A Sad Day

I had a woman come in today that was in a month or two ago with this situation... She said her canary was very sick, sitting on the bottom of the cage with its feathers ruffled. I said, get it to the avian vet asap. Then I had to hear a line about how last time it cost her $90, he treated the bird for something it didn't have, when it wasn't really sick, it was just lonely, yadda yadda. Whatever. I've heard it all before. She said she could actually take the bird out, snuggle him, and put him back. This is a canary we're talking about. I told her to stop talking to me and get the bird to the avian vet now, if it was that bad it was in dire need. She told me it couldn't be that bad because he had been like that for THREE WEEKS!

Needless to say, she elected to try a store bought remedy. I explained to her that it would not help her pet, that instead, it would make it more difficult to treat the bird when she finally did wise up and get it to the vet. Nobody listens to me. They all know better. And now a poor defenseless little bird is dead because she was too cheap to get it to the avian vet.
Sadly, this woman has other birds. She says she doesn't want any more, and I hope to God she never does get any more. Because they will all die slow, miserable deaths. I don't understand how someone can proclaim to love something dearly and then not provide a basic need, to watch it slowly suffer in agony, which could be prevented, but still professing that they love the animal.

This is one reason why I hate working at a pet store. If you can't afford the pet - give it to someone that can. If your pet is sick and you don't "feel like" taking it to the vet or have "other things to do," do us all a favor and jump off a cliff.