Frogmouth

[den]

The phone rang at 7am. ugh

"HI DEN!" said Cheery Di. "This is your early morning wake up and rescue call!"

I didn't need this. I felt like crap after a bad night of coughing and wheezing. Di said the council ranger had found a sick frogmouth in Victoria Park, and I was the only one available to take the call. Another hour in bed wouldn't help since I'd be wheezing and coughing, so I might as well be up, doing something and wheezing and coughing.

The lawn was white with frost. I checked the thremometer: -2C outside. Oh goody.

First stop was at the mall to buy some cold and flu capsules. The pharmacy was closed but the supermarket was open. I hoped they had something stronger than asprin. They did! Apparetly. The box was labelled Night & Day Cold & Flu, but the list of ingredients were all herbal. Bugger. I wanted DRUGS, dammit! I needed something that would take to the symptoms with a cricket bat and would make my head go "Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-POP!" I didn't want something to sit beside the symptom and tell it that what it was doing was really really uncool, man.

So I bought the hippie drugs, a bottle of soda water and a packet of crisps, called that Breakfast and went looking for the bird. I found the ranger after ten minutes of wandering around Victoria Park. He was being intimidated by a fully grown frogmouth. The bird was snapping its huge beak and flaring it's wings. It was doing everything except trying to get away: not a good sign. He started telling me about how he found it, then he paused and said "There he goes again." The frogmoth had closed his eyes and was doubled over in pain. The spasm passed and he went back to his Big Scary Frogmouth poses.

"Oh boy," I muttered.

"What?"

"I think it's poisoned. It probably picked up a sick mouse. Have you laid rat baits anywhere?"

The poor ranger looked upset. They'd laid rat-sak in one of the storage sheds. Ugh. Bloody warfarin. I told the ranger about one of the local pest cortol companies that sells a non-heomorragic bait that doesn't cause secondary poisoning. The poor bloke looked really upset and I told him that very few people realise the secondary poisong effects, and at least the bird has a chance now that I could get it to a vet. I'll know later how the bird is doing. If it really is poisoned I don't have much hope it'll survive.

Two hours had passed and the hippy drug wad not helped my cold. On the way home I called in at a pharmacy and bought a packet of "Die You Filthy Microscopic Bastards" containing codeine and pseudoephedrin. I feel much better now.

Comments

[hedgegoth.livejournal.com]

poor bird.

And I want some codeine. NOW. Bloody cold has been visiting different parts of my body for a week and has now taken residence up in my lungs. Can't breathe, can't talk, and the nyquil is not helping.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Wow. You can get codeine without a perscription there?

Between that and the warfarin, this was Pharm 101 Day.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

You can only buy limited amounts at any one time. But the pseudoephedrin is the one: get enough tabs with it and you can cook up amphetemines.

[hedgegoth.livejournal.com]

Same in Canada - you can get over the counter aspirin with a bit of codeine (not as much as tylenol 3 but better than regular aspirin) called 222s, the theraflu equivalent has a bit, the good cough syrups do as well.

American meds are wimpy

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

Here you can only buy three packets of certain OTC medicines per adult, because they can be used in meth manufacturing labs (aka illegal high risk explosive death traps), and they can make you sign and produce i.d for it as well.

You realize that ephedrine comes from ephedra, which is a plant, right:D?
Hope the raptor is o.k. Poisoning pidgeons has the same effect on hawks here; I wish there were more options availible where pidgeons are concerned so that predators wouldn't be killed needlessly as well.

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

True. If you could get effective over-the-counter meds, after all, you'd never pay prescription prices to treat Just Another Cold. And if you cut the drug industry's profits, what would happen to our political system?

On the other hand, there are compensations. If I remember correctly, Canadian Mountain Dew doesn't even have CAFFEINE. Drinks without caffeine? What's the point?

:)

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

Solution 1: Many more hawks.

Solution 2: Scope-sighted RWS-Diana .177-cal. pellet rifle. phaTOONK!

