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Vet Gives Parrot New Wings After Someone Severely Trims Them
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Vet Gives Parrot New Wings After Someone Severely Trims Them

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It takes only a few hours to completely change the life of an animal. Dr. Catherine Apuli, a vet working with The Unusual Pet Vets in Brisbane, Australia, gave a parrot named Wei Wei the ability to soar again.

Wei Wei had been the victim of wing trimming to prevent it from flying. However, with Dr. Apuli’s help, the parrot was able to take to the skies! All it took was some MacGyverish ingenuity and creativity which involved some donated feathers, glue, and toothpicks. (But don’t worry, dear Pandas, the procedure was completely painless!) Scroll down for Bored Panda’s interview with Dr. Apuli!

This vet isn’t the only helping other creatures soar the skies again. When you’re done with this post, check out Bored Panda’s earlier article about Katie VanBlaricum who helps butterflies fly again by giving them wing transplants.

More info: UnusualPetVets.com | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Wei Wei the parrot couldn’t fly because somebody had trimmed its wings, but now it can once again soar in the skies

Image credits: Caters News Agency

A vet helped Wei Wei fly again by fixing its wings while it slept

Image credits: Caters News Agency

“Wei Wei was brought in for a general health check as the owner had just bought her and wanted to know if she was healthy. During her physical exam, I explained that her wings were cut too short and too many feathers were cut, however, we do see this commonly,” Dr. Apuli went into more detail about Wei Wei’s situation.

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The vet used donated feathers to create prosthetic wings for the parrot!

Image credits: Caters News Agency

Wei Wei didn’t feel a thing, so don’t worry about the lil’ parrot

Image credits: Caters News Agency

“As the owner had just bought her up that same day, she was not yet sure if Wei Wei was affected by her short wing trim. I warned of injuries that can occur with a severe wing trim. One week later, Wei Wei came back for a microchipping procedure,” the vet continued. “The owners stated at this time that she was falling heavily to the ground and hurting her feet. The imping procedure was performed one week after the microchip procedure. The parrot is now living happily at her owner’s house, where she is teaching Wei Wei ‘recall training’ where the bird is trained to fly to the owner on cue.”

Repairing damaged feathers by attaching parts of new ones is known as ‘imping’

Image credits: Caters News Agency

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Image credits: Caters News Agency

Dr. Apuli confirmed to us that she’s performed the same procedure she did on Wei Wei many times before.

According to her, the vet clinic posts the most interesting cases of them helping animals out on their Facebook page. “The Unusual Pet Vets specialize in exotic or ‘unusual’ pets. This means we don’t see cats and dogs, we only see reptiles, small mammals, and birds.”

Here’s what Wei Wei looked like before the procedure

Image credits: Caters News Agency

And here’s how fabulous the parrot looks after it

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Image credits: Caters News Agency

Apuli gave the 12-week-old Green Cheeked Conure a pair of prosthetic wings made out of feathers donated to the clinic. Within hours of the procedure, during which the parrot slept as the prosthetics were glued to its body, Wei Wei was back on its feet (well, wings) and was maneuvering in the air like a pro.

What Apuli did is known as ‘imping’ and involved repairing damaged feathers by attaching parts of new ones. In Wei Wei’s case, the vet used toothpicks for support.

Wei Wei had been a victim of “severe” wing trimming. This is a controversial procedure that some exotic bird owners do to keep their pets grounded and to prevent their escape. Previously, every time Wei Wei had tried to fly, it would fall to the ground.

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This is Dr. Catherine Apuli, the heroine who saved Wei Wei

Image credits: Caters News Agency

You can learn more about the awesome vet right here

Image credits: Caters News Agency

Look at how gorgeous the bird looks!

Image credits: Caters News Agency

“The bird had a severe wing trim, which means that the flight feathers were cut too short and too many feathers were cut,” the 31-year-old veterinarian Apuli said.

It’s unclear who exactly trimmed the parrot’s wings: whether it was a previous owner, a pet store owner, or a breeder.

People were inspired by Dr. Apuli’s kindhearted actions

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jmchoto avatar
Jo Choto
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The selling, breeding and keeping of wild creatures should be banned, period. there's just no excuse in this day and age for taking an intelligent and long-lived bird that lives in flocks and has the whole sky as its domain, and putting it alone in a cage, and destroying its wings. It's disgusting and should be illegal.

mittenkg avatar
FrancesCat
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Jo - I completely agree. Birds should not be bred or captured for housepets. They should only be free to fly. In 2020, the only birds that should be indoors are rescues.

Load More Replies...
heathervance avatar
AzKhaleesi
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ok this pisses me off, first off that is a green cheek conure in case there are any people here that don't know birds. I have one that looks just like him. His name is Cricket and he's so cute. Now that he hit sexual maturity he's not my sweet guy anymore he's an a*s, but we love him lol. Second, when you trim a bird so they can't fly let me educate.... it does NOT hurt them, and they grow back, the problem was those were the WRONG feathers. we trim all our birds (9) because it's safer for them so they don't hit ceiling fans etc. BUT it doesn't KEEP them from flying that's a common misconception. Actually it prevents lift off and getting altitude BUT if you go outside and their wings are trimmed and there's a gust of air that they catch just right, they can and WILL still fly.

star_dusting avatar
Steph
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This doesn't make any sense to me. Why would you put a bird under anaesthetic when these feathers will grow back on their own after the bird molts?

natalee_rat avatar
Peachymiss
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Because if you read the article they cut the feathers so short the bird couldn't land safely and was getting hurt by falling hard to the ground

Load More Replies...
Load More Comments
jmchoto avatar
Jo Choto
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The selling, breeding and keeping of wild creatures should be banned, period. there's just no excuse in this day and age for taking an intelligent and long-lived bird that lives in flocks and has the whole sky as its domain, and putting it alone in a cage, and destroying its wings. It's disgusting and should be illegal.

mittenkg avatar
FrancesCat
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Jo - I completely agree. Birds should not be bred or captured for housepets. They should only be free to fly. In 2020, the only birds that should be indoors are rescues.

Load More Replies...
heathervance avatar
AzKhaleesi
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ok this pisses me off, first off that is a green cheek conure in case there are any people here that don't know birds. I have one that looks just like him. His name is Cricket and he's so cute. Now that he hit sexual maturity he's not my sweet guy anymore he's an a*s, but we love him lol. Second, when you trim a bird so they can't fly let me educate.... it does NOT hurt them, and they grow back, the problem was those were the WRONG feathers. we trim all our birds (9) because it's safer for them so they don't hit ceiling fans etc. BUT it doesn't KEEP them from flying that's a common misconception. Actually it prevents lift off and getting altitude BUT if you go outside and their wings are trimmed and there's a gust of air that they catch just right, they can and WILL still fly.

star_dusting avatar
Steph
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This doesn't make any sense to me. Why would you put a bird under anaesthetic when these feathers will grow back on their own after the bird molts?

natalee_rat avatar
Peachymiss
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Because if you read the article they cut the feathers so short the bird couldn't land safely and was getting hurt by falling hard to the ground

Load More Replies...
Load More Comments
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