Caryl

Well we had a fantastic weekend and met many fellow fish keepers. Thanks Navarre for hosting us for lunch and showing us your fish room etc. Thanks to the Totally Tanked members for joining us on most of the shop crawl and to those who showed us their tanks too. It was great to meet our Auckland member, Adodge and her husband, and MarkLB. I like putting a face to the name 8) Thanks DonnaM for opening your home for us in the evening for a delicious BBQ. I hope Milo has recovered from the onslaught! We came home with quite a number of fish and plants (plus a new bird and large cage with accessories). Good thing we took 2 vehicles in the end!!! :bounce: Thanks to all involved in making it such a fun (if expensive) weekend - from Caryl, Grant, Ken, Deidre, Joe, Ryan and Paul At some points we had all the above plus Alanmin4304, carznkats, humvee, bdspider, DonnaM, jenniferh & wilson with us too. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves as well. We must do it again sometime! :lol:

Well, there may or may not have been an improvement over the weekend but he is still a very sick bird. I want to take him back to the vet on Monday to make the decision of whether to continue treatment or put him out of his misery but I feel he is not going to get any quality of life from now on and, if we are right about the tumour, getting over the pneumonia is not going to help as the tumour is killing him anyway Now is probably not the time to say this but we bought another bird today (Grant fell in love instantly). We now have a maroon bellied conure which we haven't named yet. It has a very big cage and stand and a lot of toys. We will not tell Bud though as he will think we don't love him anymore and that isn't so :-? Of course, if he makes a miraculous recovery he will get to meet it eventually but at the moment he is still with his grandparents.

Kerry

thirst

We are in ChCh this weekend so rang mum to check on him. No change I am afraid. I htink we wil get the vet to euthanase him on Monday

It is DELICIOUS!!!! I speak from experience here as I have tasted wok's ganache icing. The chocolate cake underneath it was sublime too

Beautiful

We haven't left yet (go in the morning) but he is worse If he is still alive on Monday I think we will have him put down by the vet as he is obviously suffering. He can only fly short distances and I am now pretty sure there is an underlying tumour causing the rest of the problems as I think I can see it from certain angles (either that or he has developed a beer gut) He still has a raspy breath and is breathing very heavily and sitting uncomfortably. He is still eating but otherwise just sleeps. Today he spent quite a bit of time on the cage floor rather than his perch - not a good sign He can't die today cos it's my birthday! :-?

Great pics! Thanks for sharing

I have found my font size increases when I put my glasses on 8)

Definitely Let it rest 10 minutes or so, the sides will shrink away from the tin. Ice when cold. Eat immediately as it will go off otherwise :lol: So, you using chocolate or banan flavoured icing? 8) There is a thread somewhere here on the "proper" icing for banana cake :lol:

pain

Hiya Ras, check out the MAC trip to ChCh thread under the FNZAS club section. Our club in Marlborough is heading to ChCh tomorrow to do a crawl around the shops, and a private home tank or three. Perhaps you would like to meet up with us at some point and join in. There is also going to be a BBQ at DonnaM's place (she has mowed the lawn especially) so you would also get to meet some fellow local fishkeepers

OK I am now locking this thread. It has gone off topic and everyone has had their say (some more than once). I know some of the shops mentioned have taken on board some of the issues raised and have also appreciated that the repeat customers have been kind enough to express their positive views as well.

I have no idea but I would like to know why they can't just share the hedge??? :lol:

Well he had his 3rd dose tonight and I think he may be showing a slight improvement. He is quite alert this evening, threw some things off the bench (for the first time in several days) and is currently having some banana with Grant as an American vet friend suggested pumpkin and banana were good for constipation. I think he is looking a little cleaner tonight too. His poo looks like it normally does and is a mix of black and white. I suspect the black may actually be a dark green but my eyesight is not what it used to be. :roll: Come to think of it, although I can still hear him breathing, I don't think it is as loud or rattling sounding (but I could be kidding myself) and he has not sneezed today (that I noticed). Before we started the meds he was sneezing a lot. Thanks for all your suggestions and help. His grandparents are going to look after him and give him his meds on Saturday. If he dies while we are away mum said she will bury him in the garden. This is good as we don't have a garden to bury him in (ours is all bark chipped, hers is easy to dig in! :lol: But, feathers crossed, he may be improving :bounce:

I have had an Animates card for years but never received any emails (and I would have added my email I am sure, if there was a place for it). Perhaps I signed up before email was invented :lol:

No idea. Can't imagine needing one. Probably won't get one as I have yet to buy an i anything I still only use my mobile to text people (and send a max of 3 messages per week).

Sorry to hear after you tried so hard to save him too. I know nothing about seahorses but do know a lot can go wrong during birth so I suspect this was the case with your poor fella

Joe, the junior member we have coming with us, has some flag cichlids, Laetacara curviceps, for sale and is willing to bring them down with him if anyone in the ChCh area would like some. He is hoping to get $5 each for them (probably so he can buy more fish). PM me if you are interested please, and how many. I believe this is a pic of one of the adults...

Microworms are very small. Grindals are bigger and white worms are bigger again.

Thanks Jenniferh. I am worried as his back end is looking very dirty and he is normally a clean bird. He is definitely pooing but a lot seems to be sticking around the vent and he still looks a little blocked. Do peas work on budgies? If not, what else?

Never thought of it from that view smidey. I was assuming the fish had been dying :roll:

OK, would all those wanting updates on our whereabouts please PM me your cell phone numbers? Some in the YB have 2 and I don't know which is yours and which is the partner's. I will preload you into my phone so when I get a text saying "where are you?" I know who is asking 8) If I can figure out how to send the same message to multiple people (I think I have done it once before on my old phone) I will keep those interested updated on where we are as we travel. Perhaps Navarre can post our progress online once he has a good idea what time we will arrive at his place for our picnic lunch. If you want to start there with us, contact Navarre for his address and bring a picnic lunch with you (for yourself, not something to share with all)

I don't know about grumpy but a lot seem to think they know more than they actually do and assume they know more than the shop assistant :roll: As said, we are all human, we all have good days and bad days, good points and bad points and what one person likes about something will be the same reason another hates it. I feel sorry for all the shop owners out there who have to put up with dealing with the general public who, en masse, are usually more ignorant than the assistants :roll: