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At 14:00 today I had a job interview.

At 15:20 - just now - one of the interviewers sought me out and told me I have got the job.

What took them so long? XD

*Promises to read all posts before axing dumb-ass questions*

Woot for Mutt! Yay! *Uncorks the Sangria* Feliticaciones!

Sorry, Mutt. Just what is this job? I forgot to ask.

All things Julia becoming unscrewed (accompanied by freaky parallel though about how one would re-install virginity).

Is a job. Yus.

Oh, detail? *g*

Web Assistant, Religion & Ethics, with BBC Manchester.

Will not make foul joke.

Yay for employment!

Is the pay good?

Better than my current traineeship.

Other than that, I have no frame of reference. *g* What's "good"? Is it like these mystical qualities of "beautiful" and "well-written", the meanings and identification of which have counfoundingly eluded Mutt for years?

When I last worked in a real job (not that this one isn't), 7 € was about as minimum wage as possible for an adult. No idea how much that's in pounds. So that and anything above that = good for me.

That's about £5/hour I think. Maybe a little less. Slen and I were earning that at Aintree, selling race-cards. Surely you'd be getting quite a bit more than that, wouldn't you?

My utterly smashing job pays me £32 a month regardless of how many hours I've worked and, since the maximum I've ever worked in a month is about 6 hours, that's actually rather good! *beams*

Slen and I will be going to an Al Stewart concert tonight, wiv our daddums.

We're so hardcore.

Hehe... heheheheheheheheeeee... heh!

Rock on!

PS: CD is utterly brilliant! Yay! Ta v. much, Mutt!

Oh, and of course, thank you Slen.

*fingers necklace*

So purrrrrdy!

Ah! Glad you liked it!
(I bought Julia Comalies by Lacuna Coil, for those playing along at home.)

This guy was supporting Al Stewart. He was very good. I bought his disc. The track I particularly liked (A Certain Distance, about being deported from Canada(!)) is playing now and reminding me why.

Mr. Stewart didn't play Roads to Moscow. *Mutt boggles, everyone else who has no idea who Al Stewart is says "huh"*

Overall, great. Songs about hippos and Stalin going to hell. And I fell in a median way for Night Train to Munich. Could've just been the way Dave and Al played it on the evening, but...
Also, WAY COOL Roads to Moscow and YotC posters!

Songs about hippos!
*dies*

I'm back! And I have missed you so!

*huggles all and bursts into song*

I feel the room swayin'
And the band playin'
One of my old favourite songs from way back when.
Show some snap, fellas
Find me an empty lap, fellas.
I promise I'll never go away again.

Ummmm, help? I think I've just done something rather silly.

You see, I went out this evening and as we were going into the pub, we saw a nest being knocked out of a tree, with two baby birds in it, and a cat stalking off with an adult bird in its mouth.

We moved the birds off the road and hoped another parent would 'claim' them. They were still there when we came out so I, stupidly, offered to look after them.

I know we have a resident vet so was wondering if sie could help?

So far they've eaten once, but not very much. I just looked for something gloopy that was high in protein and ended up with that puree stuff you feed kittens.

They're very small, mostly fluffy but some feathers. One of them has a damaged wing, but it's clotted already, after bleeding a lot. And I don't know if this means that they're ok but other (messy) bodily functions are proceeding as normal.

They're nestled upstairs in one of my mum's old hats.

Help!

Congratulations, you've picked the hardest of all creatures to hand-raise. :-)

Here you go, one lecture from the S-Teamed Dr. Parma, resident windbag.....

Keep them warm. A heating pad set on low under the box should do nicely. Keep part of the box off the heating pad so they can move off it if they get too warm. No need to resort to heat lamps - too toasty (at least for these parts even with the air conditioner pumping).

Resist the urge to look in on them too often. Stress is a big deal to birds. A sick bird that presents in my office doesn't even get picked up to be examined until they've spent an hour in an ICU cage on heat and oxygen support. Even a pet bird used to being handled will die from the stress of being handled when they are sick. We call this phenomenon "diagnosing them to death". (but then, I"m extremely weird). Wild birds are even more fragile.

