Freak out!
Kappa really gave me a scare this afternoon. She seems okay now, but here's what happened.
We've recently moved across country (she handled the five-day drive like a trooper, though I'm sure the fact that she thinks her travel cage is her nest helped) and have been settling into the new house since last Monday. She hasn't seen too many new people since we moved, just my co-driver (whom she barely knew beforehand but was starting to tolerate by the end) and the landlady twice. Kappa usually dislikes/fears/is territorial about new people, and even more so if they're men.
Unfortunately I didn't take this into account when two of my new classmates, both male, visited today. They were curious about Kappa, so I took her out of the cage. Before I did so I saw that she had her neck ruffled, indicating a bit of territorialness. They were standing further from the cage, and I had warned them not to try and touch her. However as soon as I got her out of the cage she bit my finger hard enough that I jumped and she fell off my hand onto the floor.
Once on the floor she sat low to the ground with her wings slightly spread out, which is something she's been doing lately after landing since I clipped her wings before the trip. (She can glide down at 45º, but she doesn't have any aiming ability anymore.) She just sat there with her wings slightly out, and as I reached to get her, she wouldn't step up. Then I realized she wasn't standing on her feet, but her feet were curled up into useless little twisted balls and she was actually leaning on the joint in her legs instead. Every time I tried to pick her up in my cupped hands (because she wasn't stepping up), she would fly out of my hands again, onto the ground again, with her wings held slightly out and her feet uselessly curled up. After a few tries, I went for a vet hold (fingers to either side of her head around her neck) and asked the gentlemen to go to another room so she wouldn't see them. I closed the door and confirmed that her feet didn't seem to be functioning right - she seemed able to move them and didn't express pain when I held her, but she just wasn't using her feet at all.
Rather than panic immediately, I decided to pad the bottom of her cage, put her on it with her food/water dishes on the floor (and her feet curled up under her while she put her weight on that joint in her legs and on her beak), and leave her alone for a while. When I next checked on her, she was standing on the bottom of the cage with her weight on her feet, and she was able to grip lightly to my finger. The next time she was perched normally on her favorite perch, and right now she's behaving entirely normally.
So, anyone know what was up? I'm wondering if this was some sort of "distract a predator from the nest by looking like a helpless injured bird" instinct. Like I said she's behaving perfectly normally right now. I don't feel any mass in her that seems out of place so I don't think she's got an egg (I've heard of eggs pinching a leg nerve). Any other thoughts? I have a routine checkup scheduled for next Friday (a week from tomorrow) with a new vet here, but I can get an earlier appointment if I see anything else unusual, but right now I'm inclined to think it was just an extreme fear response.
And as a thank-you for wading through all that, a couple trip photos of Kappa!
Visiting Niagara Falls - the US side is all a National Park where pets are allowed on leashes or in cages.
Hotel Allegro in Chicago, where we stayed for two nights.
We've recently moved across country (she handled the five-day drive like a trooper, though I'm sure the fact that she thinks her travel cage is her nest helped) and have been settling into the new house since last Monday. She hasn't seen too many new people since we moved, just my co-driver (whom she barely knew beforehand but was starting to tolerate by the end) and the landlady twice. Kappa usually dislikes/fears/is territorial about new people, and even more so if they're men.
Unfortunately I didn't take this into account when two of my new classmates, both male, visited today. They were curious about Kappa, so I took her out of the cage. Before I did so I saw that she had her neck ruffled, indicating a bit of territorialness. They were standing further from the cage, and I had warned them not to try and touch her. However as soon as I got her out of the cage she bit my finger hard enough that I jumped and she fell off my hand onto the floor.
Once on the floor she sat low to the ground with her wings slightly spread out, which is something she's been doing lately after landing since I clipped her wings before the trip. (She can glide down at 45º, but she doesn't have any aiming ability anymore.) She just sat there with her wings slightly out, and as I reached to get her, she wouldn't step up. Then I realized she wasn't standing on her feet, but her feet were curled up into useless little twisted balls and she was actually leaning on the joint in her legs instead. Every time I tried to pick her up in my cupped hands (because she wasn't stepping up), she would fly out of my hands again, onto the ground again, with her wings held slightly out and her feet uselessly curled up. After a few tries, I went for a vet hold (fingers to either side of her head around her neck) and asked the gentlemen to go to another room so she wouldn't see them. I closed the door and confirmed that her feet didn't seem to be functioning right - she seemed able to move them and didn't express pain when I held her, but she just wasn't using her feet at all.
Rather than panic immediately, I decided to pad the bottom of her cage, put her on it with her food/water dishes on the floor (and her feet curled up under her while she put her weight on that joint in her legs and on her beak), and leave her alone for a while. When I next checked on her, she was standing on the bottom of the cage with her weight on her feet, and she was able to grip lightly to my finger. The next time she was perched normally on her favorite perch, and right now she's behaving entirely normally.
So, anyone know what was up? I'm wondering if this was some sort of "distract a predator from the nest by looking like a helpless injured bird" instinct. Like I said she's behaving perfectly normally right now. I don't feel any mass in her that seems out of place so I don't think she's got an egg (I've heard of eggs pinching a leg nerve). Any other thoughts? I have a routine checkup scheduled for next Friday (a week from tomorrow) with a new vet here, but I can get an earlier appointment if I see anything else unusual, but right now I'm inclined to think it was just an extreme fear response.
And as a thank-you for wading through all that, a couple trip photos of Kappa!
Visiting Niagara Falls - the US side is all a National Park where pets are allowed on leashes or in cages.
Hotel Allegro in Chicago, where we stayed for two nights.