The full set of digital skull xrays will be this week at Blackland Prairie Raptor Center. No they don’t do anything but raptors, this is a very special favor. Since I don’t have a skull from a dead Ring Neck to make a model of the beak we will have to use xrays. Modeling of the 3D beak must be very exact. The exact dimensions of the beak, shape and thickness must be programmed into the computer that feeds the data to the printer to create the replacement beak.
Thickness of the skull will determine how and where the screws will be place to attach the beak. The thickness of the bone between the beak and brain is critical to prevent killing Sunny by screwing through the bone into her brain. The risks to her are significant, first from the anesthesia then from any attachment hardware.
Recognizing the risks and weighing them against the quality of life was my first hurdle to cross. I believe in quality of life, not quantity being the more valued commodity. This is my decision alone, whether or not to proceed.
UPDATE Not having a lot of success finding a doctor to replace Sunny’s beak. I spoke to an avain surgeon in California, that did the work in the picture above, that felt it had been too long since Sunny lost her beak. And his point was well taken, that Sunny is doing very well with is current care plan, and he recommended NOT doing beak replacement.
But not being one to accept a NO, I reached out to our dearly love Texas A&M!! The response was very fast from department heads at the Avain Veterinary Department. They don’t do beak replacement but the doctor mentioned that there was a conference of avain specialist coming up this fall in California, which he would attend and beak replacement, Sunny, would be discussed. The responsiveness by this doctor was heart warming. I remain eternally optimistic.
