198 Delicate Life-Thread of Young Grey Parrot. 



through the membranccs of stomach and h)wcr digestive tract 

 •into the circulation, equally prompt will be the absorption of 

 noxious fluids or substances in solution. 



In acute indigestion exactly this occurs. Commonly 

 with young birds it is starch-indigestion — if 1 am permitted 

 so inexact a tei^m. Acid fermentation is in progress and the 

 by-products formed by the splitting up of the ferments pour 

 into the blood. Some of these by-products are active toxins 

 — poisons. 



Is it strange that the bird shows symptoms of digest- 

 ive disturbance and, as these poisons continue to flood his 

 tissues, becomes quiet, lethargic, comatose, and dies? 



A young Grey Parrot of mine, not yet feathered out 

 fully, became listless. His discharges were bad; he vomited 

 scantily, and had recurrent attacks of palpitation with the 

 accompanying quickened respiration. Then he drowsily set- 

 tled himself upon his perch to die. So weak, apparently, 

 had he become that already he was swaying from side to side 

 preliminary to the final fall to the cage bottom. All this within 

 six hours. 



We put an electric flat-iron under his cage-covering 

 and turned on the current. We floated a few drops of castor- 

 oil upon a dilution of blackberry brandy in which was a 

 pinch of Sodium Bicarbonate and urg^ed' it down the little 

 fellow's throat. In a few minutes he had brightened up and 

 in twenty minutes he was trying to move about on his perch, 

 fighting his way from his perilous position /// articiilo mortis. 



So cramped and drawn up were the bird's tendons and 

 feet, that he fell from the perch and fluttered about pitifully. 

 We rolled him in a blanket, put the clenched feet in a hot 

 bath, and massaged out the drawn-up tendons and tightly 

 closed feet. Then, at half-hour intervals all night long we 

 gave him the brandy dilution and alkali. Next day the bird 

 was practically well. 



So swiftly do these toxins develop and invade the cir- 

 culation, so rapidly are they absorbed, so overwhelming is 

 their effect, that this alone is ample explanation why so many 

 birds apparently well at night are found dead m the morning. 



