flap
Flapper was scheduled to have an endoscopy tomorrow, but we put it on hold for now. He is pooping better and feeling better from his chronic plumbing issues, so we’ll just wait for now.

Flapper has had trouble walking for a few months, and for some reason I always assumed it was related to his sore tummy from his chronic abdomen issues. So on Wednesday I thought, “I wonder if something MORE is going on, in addition to the chronic problem.” That’s why we got x-rays done Wednesday night. I thought we could bring them with us to the vet on Friday for the endoscopy. I thought Flapper’s trouble walking was a sign that his belly was very painful and more serious.

But the x-rays surprised me. What they show is that he has arthritis in his knees. The vet looked at the x-rays today and said he has “pretty severe arthritis.” And while arthritis is painful for him, at least we know his chronic belly issues are still just a minor irritation, which is manageable. And at least we can now treat the arthritis separately, which will hopefully also be manageable.

Flapper had x-rays a year ago that didn’t really show his legs well, so it’s not easy to tell how long he has had this arthritis. But the new x-rays certainly do show a lot of calcification around his knee joints. His vet said “well it’s certainly not the worst arthritis I’ve seen, but it’s significant.” This makes a lot of sense to me now, based on how Flapper has been walking the past few months.

Flapper will stay on anti-inflammatories for a bit, and then we will try to wean him off those chemicals and get him on more natural remedies to help arthritis. Luckily his main vet has personally done extensive research on treating arthritis in parrots, which can really help Flapper. He will get some glucosamine supplements and flax seed oil, and we’ll share more about the treatment when we know more.

It may seem odd to be happy he has arthritis, but it’s better than what I had imagined. I had assumed his lumbering, labored walking was because his re-worked plumbing was causing him serious abdominal pain and discomfort. And while he does have trouble with that now and then like he did recently, it seems much better to know that his abdomen is not too painful, but that his legs hurt, and that is why he walks stiffly. If his abdominal pain was severe, he’d be looking at more surgery that has never been done on ducks before. And I’d be figuring out how to fly him to the best micro-surgeon in the US. He’d be in uncharted territory again with an uncertain outcome, and I’d be stressed out. And those thoughts were hurting my brain.

So for now, we say “yay for arthritis!”

Quacks and hugs as always,

Silly human

P.S. Special thanks to all of Flapper’s veterinarians and vet technicians.