I just now saw this. Holy crap I am crying so hard I can't even see the screen.
@Hankmacaw I hope with everything I've got that Jasper is doing better now.
FYI to anyone else thinking about having imping done- there is an alternative too. I looked in to imping for Tulip since her previous owners absolutely destroyed her feathers with the worst clip ever performed. My vet, who is experienced in imping, said it wouldn't work for Tulip because she likes to pull on her wing feathers with her feet. Pulling on the donor feathers would make them fall out, and then we'd be right back where we started.
She suggested an alternative procedure. Tulip was sedated, and our vet pulled out 4-5 of the clipped flight feathers on each wing. They applied pressure to make sure any bleeding was fully stopped. Then they gave her a shot of pain meds and woke her back up. Entire procedure took less then 5 minutes. They gave her an injection of pain meds while she was anesthetized, so i never had to fight with her to give her medicine. Tulip seemed a little sore for the rest of that afternoon, but it never affected her appetite or anything and by the next morning she was 100% herself again.
Pulling out the clipped feathers stimulated Tulip's body to produce new ones. With a month she had started to grow all new wing feathers where the clipped ones had been pulled. And since there were 4-5 feathers growing in all at the same time, they were able to support each other and she didn't break any of them off.
Now 8 wks later she has nearly completely regrown all of those feathers and she's not falling and hurting herself all the time anymore! It wasn't expensive either- only $75 for the whole she-bang. It was so quick, easy, and painless I'm taking her back in next week to have 5 more feathers done one each wing. When those grow back in, she should have full flight capabilities- only 12 wks from when we started all this! Left to their own devices, those feathers could have taken 2 years to grow back in!
This procedure might not be right for everybirdie, but it has been a miracle worker for Tulip. If you have a bird with flight feather issues, definitely discuss this option with your vet.