- So while I was traveling and doing some master classes,
Rocko's vet was keeping me up to date every single evening,
and if she wasn't calling me personally,
then one of the students at the university
was calling me with an update.
And things were just kind of up and down,
but looking pretty hopeful.
They got the monitoring apparatus to work on his thigh.
They got a total of, I think,
four or five days of data collection from that.
That thing's pretty darn cool,
and I think it has a battery life of two weeks,
and then a lifetime life of about two or three years.
I wanna, I can't totally remember now
off the top of my head,
but pretty amazing little device.
And they found that it was more accurate
than how they were testing,
so, this little thing was making a huge difference
on being less invasive.
So he wasn't getting poked and prodded too much,
which I think made a huge difference.
And my vet actually told me at one point, she's like,
"I think that we're gonna be
"having a conversation next time you come
"about when he might be able to come home."
And that, honestly, was the news that I needed
to be able to edit the videos
that you guys have already seen.
I...
As much as I wanted the information out there,
it was really hard to
relive those particular moments.
And so when I had this good news
I was just kind of on a high.
And even though I bawled my eyes out
while I was editing those,
I had the capacity to do it
because I was just picturing all the things.
I was picturing like, how I was gonna grow as a person.
And learn to give him insulin every day
if that's what he required and what he needed.
I was just gonna do whatever it took.
And I was really excited to get home.
And so we got home, and then...
I couldn't visit him over the weekend
because the weekends are just kind of
off limits there.
And then I got this phone call.
And it just rocked my world.
(bright music)
- [Vet] But as soon as I showed
that little bit of blood work to the,
to our internal medicine folks,
so they're like, "Oh shoot.
"You know, potassium is way low."
Over the course of the day, you know,
we kept a really, really close eye of course, on his,
on his glucose
to make sure that we didn't end up having to fight
two things at once.
- Yeah.
- [Vet] 'Cause he was not,
like I said, he wasn't really wanting to eat
very well on his own.
And his glucose stayed very reasonable.
So I think that we were
able to keep that part pretty well under control.
And so the big thing that we're doing right now
is the potassium supplement.
If that's gonna help him,
I would expect that to really kind of kick in
over the course of the next day or so.
- Okay.
- [Vet] Like I would expect him to be starting to do
significantly better,
you know, by, kind of by midday tomorrow I would think.
And we ran that CBC that you and I had been talking about.
- Yeah.
- [Vet] And his white blood cell count was very, very high.
So can't say for sure
if that's inflammatory or infectious,
but we changed his antibiotic
to make sure that if there is something going on,
that hopefully we're covering for it.
Because I think, I wanna say that
most toucans were hanging out at around like 10
for their white blood cell count,
and he was up at about 34.
But I, you know, I don't know
that there's gonna be a whole heck of a lot more
that we can tweak
that we aren't already tweaking.
And so I think that he's going to,
he's gonna either respond to that
and respond to that fairly quickly,
or if it's not enough,
I think we're gonna know that pretty quickly as well.
So...
I...
I think that most likely,
you know, we're gonna come in tomorrow
and our friend is still gonna be hanging in there with us.
And I've got a couple checks set up for him overnight
with the ICU folks.
I would be lying if I,
if I didn't tell you that there is a small chance that,
you know, we may come in tomorrow
and find that our friend has passed away.
Again, I don't think that that's what's gonna happen,
but this,
this a bad day.
You were feeding what was recommended.
- Yeah, it doesn't mean it's right.
- [Vet] I don't know for sure if there's--
Like I, again, I bet that sometime
in the next 10 to 20 years,
somebody hammers down exactly what needs to be changed
on a toucan's diet in captivity.
But that doesn't mean that you did anything wrong
because you were doing,
you were staying current with the most current literature
and knowledge that was available.
- Okay.
I will work on getting there tomorrow,
and hopefully he's feeling better and surprises us all.
- [Vet] Fingers crossed.
We'll be thinking about him overnight.
- All right.
Well, thank you.
- [Vet] Of course, thank you.
You take care.
- All right. Bye.
- [Vet] Bye.
(cries)
So we got the call last night,
and I almost picked up and drove last night
other than I was a total disaster and couldn't function.
So we got up early, and Capri came with me.
And we're here to see Rocko and see what's going on.
And it's a little after 8:00 a.m.,
which is when they open.
