me and said she’d put it in a cage.  I told her that the bird probably just needed to be put out of its misery, and said that I wondered if it had been poisoned.  It showed no signs of physical trauma at all, and its neurological condition had visibly deteriorated over the half hour or so that we’d observed it.  I suggested that the bird be euthanized only because I didn’t want the office staff feeling they had to tell me “nice stories” about the pigeon going to a pigeon retirement home or something… I knew it probaby wasn’t going to live, and didn’t like to see it in such bad shape.

It was a good day, but it was surrounded by melancholy.  I was upset by the stray cats, even though I know the vet clinic puts out food to feed them.  They can’t possibly live very long in such a busy neighbourhood.  And, I was upset by the pigeon - a really beautiful, handsome, large bird, who had probably been poisoned by some “pest control” company.  I think pigeons mate for life, so I hope this one doesn’t have a mate waiting up for it.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/18 at 02:04 AM

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  1. So happy to hear that Phoenix is doing well.

    I understand how you feel about the pigeon and the stray cats.  If only we could help them all.. *sigh*

    Posted by Coll  on  11/19  at  07:24 PM
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