I found out today that my parakeet, Athena, is ancient. Apparently the average lifespan of a parakeet is 7 years. I've had Athena for at least 11 years and maybe as long as 14 years. I can't remember exactly when I got her.

When I went to feed Athena this morning, she didn't look so well. She had a large buildup of poop on her rear and her rear looked a little swollen. So, I went to work a little worried and ready to do some research. Nothing I found online could help me figure out what was wrong, but everyone seemed to say if your parakeet looks sick, take it to the vet now. Parakeets don't show signs of illness unless they are really sick.

After a couple phone calls, I found a bird doctor and left work to take Athena to the doctor. The first thing he tells me is that there is a chance she will die from just looking at her. Small birds can become frightened, and their heart can continually beat faster and faster until they die. How comforting. We got Athena out of the cage and he looked her over. She was a little underweight, but was as feisty as she could be even being sick. The doctor noticed that one of her nasal holes had become clogged. This was mainly due to old age. The area around their beak where the nasal holes are grows like our fingernails, so he took a Dremmel and ground the growth off until the hole was cleared.

The doctor did a mouth swab and got a stool sample in order to run some tests. I feared the worst, but it turns out that she just has a bacterial infection. I have to give her some antibiotics, but she should be ok for a while longer. I left the vet with a sick bird, some medicine and another $143 put on a credit card. I hope it was money well spent.