Don't pick them up to feed them, you've gotta act like mom. Chopsticks or tweezers work well for simulating the food coming in held in a beak.

I have better results with canned puppy food than with anything else as food goes. With a little practice you can roll it into itty bitty worms (if you've nothing better to do or are just easily amused....) or just pinch off tiny baby bird bite-sized pieces and shove it down their throat. If you are using canned food, they will probably get enough water with the food so that you won't have to offer any additional. They tend to get diarrhea if they get too much water. Most baby birds get the hint very quickly and they have gigantic mouths. Give them a little bit of food at a time at first. Baby birds eat A LOT. Be warned. Those tiny metabolisms run hot and fast. Feed 'em till they're stuffed. They have a little pouch (the crop) at the base of teh neck that holds food. You want that little bugger to fill up. You didn't say what kind of birds they are, so I can't make any specific recommendations about food or amount to feed. Puppy food will do for starters, but you will quickly want to progress to worms - try a pet shop for meal worms or a fishing bait shop for just about anyother type of squiggly beasties.

If they seem to get droopy, try karo syrup, honey or any type of sugar water for a sugar rush, but by the time you read this they will probably be past that point.

Next and worst - wounds? Cat bites are death to birds. The bacteria in a cat's mouth is frightening stuff. Bleeding is not good in birds either. They have different type of RBC's than mamals and their clotting mechanism is practically nonexsistent. Bottom line, a budgie can bleed to death from a broken toe nail, something no self-respecting mammal with a healthy clotting cascade would do. If these guys bled any, expect a prolonged recovery, and a poor prognosis. Oh sorry, would you like me speak english? I get carried away sometime....

Clean the wound with a little soap and water on a qtip. try not to get the wound bleeding again, and try not to get the bird too wet. You can try putting a little antibiotic ointment on it if you have any, but the grease really messes with the feathers. I would recommend getting some bedatine (NOT tincture of iodine) and using that to clean the wound. You can buy it here in the pharmacy. Add a few drops of it to water until the solution looks like weak tea, then rinse the would with it. Straight Iodine stains, so watch your clothes, jewelry, etc. Once you dilute it you're safe from most staining, but you might want to take them out of mom's hat when you're flushing the wounds.

You want baby birds that chirp when they are hungry and sleep between meals. Constant noise means something isn't right. Droppings should be small and compact and have a dark center surrounded by white (like a fried egg). Everything causes diarrhea in birds - stress, too much water, too much food, too little food, etc,etc, so just use the droppings as a barometer of how secure and well fed they are.

Best thing is to let them nestle in mom's hat, keep 'em warm, feed 'em lots, sprinkle liberally with holy water :-), and hope for the best. Try not to get too attached, baby birds are hard to raise successfully.


Good luck. You can email me if you have specific concerns slac@ev1.net

They made it through the night! Woke up this morning to two wide open beaks and chirupping!

They seem to like this pâté stuff, at least they've been wolfing it down all morning. They didn't eat anything at all last night though. Good thought about the chopsticks/tweezers. It's been a bit messy trying to do it with a teaspoon!

As far as I can see now, the crop looks pretty swollen and they're dozing between meals. When they want feeding they stick their head over the side of the hat, open their beaks really wide and chirrup. Poop is beginning to look less like a colour chart and more like a fried egg. And there's an awful lot of it. Is it advisable to maybe change the towel they're sleeping in for a clean one? Or is it better to just leave them to nestle?

Wound has not bled all night. I haven't cleaned it yet because it's very hard to reach when the wing isn't fully extended and I didn't want to stress them out too much last night.

As for a type of bird, I would guess their sparrows or thrushes... not entirely sure though. They have funky little birdy mohekans! I'll try and post a picture up later for identification.

Thanks for all your help, Sarina.

Sarina's awesome. She is our goddess. *genuflects*

Thanks Basky, now I have to clean coffee off my monitor!

Julia, I'd change that towel maybe once a day. We don't need fecal contamination of that wound. Yeah, those little guys are poopin' machines!

Sounds like your Bird Rehab Project is off to a fine start.

Ummm, and I spelled betadine wrong up there. Oopsie. It also goes by the name Xenodine. If you can't find that, nolvasan or any 1% chlorhexidine solution will do.