Wilbur gave us a scare a few weeks ago when he appeared to be losing strength in his legs. We took him to the vet who wondered if he had slipped and sort of splayed his legs, pulling muscles. So he gave him painkillers, anti inflammatories and some vitamins. I must admit I didn't hold out much hope. Poor Wilbs couldn't really walk up the vet's driveway and his front paws kept turning over.
However, I'm pleased to say that it did work, and he is much better now, gaining strength and much more like himself. The challenge is keeping him calm. While he likes nothing else than lying down and snoozing the day away, he does get excited when we come home or if he things there may be a doggie chocolate drop around - or hears the crack of a yogurt pot.
The vet also suggested we put down a rug for him to lie on, rather than the slippy floors. We did, but he prefers the floor. Needless to say all the others piled on the rug. We had an old one from Bridge Cottage upstairs and found that moths had got to it - so it will remain as a pup rug until it gets thrown out.
We've not got him some herbal medication - like we used for Herbie a few years ago. He get some of it every day in a little yogurt with doggy choc drops on top. I am sure I could get him to eat any medicine if it was dressed up this way!
I noticed the other day that - for the first time in 14 years - we had a massive number of peaches on our peach tree this year. In previous yeats it's been doomed - once when we let it fry, not realizing how hot our patio gets, once when Basil ate all the peaches on it before we could get to it, another year the birds got the flowers...
Just as I was planning how we would use our massive peach harvest - our prickly pear which is the size of a small skyscraper - fell on it, crushing it under its evil prickly pads. I 'think' the tree will be OK - but the peaches will all be covered in the evil prickles, plus we'll need industrial strength gloves etc to get to the peaches.
I'd actually recently said to Ian how worrying our prickly pear was - it looked like something that came out of Day of the Triffids.
Here's another pic of Ludvig. In case it appears that Ian wears the same clothes in all the Ludvig pics, it's because he has a Ludvig-jacket. Ludvig likes to chew at Ian's clothes, so he wears the same top which Ludvig can have fun with. I did sew a lot of parrot toys onto a jumper for him, however neither Ian nor Ludvig were particularly impressed.
When Ludvig is learning, his eyes 'pin' which means he is concentrating. His pupils expand and contract, a bit like a camera lens trying to focus.
He is really a chatty little bird and it's impossible not to smile when listening to him. We've tried something new this week and we're teaching him 'whistle for me' so we can see how long it takes for him to learn something new. So far he's got to 'wait for me'.
And poor Pixie's fur is still not coming back. The vet can't find any medical reason for the fur loss, so we've got some vitamin supplements which may help - but I think it's unlikely. The vet has said to keep her out of the sun, and to make a little jacket or coverall to cover her if she does go out.
I can't think she'll like that much!!!
