Archie Caique Poorly

HKS

Regular Member
Hi guys

It's Heather, if you remember me... I have Archie and Phoebe Caiques

When I woke the birds up this morning Archie was unwell
Hes fluffed up, lethargic, vibrating feathers, watery poo

Tried all day to find an avian vet and settled for a vet with interest in avian, turns out she is doing an exotic certificate and was very clued up on the proper care needs of parrots

She offers bloods and xrays

Right before we made the appointment, archie flew across the room and after he landed he had a bad turn and went wobbly, he had to balance himself.
I picked him up and held him as I thought this was it...

We've just come out of the vets with antibiotics
She says body score is good, no discharge from anywhere

On the way to the vets in the car he regurgitated a bit of food up

He's trying to eat and drink a lot

I'm terrified he'd die under anesthetic doing bloods and xray, he was so weak even from flying a short distance

Could anyone shed some light? It's not respiratory
But she's talking about how parrots can have diseases and viruses that lay dormant for years and then can pop up when under stress

We've just moved house, I have been very careful to use low voc paints and waited till all fumes were gone before moving them in.
She says it could be the stress of a new home that's linked to this being unwell.

Any advice or ideas?

Any vitamin supplements I could try and pick up or order for next day?
 
Very sorry to hear that Archie is unwell, I hope someone here will be able to offer you some advice on what they feel may be a reason for this.
 
Vets is quite correct some diseases are dormant until bird becomes stressed. And it can be something as simple as a house move that can make it active. Nothing like painting etc will have made it pop up you haven't caused it to appear.
Birds as you know hide illness and when we notice things it's because it's overloading their system.
Blood in the poop is usually upper gastrointestinal when it's dark or black in colour which can be from as high up as the crop could be infection or an ulcer or a foreign body. Symptoms your describing sounds the likely cause to be bacterial so giving antibiotics is correct sometimes they also prescribe antifungals.
Tests would need to be performed to determine exact cause of its a gram stain issue, bacterial, east, foreign body , parasitic etc poop smears would also need to be looked at that would say either parasitic or yeast etc x-ray to eliminate foreign object and heavy metal poisoning (x-ray does actually show sparkles when it's this) is something was swallowed. Bloods would eliminate liver issues ,
Makes sure he's kept quiet and warm and doesn't exert himself. No messing with food or supplements keep everything as per usual make sure you give him his meds on time. Take a photo of the poo and send it to the vet additional information in a timely manner can help the vet to cross off things that they are considering as the issue or not as the case may be.
@HKS
 
@DizzyBlue have contacted vet and told her about the blood

She says could be metal toxicity or virus

To do the antibiotics for a few days, if no improvement then can do an xray

He seems to strain and make a squeek when he's pooing
It looks painful almost
 
Do as vet says don't deviate from instructions I know it's stressing you out but try to stay calm your stress will be picked up by him.
Could be dehydration that's causing the strain of even trying to pass something he's swallowed. As hard as it is to watch try not to react. You may have to go back tomorrow or the day after depending on how he's doing but got to give those antibiotics time to kick in
 
Any tips for getting 0.1ml of baytril into him?
Can I put it in some juice if he drinks it all?

Struggling with the syringe
 
As long as he takes ALL of it you can mix it with whatever is palatable
I just towel and syringe it into the beak (never down the throat and always into the left side of the birds beak never the right side)
 
That's the birds left not your left .... If you follow my meaning.... Errr pretend your the bird to work out the left!
 
He's pooing excessively now

He's done about 4 or 5 poos in the time that Phoebe hasn't even done 1

But it's just a small amount of water, not a proper poo obviously as its too frequent

He's moving around actively, trying to argue with phoebe on the other side of the divider but it takes it out of him and he sits for a rest
 
That's a couple of things ticked off possibilities then so that's a good thing helps narrow down the fields of possibilities
 
Back
Top Bottom