Puff's FDB journey

Good news, the reduction I made actually worked! She's sitting in the window and her favorite friend came to visit with his son and we were outside so we went to the window and she was super animated and talking and making noises and wanted so bad for me to bring her outside with all of us. Which I can't as it's just at freezing here in Minnesnowta right now, so way to chilly for birdies to go out. She hasn't mapped today and is just enjoying herself. She is just so incredibly sensitive to this medication, she is now at the absolute lowest dose I can go with her though, 02 ml, which is 1/2 ml lower then I had been giving her. So I have to be very exact and clear with her dose now which is just very scary for me because if I'm off at all she could easily chew her feathers again. So I'm just being very careful and fingers crossed. Here's some cute pics of her enjoying her window seat 😉

Well I've been looking at her neck and I don't think she's chewing there. I'm also watching her chest very closely. She does have a couple 'v' feathers and I'm trying to keep track that it stays that way, they don't get worse and more others get that 'v' in them. I check her tray every morning, and change it every night before I go to bed. She has gone back to sleeping a bit more again so I cut back just a very small amount and am considering doing the dilution again. I am hesitant though as when I went below 02 ml she chewed again so I don't have much room to adjust. So I'll wait a few days and see how it goes.

Looking at the pic from today and yesterday I'm not sure if she is chewing her neck feathers or not. Can't tell if this is old feathers or some new ones, I'll have to keep watching and look through the old photos. Her chest feathers though are looking good still. New behavior with hand feeding, I think it's old baby behavior but I'm not sure. She now making these new little squeeky noises and bouncing her head/beak a lot. I normally just give her a mouthful and back off but now she's wanting it to just flow. I'm trying to discourage, by giving her even smaller amounts at a time, will see where this goes.

Well look here, we have some new feathers coming in. I've included a pic from before the new ones as well so you can see which ones are new. From what I see the damaged, V shaped ones are the older ones, so you really have to pay attention. So now I'm really going to stick to the daily pics now, so I can keep very close tabs on all the new feathers. Oh boy, I'm getting excited...

OK, here's today's pic. I don't think I see any difference but not sure. I'm trying to keep an eye on the full ones and the ones that are still partially full. Trying to make sure they aren't being chewed. She isn't really all that interested in other foods, so I'm going to decrease the amount of formula I give by small amounts and see how that goes. I'm not clear on if it is the appetite that is the issue, meaning she's not hungry because of how much formula, or if she isn't interested because of the medication. So I'm going to very slowly decrease the amount of the morning formula only. She's currently eating between 25-30 ml. So tomorrow I'll only give her 20 ml and see how it goes.

It's been a bit, not much has been going on. I think I have stabilized Puff's dose at 03 ml of the full solution with no dilution. The only issue is I was extremely sick and missed a morning dose twice in a week but not two days in a row. Not clear on how bad it affected her but I can tell there was some chewing. I'm now going to start daily pics again so I can determine if she is still chewing or not. This is a very frustrating process and because I missed a couple doses it's making all that much harder. I hope that I'm now at the right dose and can move forward. I totally understand why Don asked me to give him three months now though, this does take time. However, she has made some progress even though it may not seem that way. She has a much more full feathered neck line and she no longer has any bare patches on her chest. I'm going to go back to daily pics to make sure she is no longer chewing and for sure moving forward. Because it is just hard to tell ...

I haven't been feeling very well this weekend and Sunday night I forgot to give Puff her dose. She did a bit of chewing but not too bad, hopefully it will work itself out. She's still doing really well and I'm hoping to see some feather changes soon. Maybe by X'mas she will finally have a new look. That would be the best present ever.

So I've been giving Puff the 1/1 mixture at 05 ml for a week now. She has some new feathers, so all I can do is watch and see. Her personality is in full bloom, she's still the picky eater I know her to be. With me giving her hand feeding formula twice a day, fresh foods and her daily nuts and pellets her weight is staying steady at about 315 grams.

