Save Sputnik: Urgent Surgery for a Beloved Pigeon

Hello there, my name is Colin. If you’re in Seattle, you may know me from the underground queer music scene as a DJ or just attending or organizing events. Some of you also may have seen me bring my pet pigeon, Sputnik, to outdoor events of this nature. She definitely is a crowd favorite and does well going out and about.

I’ve had Sputnik all of her life, she just turned six years old last week. She’s been healthy and not had problems until now.

Yesterday, on October 11th, I returned home from work to take care of her and let her out of her crate to fly around when I noticed blood on her chest on her left side. Aside from that she was acting completely normal, which is common for prey animals to do to not attract attention to predators.

When I pulled her wing back I saw a huge gaping wound, I had no idea how it got there so I immediately took her to

Center for Bird and Exotic Animal Medicine in Bothell, Washington, the only exotic vet in the greater Seattle-Tacoma area that has 24-hour emergency care available.

At first I thought she had injured herself catching her wing in the cage, but the veterinarians there quickly made a prognosis that it had nothing to do with her wing. They said a large growth that seemed like some kind of cyst the size of a golf ball had appeared very rapidly under her wing very recently, probably within the last few days. They said the wound probably happened in the last day or two. They said she had pecked at it because it was causing her discomfort, so she essentially self mutilated and created a huge gash in the growth. Some of the mass was exposed and it was what I thought was originally bone. Luckily she wasn’t really bleeding much.

The original initial care was going to be about $900, because they wanted her to stay overnight and do some X-Rays. They also gave me a quote for the surgery around $2300-2600. They wanted to do the surgery that night along with the imaging and other treatment, but because of my low annual income I was not approved for CareCredit. I explained the situation and told them it was impossible right now.

The vet said they could send her home with a bandage, some pain medication, and antibiotics so she would not be suffering as much and the wound would not get infected. They also gave her an iron injection for the blood she lost and some fluids. After 5 hours of waiting, when her treatment was complete, I ended up paying around $380 for this care instead of the original $900 quote before the surgery, which I was able to pay upfront. However, this was still a big money sink for me, so I’m really overwhelmed by the idea of having to pay over 2 grand to get the mass removed from her body. I’ve currently been living paycheck to paycheck for a while now.

Because she didn’t end up getting emergency surgery, and they sent her home and could schedule it in advance, it did reduce the quote a bit. She said depending on how it goes it could be anywhere from $1800-2600.

$2600 is the high end, so I have put it as the goal as a cushion; I might not even need that much for the surgery since it wasn’t performed during the initial emergency visit but I am also moving out of my current residence by the end of the month and I have to deal with moving expenses as well, and this unprecedented expense is extremely stressful. I don’t want to have to lose her because I can’t afford the surgery, I would be devastated but I also don’t want her to suffer, so I’ll just have to cross that bridge when I get there.

Currently she is with my partner who is caring for her while I’m at work most of the week. I can’t afford to miss work for this either. She has been on sedative pain meds and antibiotics the past day or so and she can’t fly due to the bandage and can barely walk or function; it’s really upsetting to see.

The thing also with birds, is that biopsies cannot be done without full anesthesia. The sedation techniques that work on mammals and reptiles doesn’t work on birds. So it would be more cost effective to just do the surgery instead of having to do two rounds of anesthesia. The mass seems like some kind of cyst but they have no idea if it’s cancerous or not due to the reasons I’ve just said. We will only know if she is able to get surgery. I don’t want to have to put her down if this is resolvable and can still live a healthy life when it’s treated.

The veterinarian wants to see her again in a week, on October 17th, and if I have the means by then she says she is willing to perform the surgery the same day. I have no idea how much I will be able to raise by then, but I’d like to at least try. Hopefully I can figure it out. If it takes longer, I just hope she will be able to handle it and not suffer; the longer she has this issue, the more likely the mass is to grow larger or the wound get infected/sepsis. The bandage is also extremely uncomfortable for her and she cannot fly or she will injure herself, so she can only walk around on the ground.

Anything helps; even if you do not have the means to donate, sharing is appreciated. I know that she is “just a bird” but she has been through so much with me in the past six years; I even moved across the country with her in 2020 when I left my hometown in Houston, Texas. I do not want to lose her prematurely and I hope that I can at least offset some of the cost if anyone wants to help.

Thank you everyone for your understanding, well wishes, and support, towards me, my partner, and Sputnik. I am grateful for it.