So hopefully we have the best chance of seeing him
if he made it through the night,
which we're really hoping, so.
So we just got in,
and they're recognizing us now.
We've been here so much.
And the good news is, he made it through the night
and sounded like he was really trying to
do stuff this morning.
So they're grabbing him for us.
I can't wait to see him.
So we're here with Rocko,
and the bottom of his beak is so much darker.
It's really weird.
I've never seen this before.
It doesn't look as dry,
but like the skin around his eyes isn't as full.
It's like sunken in.
It's light, it's peely on the other side.
He doesn't use his one foot anymore.
It's where the apparatus is for the reader
for his glucose.
He like, doesn't use it.
It's starting to look really bad and really swollen.
He's looking really bad.
And so now you guys can see from this side like,
he has that mount on his one foot.
Oh, bud.
So he can barely balance.
He's super quiet.
He's not talking at all.
And that foot.
Oh my gosh, that foot.
I hate that.
It's huge.
Like, the toes are huge.
Everything's swollen.
He just looks horrible.
He looks horrible.
And she was telling me like,
this is good for how he's been the last couple days.
This is super bad.
Look at his beak.
Do you see how dark it is underneath?
Like, so not right.
And he has like these spots on the top,
but I can't get 'em to show up on camera very well.
But he has like these spots.
I don't even know how to explain it.
I'm like, I don't know.
He can barely get around at all.
So, so hard to watch.
And I just showed him to Dave and,
Dave thinks his quality of life right now is terrible.
I agree with that.
It's just a really rough realization.
Bless you.
He like, can't even stand and balance on his own.
And he is not eating
unless you actually physically put it in his beak.
He won't grab anything out of a bowl anymore.
Oh, come on bud, you can do it.
Oh, look!
Well, they told me he wouldn't grab anything out of a bowl
and that you had to physically put it in his beak.
And he hadn't done it until just the second.
Can you do it again?
That was awesome.
There's more of your favorites in there.
There's more of your favorites.
Can you do it again?
(Rocko sneezing)
What's with the sneezing?
And sad thing is, is that's like an amazing sign
that he took one berry out of a bowl and fed himself.
You know, kind of tells you how bad it is.
Come on, can you do it again please?
Good job, rockstar.
Good job, bud.
(Rocko sneezing)
And just that after seeing him and everything,
we've decided to put him down.
(cries)
It's just not enough of quality of life for him left.
He can't use his feet.
He's starting to lose circulation in his beak.
I just can't do this.
I can't watch him die slowly.
I can't watch him suffer.
When I first got here,
he was like shaking and,
he's not anymore.
And he's just been playing with this Kleenex box adorably,
and pulling Kleenex out of it.
And they said they haven't seen that at all,
and that he's obviously really happy right now.
(cries)
I'm gonna miss him so much.
(cries)
We love you, buddy.
We love you so much.
I hope you knew that all the time.
The best toucan in the whole world.
Forever and always, okay.
You don't have to keep fighting after today.
Oh my God, I love you so much Rocko.
I'm gonna miss you so much.
(cries)
I love you.
(soft music)
- Thank you to all of you who gave us Rocko.
He was the most precious gift
and I wouldn't take it back for the world.
All the moments that he shared and,
and how much awareness his life is gonna bring
to so many people.
I've already been asked by
a lot of important resources through this process
for the data that was collected
during all of his treatment.
And I know that sharing that
is going to bring a better understanding
for future care of toucans
and understanding more about them.
I feel proud that he was
the first bird to ever wear these glucose monitors.
Up until Rocko, they had only had those
in use on cats and dogs.
And so,
my vet had told me that he was gonna...
That he is going to be mentioned in
the scientific journals.
And talked about at the conferences and just...
People have a lot to learn
and have more options now
for avian care and avian understanding.
I've donated his body.
By request so that they can,
learn more.
And we're having a necropsy performed
to try to collect as much information as we can.
So I'll be sharing that
with the whole world
on whatever information that gives us.
And then they'll give me his ashes
that I can plant this summer
to honor him.
He is the best.
Thank you all for bringing him into my life.
I would've never had him
if it hadn't been for all of you guys.
Literally getting me a toucan, who does that?
Please don't do that again.
But thank you, seriously.
He brought so much joy to our lives.
I love him a lot.
I'll always love him.
Sounds silly but,
I kept the Kleenex box
that he played with at the vet office.