The woman e-mailed me some pictures, and 4 finches included 3 societies and 1 black-cheek male. The black-cheek caught my attention, so Hubby finally went to look at them today, after the woman stood us up yesterday morning (grrr ... but that's another story).When Hubby got there, he was appalled at the birds' living conditions. The cage was filthy. The nests were nasty and falling apart. The perches (and underneath them) were piled with poop. Worst of all, the birds' two water cups contained only 1/4" of water ... nasty, filthy, undrinkable water that was more poop than it was water.
The food cups looked like they'd JUST been refilled, based on the lack of seed hulls in them. (I got the impression that they'd seen Hubby in the driveway, and hurriedly tried to make the cage presentable, but only got as far as the food cups when he knocked on the door!)The cage was sitting right in front of the air conditioner, with cold air blowing on them, and a very loud TV right beside them.
One of the woman's kids stuck his hand in the cage, and poked at the black-cheek, saying "Look! You can TOUCH this one!"
Well, it's no wonder he can be touched. Something is wrong with him, and he's not able to move around very well.
It was hard to get a close inspection while he was there, but Hubby noticed that the black-cheek's wings were dropped slightly, and he seemed to hover in the air a lot, just flapping his wings, but not really purposely GOING anywhere.
Although I didn't really "need" any more societies, there was no way any decent human being could have left those birds in the care of those "people". Hubby brought them all home, hoping that we can do something for the little zebra. Thankfully the societies seem no worse for the wear, other than having overgrown toenails.
On closer inspection, it appears that the black-cheek either has a hurt left leg, or a hurt left wing, or both. They did mention that he'd escaped the cage recently. Perhaps he got injured somehow. I don't see anything physically wrong, but the left side of his body doesn't seem to work properly. He can hover, but he doesn't have much control over where he goes. When he tries to land on a perch (if he gets lucky enough to hover near it), he has trouble grabbing ahold of it. And when he does manage to land on the perch, his left foot doesn't move properly. I don't know if it's stiff or sore and he doesn't want to move it, or if he literally CAN'T move it much. He does have a band on his left leg, but I don't see any signs of swelling or skin irritation.
Most of the time he was just sitting in the bottom of the cage, hobbling around, and looking longingly at the other birds on the perches, wishing he was with them.
He's a little wobbly even when sitting still.On the good side, he's eating and drinking very well. All of them dove right in to the fresh water we gave them. Well, the zebra sort of accidentally landed near the water cup rather than purposely going to it, but as soon as he saw it, he got 4 nice long sips.
I've moved him to a hospital cage, with a warm lamp and a very low wood ladder on a slight grade that he can easily perch on. He's got food and water in cups on the floor, and I also sprinkled some seeds on the floor so they'll be even easier for him to reach. He's sitting on the bottom rung of the ladder, under the lamp, with his eyes closed as if he's "soaking up" the heat. He tries to preen himself occasionally.
The woman mentioned that there was a 5th bird, and that it passed away, but I don't know what happened to it. It was useless asking her anything.
To be honest, I'm not hopeful about the zebra's outcome, but if anyone has any suggestions that might help the little guy, I'd greatly appreciate it. They're all in a strict quarantine, away from my other birds for the time being.
(Excuse any typos. Having to hurry due to a storm rolling in!
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It just makes you feel so bad to see something like that. No respect for life.