Whichever you did, though, people would complain. Alas.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

First stop was at the mall to buy some cold and flu capsules. The pharmacy was closed but the supermarket was open. I hoped they had something stronger than asprin. They did! Apparetly. The box was labelled Night & Day Cold & Flu, but the list of ingredients were all herbal. Bugger. I wanted DRUGS, dammit! I needed something that would take to the symptoms with a cricket bat and would make my head go "Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-POP!" I didn't want something to sit beside the symptom and tell it that what it was doing was really really uncool, man.

Heh. Do you mind if I put this up on metaquotes?

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Canada, too. Last time I was in BC, I tried to pick some up, but it was OTC literally -- one must ask the pharmacist to hand it over the counter, but it's available without a prescription, and when I had access to the market, the pharmacy counter was closed.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

In California, codeine is prescription-only, but you can only buy limited pseudophedrin at one time because of the amphetamines issue.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Poor froggiemouth. Warfarin is indeed a nasty thing.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I don't mind at all!

[kamau-d-lyon.livejournal.com]

Dang, sorry to hear about the cold and the bird. I hope the meds help you out. I'd agree with you about the chances of the bird surviving however. Hopefully the rangers will switch to the other bait.

[tropism.livejournal.com]

Yep. Somehow having critters writhing in spastic pain as they die is better than a quick high-velocity slug to the brain/heart. I actually remember hearing of a huge stink in a Texan animal shelter -- they'd decided that it was just cheaper to put down dogs with a pistol shot to the back of the head than lethal injections. Massive public-relations shit-storm resulted. ;)

[red-frog.livejournal.com]

We were rather taken aback when we discovered that rat poison is a heart med.

[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

Poor bird. :(

Glad you're feeling better though!

"Die You Filthy Microscopic Bastards"

HEE! :)

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Digitalis is also poisonous. Chemistry is . . . weird.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

It's an anti-coagulant to dissolve clots. Weird

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

It should be noted here that the lethal injections used by vets and animal shelters do not leave the animal "writhing in spastic pain as it dies", so this is a viciously inaccurate characterization.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[fire-storm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but like you said, it relieves the symptoms, and that is all that's important!

[kayshapero]

Poor beasties - you and the bird... Get well... and do keep us posted on the poor frogmouth. The LA zoo has a couple of them on display; two untidy bundles of grey feathers perched on a branch who move just often enough to make it clear they *aren't* stuffed. Or maybe they are stuffed as in have had quite enough to eat today so have no reason to do anything but sit there. Of course it IS daytime when I get to see them; I've no idea what they may get up to at night. I rather like them, though I'm not sure why.

When Vicky decided to run an Australian character in a Hogwarts based on-line rpg, he had a tawny frogmouth instead of an owl. When she described the critter, the Oz contingent recognized it at once, while the rest of the players were thoroughly Confused.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

It's rare to see them move at all during the day. They Become the branch and radiate a "Just a stick here. Move along!" aura.

[targaff.livejournal.com]

I discovered once - after a trip to the dentist for an extraction, whereafter she told me to get anything but aspirin - that you can buy it over the counter here in the UK, too.

My mum (nurse) wasn't that impressed to find I was using it as quick pain relief for headaches, though...

[kythrain.livejournal.com]

What Starcat said... lethal injection just puts the animal into a normal sleep from which they won't wake up.

[kythrain.livejournal.com]

Bummer about that frogmouth. I hope it works out ok and the rangers switch to a different rat poison. And with first the kite and now this frogmouth, keep this up and they'll have you doing bird rehab in no time. ;)

Hopefully your head will clear out soon.

[jenny_evergreen]

That (and its related note at the end of the post) was tear-inducing funny. :)

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I have signed up for the Raptor Rehab course to be held next year. I might actually have some proper cages by then.

[red-frog.livejournal.com]

Yup. Made perfect sense, but it was a bit weird first of all to realize how the rat poison worked (ick) and to realize that ingesting rat poison was a good idea.

[kythrain.livejournal.com]

Nifty. I hope that goes well for you.

[tropism.livejournal.com]

Naw. I was talking about the use of poisons to kill wild critters like pigeons and rats at that point. Yeah, lethal injections used by vets and such are very humane, but warfarin, etc, certainly are not.