I hope I posted this in the right section. I felt my question is more medical than bereavement related.
A few weeks ago, my Parrotlet got out of his cage and attacked by one of our cats. Please, before I get any hate (as I already have on other forums and already am mad enough at myself) please understand that we take every precaution we can having a bird and cats in the same house. They are never out in the same room, the cage is large and heavy, and we've modified extra locks to keep doors closed. But, after 14 years of never having a single accident, eventually we did. We took Birney to the vet immediately and got him some antibiotics, pain medication, and some ointment to help his wounds. He did great the next few weeks, healed up well, and we were starting to get back to normal life.
However, Wednesday evening I noticed he was a bit more tired than usual. I also noticed his right eye, the skin around it, looked darkened compared to his left. Thursday I noticed his eye was worse, and he was constipated (straining, poop stuck to his butt), the first time he's ever been sick in 14 years of life, so I made an appointment for the vet today, fearing it was related to his attack. (Fyi He is on high quality food, not junk, and receives fresh fruit and vegetables daily, so I didn't feel the constipation was food related but maybe)
This morning I wiped his bum clean and hand fed some fruit and veggies fearing he wasn't eating. However, I came home on my lunch break to discover he didn't make it past 11am.
My fiance was home and stated he was scratching his head and cuddling him, but he was acting very lethargic. He walked away for a minute (keeping Birney in his cage) and heard him fall from a perch halfway up his cage, dead on the bottom.
I called our diagnostic center to see how much an autopsy would be, which they estimated to be between $80-130. I don't mind spending that money on him if he were alive, and certainly did when he first got hurt, but am already planning to spend that money on cremating him, so don't think I can afford to get an autopsy done. Does anyone have any idea what could have happened? He has never been sick before in his life, so to come 2-3 weeks after a cat attack I'm sure it's related. But he was almost totally healed up and acting his fiesty self, to go from fine to dead in 2 days is beyond me. Viral infection from the cat's mouth that laid dormant for a few weeks maybe?
Thank you for any help. I am lost and desperately want to know what happened, but am juggling too many other financal issues to spend that money on an autopsy that wont really solve anything other than ease my mind.