Poor Lucy!
Mar. 30th, 2007 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pacificpikachuMy poor, decrepit cockatiel Lucy. She's been through so much already. Okay, for the record:
1. Her egg was not turned enough by whatever terrible breeder had her, so her feet are not right. They're basically like they're on sideways and she has to walk on them in such a way that they're curled and disfigured.
2. She is permanently bald on her head because her mate, Ricky, from before we owned her, obsessively picked at her head until the feather shafts were destroyed beyond repair.
3. She has literally almost no sense of balance. She can hardly flutter even though her wings aren't clipped, and she frequently falls off the perch for no apparent reason.
I was looking at her today, and it struck me that she looked kind of...well, even stranger than usual. She wasn't holding her head right. At first I freaked out and thought she had a stroke, but as I watched her some more it occurred to me: She must have gone blind in her left eye.
I don't know how it happened or why, but for some reason she doesn't seem to have any vision at all in her left eye anymore. :( So now she's holding her head weird like my equally strange chicken Lace used to. Lucy is so pitiful! I wish I could hunt down her former owner at get mad at them now, because she's so messed-up. I don't think she's nearly going to live as long as a normal cockatiel. I'd estimate she's probably at least about five years old right now, though there's no way for me to know for sure.
What I do know is that she's the sweetest, most positive bird I've ever met. She chirps about three times as loud as Holly does (our non-messed-up and slightly cynical cockatiel), gets happy about the slightest things, and just...lights up, for lack of a better word, whenever anyone interacts with her. I only wish her body could be as wonderful as her mind.
Anyway, I'm getting off on a tangent. The point of this entry is that I feel terrible that on top of all of her other issues, Lucy has gone blind in one eye. But at least I know she's happy. I took her and Holly in the shower today just to make her even happier.
1. Her egg was not turned enough by whatever terrible breeder had her, so her feet are not right. They're basically like they're on sideways and she has to walk on them in such a way that they're curled and disfigured.
2. She is permanently bald on her head because her mate, Ricky, from before we owned her, obsessively picked at her head until the feather shafts were destroyed beyond repair.
3. She has literally almost no sense of balance. She can hardly flutter even though her wings aren't clipped, and she frequently falls off the perch for no apparent reason.
I was looking at her today, and it struck me that she looked kind of...well, even stranger than usual. She wasn't holding her head right. At first I freaked out and thought she had a stroke, but as I watched her some more it occurred to me: She must have gone blind in her left eye.
I don't know how it happened or why, but for some reason she doesn't seem to have any vision at all in her left eye anymore. :( So now she's holding her head weird like my equally strange chicken Lace used to. Lucy is so pitiful! I wish I could hunt down her former owner at get mad at them now, because she's so messed-up. I don't think she's nearly going to live as long as a normal cockatiel. I'd estimate she's probably at least about five years old right now, though there's no way for me to know for sure.
What I do know is that she's the sweetest, most positive bird I've ever met. She chirps about three times as loud as Holly does (our non-messed-up and slightly cynical cockatiel), gets happy about the slightest things, and just...lights up, for lack of a better word, whenever anyone interacts with her. I only wish her body could be as wonderful as her mind.
Anyway, I'm getting off on a tangent. The point of this entry is that I feel terrible that on top of all of her other issues, Lucy has gone blind in one eye. But at least I know she's happy. I took her and Holly in the shower today just to make her even happier.
