A friend of birds and exotic animals

Doc Tyson (left) claps to encourage Max, a macaw, to spread his wings. Photos: TNS

Susan Tyson’s fourth patient of the day needed his (previously problematic) zinc level checked, so Tyson leaned over the tiny blue lovebird, inserted a needle into his jugular vein, and withdrew a few drops of blood. The bird, whose full name is Archibald Whitmore Macleish, weighs just 49g. For him, any blood loss is a lot of blood loss.

“You got this, Arch,” said Sam Kelly, Archie’s human mother, from the corner of the Avian & Exotic Philly Vet exam room in Philadelphia, the United States. She long believed Archie was a male bird, until a few years ago when he decided to lay an egg, which became stuck inside his body and caused a considerable amount of trouble.