We picked up Goldie the blue and gold macaw from the local Humane Society on August 22nd, 2025. She was surrendered, and I was informed that she was there and in need of a home with big bird experience as she was a very fearful and bite-prone girl. Well, she immediately proved herself to be sweet and not a biter at all, and loves scritches.

We put her into quarantine when she got home. At her first vet visit, on August 29th, 2025 at a VCA covered by the humane society, we were told she appeared healthy. They quoted me for some disease tests I asked about, and we went home. I left town for a conference for 6 days shortly after, and when I got back I noticed Goldie felt very skinny - and she was throwing up some. We rushed to the closest bird-friendly emergency vet the same day I got home: September 7th, 2025. Got her some sedation and some diagnostics. She was 714grams - very skinny for a B&G, and we learned through x-rays that her wing joints are fused therefore she can't open them - but this wasn't the cause for throwing up. We also ran blood work, and saw that her liver values are high as well as white blood cells later on. Gave her some sub-Q fluids and pain meds until we could see our regular vet.

I did some digging and called the VCA from the week before because I realized they didn't include her weight on the paperwork they sent me. They told me she was 830grams - ALSO still very skinny for a blue and gold. If I didn't miss this information at that visit we would have brought her in sooner. But now we knew in about a week she dropped from 830 to 714.

The following day after the emergency vet, September 8th, 2025, we went to our regular avian vet to get a better grasp on her diagnostics. We ruled out a lot of issues. She is anemic, so we got her an iron shot and some vitamin B. She also got an anti-emetic to help with vomiting/regurgitation. I sent out samples to look for the following diseases: ABV, PBFD, Polyoma, and Psittacosis, and the goal was to keep her from losing any more weight until we got the results.

My samples got lost in the mail and delayed. We still don't have results! But, on September 11th, 2025, she had lost weight again so we went back to the avian vet, got her a shot of onsior incase she has PDD, and took home shots of anti-emetic (cerenia) and antibiotics (baytril) to give her. We finished our rounds of both of those yesterday, September 15th. In case of something fungal, as she was still throwing up mucus and acting lethargic, I picked up an antifungal from the vet.

Today, September 16th, 2025, she is back at the vet and hospitalized this time, as she started having foamy-mucus come up. We are running bloodwork again to look for any changes, and she may have some liver issues. The test results for the diseases will be in likely on Thursday, but we are already giving treatments that would assist with some of those.

We have had Goldie for just over three weeks and have acquired over $4500 in vet bills thus far, without an answer. The first few visits we could cover but all of this has gone onto a care credit card, and we would greatly appreciate any help paying it down and getting Goldie the care she needs.