OK on a personal note here I feel it is important to let you know how frustrating this whole process has been for me. First she lost a lot of weight I was really scared, and now for everything I'm trying I can not find a good place to keep her at. My friend made me commit to three months and I'm already fully on board and not going to stop however I fully understand now how so many do. This is not an easy process for sure but I'm committed because I know if I don't stick with it the outcome will be death. Maybe not this year or next but FDB is progressive and I've seen her do more then when I first got her, I don't want it to go any further, and I would love to see her fully feathered. I just wanted to let you know some of my personal frustrations as I'm going through this, I'm not a super woman and I'm sure others will feel this way as well and hopefully know it will get better and I know I'm not alone and hope others aren't either. So I to...

OK putting the med into the formula is working very well. So well, I have realized that she was not getting her whole dose for a while now using the craft stick. Yesterday and today she was sleepy for a while but did perk up during the day and she's still eating the formula so I may try going down to 03 ml and see what happens as she hasn't been getting her proper dosage for I don't really know how long.

OK, lots to report because I failed in my duties to daily blog. She's still been chewing at every point I went, I increased to 03 ml of the 1/1 solution then went with no dilution and straight medication and started at 03 ml of that. Today we are bumping again to 04 ml of the medication. I only bump once every two two days if I do not see improvement. She is still full of personality and shows no sign of any side effects, fingers crossed. She has also become hip to the ways of me giving her the me, which was in some peanut butter on a craft stick, so now I just put it in her formula towards the end of her feeding. Pic taken today after eating her formula...

Because the amount of liquid was getting so high I switched back to the 1/1 ratio of water/medication. So now I'm giving her 03 ml of the new mixture as of last night. She is still eating so well and showing her wonderful personality. At last check she was still messing with her feathers so it is a slow process but I will keep pushing forward.

Well it seems I'm past her aversion to eating now I've got a new bump in the road it seems. She is clearly still chewing her feathers 😔 and its so hard to not see any results yet. We're going on two months now and I'm now having to increase the dose slowly and watch very carefully to be able to know if she's not chewing any new feathers. Here is a pic I took today and we are on the second day of .07 ml so I will increase to .08 ml tonight.

Puff weighed 314 today, however I noticed she for sure is still chewing so I'm increasing to .07 ml of the 2/1 mixture for the next few days and again will watch her feathers very closely. I opted to skip her morning formula yesterday and give her a wide range of foods and she ate very well and this morning was even up a few grams in weight. So I did it again today. I still give her formula in the evening and she eats about 30 ml.

So Puff is holding nicely at 310 grams and eating very well. It has always been normal for her to bounce a bit of 10 grams so I'm OK with her weight. I'm still watching her feathers, and trying to determine if there is still chewing going on. Here are some pics I took today if her all over...

This is a picture of Puff today, I'm trying to keep close tabs on the chewing so I know whether or not I need to increase again or stay where I'm at. I'm currently at .06 ml of the 2/1 solution. She's still eating well and showing lots of wonderful personality.

So after closely looking at Puff's chest and photos I've realized she's still chewing a bit. So last night I have increased her dose to .06 ml of the 2/1 solution. I'm going to keep an eye on things and see how it goes. I'm including a short video of her getting formula and a pic from today, then also pics going backward of her progress. I have noticed her neck feathers are growing in much better, I'm just going to have to keep a very close eye on her progress.

Well I got a good reading this morning and she's up to 318! I'm not quite sure that there isn't more chewing though. I'm going to monitor her and see how it goes. The weight is amazing and she's so full of personality I'm feeling much less stress. If I have to increase I'm also not as concerned. Hopefully we've come through the bumps and she's stabilized out.

It's been a few days since I've posted, but it's all been great. Her weight is consistently going up, she's showing a good amount of interest in foods again and I think the feathers are still looking good. My biggest issue is trying to weigh her in the mornings, she's just so into getting some food it's difficult to get a weight, as you will see in the pictures, I'm calling it 315 today as she bounced between 313 to 317.

OK well the weight wasn't up today but I kind of think it has a little to do with my girls stance choice today (picture to explain, below) she's just being a fluff ball of cuteness the past few days. Which I'm enjoying very much, of course. I've also noticed she's not so inclined to be with me and I think after careful observation I've figured out what that was about. I think the medication was making her maybe a bit fuzzy, even wobbly so she wasn't sure about standing on her own or moving around like she normally did. She's back to flying all over the house, climbing the cupboards and playing hide and seek with me 😜. She certainly is feeling better, that is clear to see.