False positive!

When I picked up my brand new beautiful baby Pippin from the breeder after a month of visiting and waiting on a Monday morning, I was so excited (natch). But wanting to be a responsible new bird mom, I went to the vet on the way home. We had a lovely visit, and wanting to be thorough, I had all the tests done without asking prices first.

FIRST WORD OF ADVICE: Ask prices first! We had severe sticker shock at the end of this lovely visit. But I digress.

Anyways, we brought him home, gave him our whole hearts, and proceeded to both train and spoil him. On the next Monday, my vet called with test results. In a kind way, he eased into the news that Pippin had great results in all areas but one: he had tested positive for PBFD (which stands for Psittacine Beak & Feather Disease) and is basically AIDS for birds. Some survive it, but a goodly number don't. If Pippin had it, there was a good chance that he wouldn't see his third birthday.

Wow. It was a shocker.

Furthermore, it's highly contagious. And you can't get rid of it by washing cages, toys, etc. No antiseptic known kills the disease. The test would seem to be nearly foolproof: it's a DNA test (like a pregnancy one) that picks up on elements that are either in the blood or they're not. Sigh.

Our first thought was really for our breeder: what about all their babies? When I called Tammy, though, she reassured me. The disease is indeed highly contagious, but they have a state of the art air purifier that catches a lot of diseases and kills them (hospitals use it). She told me that they swab for this and other contaminates five times a year, as a precaution, and they had just swabbed his cage area and the air purifier and had negative results the week before we took Pippin home. Furthermore, two green-cheeked conures had just gone from the adjacent cage to our vet's for the same test and come back negative.

We had Pippin retested last Tuesday, and sent the blood to Tammy's lab instead of the one our vet uses. Tammy independently sent blood from Pippin's two sisters (still in his cage) and a swab of the cage. Through a series of events, we all had to wait through the weekend. Trusting God can be a challenge, but God was gracious and I was filled with peace from the start of this trial that this was for our good and all would be well, according to his grace.

Well, the results just came back: NEGATIVE on all counts. No one has it. Not Pippin's sisters, not his cage, and not Pippin. We are SO relieved and happy: first for Tammy and Dave, but also for ourselves. We had really fallen for our boy; he is the sweetest bird ever. He sleeps late (first flocking calls at 8 AM!), cuddles and interacts, and is cute as they come. We just would have a hard time giving him up! No need though: all is well!

All this to say: if you are reading this blog for information, there are false positives for this test, so by all means have your bird retested if this scary result is given for your baby on the first well check!