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When You're Sick

© Mary Wilson

It's easy to know what to do when a bird's ill. Gently hold the little creature in your hands as you transfer it to a hospital cage designed to provide plenty of heat. Keep the cage covered to keep the bird in the dark and provide spray millet and water, nature's remedy for most ills. Perhaps some medication, or some tried and true cure, but for the most part, the way sick birds are cared for differs little from aviary to aviary.

When we're ill, however, who cares for us? Living alone, I rarely think about such things. This week, the thought came home.

The saga started on Tuesday, when my throat felt as if someone were stuffing scouring pads down it. On Wednesday, my throat felt better, but I lost my voice. Thursday, the voice returned, bringing with it some light stuffiness. I went to the doctor, who admonished me to rest my voice (yeah right) and drink plenty of fluids, then provided me with more drugs than many people see in a year.

Through it all, I went to work, and while I'm feeling fine now (okay, better, but who's going to quibble over a stuffy noise and a cough that can out bark a great dane?), I wondered about my little feathered children. If something were to happen to me to put me in the hospital who would care for them? What if, heaven forbid, something were to permanently happen to me?

Such thoughts are rarely happy ones, but after assuring my mother two years ago that I would care for her animal children if something were to happen (thank goodness I've never had to fulfill that promise), and wondering myself between bouts of sneezes, it's something that I think bird owners need to think about.

Larger birds can outlive their owners. Our darling small hookbills, however, rarely live longer than twenty years. With me just approaching a quarter of a century, I know that theoretically I don't have much to worry about. For now.

The first thought would be to turn to other family members. Partners, or those living in a household, such as a roommate, may be counted on to care for the family pet(s), during an illness, but what about after? That husband who looks askance at your bird collection may not relish the thought of keeping those birds once you're gone. Not only might he not enjoy Polly the Screamer's pretty singing, but also the birds would be a reminder of whom he had lost. Likewise with other family members.

The copyright of the article When You're Sick in Small Hookbills is owned by Mary Wilson. Permission to republish When You're Sick in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.