Blue_Seas
Regular Member
Hi all, I didn’t want to post on the “in memory” forum as it’s more a health… I don’t know. Ramble, vent. My sweet boy Charlie passed on Tuesday, we made the incredibly difficult decision to put him to sleep.
I’m going through the usual things; questioning, trying to see patterns that may simply have been old age. He was 12 years old, last seen by a vet in October as he had some regurgitation (not vomiting) issues. He wasn’t bringing anything up but I noticed him trying to extend and sort of retch a bit.
He otherwise seemed fine. He had good condition when they felt his muscles, some slight mucous on his nostrils were concerning me.
He had a previous CT scan (when he did have the regurgitation problems first that did bring something up; that was so scary) that showed a slight mass or inflammation about 2 years ago around his liver, possibly enlarged spleen. Actually reading his history now they have written “increased radiopacity of both femurs (poss female under ovarian activity?)” but I don’t remember them telling me this… he had blood and faeces tests taken at the time, nothing noted.
At our current vet, I think he had more testing done (again, normal) but no more CT scans. Things were seeming fine. His behaviour was possibly a bit sleepier than usual, droppings weren’t my favourite colour but he otherwise seemed well and I occasionally supplemented with milk thistle for his liver. Attributed to old(er?) age. I know cockatiels can live to 30, and he was only 12. I read mixed reports which say 10-15 is their lifespan… he was a pet shop bird, lutino, on pellets most of his life, plenty of outside cage time for socialising and some exercise.
I noticed his left wing drooped randomly once in February, resolved in a few days so didn’t take to vet. Kicking myself now as that could have been the first sign of the tumour they discovered this past weekend. But travelling, being handled by the vet especially, incredibly stressed him out (breathing and heart rate) so I didn’t want to take him in unless he had to be. Similarly I opted for no investigative x rays, ct scans or surgeries after his last one as I thought he may not survive the stress.
The tumour discovery blindsided us. On Saturday I noticed his breathing rate had increased, he was fluffed up and only sleeping, tail bobbing. The vet examined him and brought me out to feel a huge tumour on his lower abdomen (it had a heartbeat!). His condition had drastically declined - I could feel his front chest bone, but as his weight hadn’t changed and I don’t know how to check muscles, I hadn’t noticed him losing muscle density. He hadn’t lost any weight, either, despite losing condition (so, weight of the tumour). Vet thought it could be lipoma, and we would treat for his respiratory issues and then after that discuss palliative care as I think they also thought surgery or further investigations would be too much.
I didn’t know that we wouldn’t get to treat the respiratory problems and go in to keeping him comfortable - he just kept declining, even with another vet visit and medication to help his breathing it was clear that it wasn’t the infection that was making it hard for him to breathe, it was this tumour pressing on his lungs.
He was very bad on Tuesday, one day after trying his new meds. I enquired at the vet should those meds be having an effect, and they weren’t but should have been if it was an infection causing the breathing problems and not the tumour. His breathing got worse and I booked in locally to have him put to sleep. At the last minute, I noticed his vent area seemed swollen, and I knew his tail feathers really hadn’t grown back there for a while (again, attributed to old age). I wondered could it have been an egg, and as a last effort we went to the avian vets who were able to x-Ray him (I believe without anaesthetic). The vet said if it were an egg or calcified egg, they would have been able to see it (and if it were, I know egg binding surgeries can be risky and they already said he would be high risk for any surgery). They couldn’t see anything and so we did goodbyes.
I of course now wonder if I had brought him in February, would they have noticed anything without a CT scan? Or before that, when I was hesitant to stress him out further? Even if they’d seen it, or felt it, could anything have been done? Maybe they could have reduced its size, maybe it was cancerous (it appeared SO suddenly) and chemotherapy could have helped. At least I would have known, and been slightly more prepared. I did not want him to be stressed though. How did the tumour cause these issues so quickly (within DAYS), did anyone else experience this?
I’m going through the usual things; questioning, trying to see patterns that may simply have been old age. He was 12 years old, last seen by a vet in October as he had some regurgitation (not vomiting) issues. He wasn’t bringing anything up but I noticed him trying to extend and sort of retch a bit.
He otherwise seemed fine. He had good condition when they felt his muscles, some slight mucous on his nostrils were concerning me.
He had a previous CT scan (when he did have the regurgitation problems first that did bring something up; that was so scary) that showed a slight mass or inflammation about 2 years ago around his liver, possibly enlarged spleen. Actually reading his history now they have written “increased radiopacity of both femurs (poss female under ovarian activity?)” but I don’t remember them telling me this… he had blood and faeces tests taken at the time, nothing noted.
At our current vet, I think he had more testing done (again, normal) but no more CT scans. Things were seeming fine. His behaviour was possibly a bit sleepier than usual, droppings weren’t my favourite colour but he otherwise seemed well and I occasionally supplemented with milk thistle for his liver. Attributed to old(er?) age. I know cockatiels can live to 30, and he was only 12. I read mixed reports which say 10-15 is their lifespan… he was a pet shop bird, lutino, on pellets most of his life, plenty of outside cage time for socialising and some exercise.
I noticed his left wing drooped randomly once in February, resolved in a few days so didn’t take to vet. Kicking myself now as that could have been the first sign of the tumour they discovered this past weekend. But travelling, being handled by the vet especially, incredibly stressed him out (breathing and heart rate) so I didn’t want to take him in unless he had to be. Similarly I opted for no investigative x rays, ct scans or surgeries after his last one as I thought he may not survive the stress.
The tumour discovery blindsided us. On Saturday I noticed his breathing rate had increased, he was fluffed up and only sleeping, tail bobbing. The vet examined him and brought me out to feel a huge tumour on his lower abdomen (it had a heartbeat!). His condition had drastically declined - I could feel his front chest bone, but as his weight hadn’t changed and I don’t know how to check muscles, I hadn’t noticed him losing muscle density. He hadn’t lost any weight, either, despite losing condition (so, weight of the tumour). Vet thought it could be lipoma, and we would treat for his respiratory issues and then after that discuss palliative care as I think they also thought surgery or further investigations would be too much.
I didn’t know that we wouldn’t get to treat the respiratory problems and go in to keeping him comfortable - he just kept declining, even with another vet visit and medication to help his breathing it was clear that it wasn’t the infection that was making it hard for him to breathe, it was this tumour pressing on his lungs.
He was very bad on Tuesday, one day after trying his new meds. I enquired at the vet should those meds be having an effect, and they weren’t but should have been if it was an infection causing the breathing problems and not the tumour. His breathing got worse and I booked in locally to have him put to sleep. At the last minute, I noticed his vent area seemed swollen, and I knew his tail feathers really hadn’t grown back there for a while (again, attributed to old age). I wondered could it have been an egg, and as a last effort we went to the avian vets who were able to x-Ray him (I believe without anaesthetic). The vet said if it were an egg or calcified egg, they would have been able to see it (and if it were, I know egg binding surgeries can be risky and they already said he would be high risk for any surgery). They couldn’t see anything and so we did goodbyes.
I of course now wonder if I had brought him in February, would they have noticed anything without a CT scan? Or before that, when I was hesitant to stress him out further? Even if they’d seen it, or felt it, could anything have been done? Maybe they could have reduced its size, maybe it was cancerous (it appeared SO suddenly) and chemotherapy could have helped. At least I would have known, and been slightly more prepared. I did not want him to be stressed though. How did the tumour cause these issues so quickly (within DAYS), did anyone else experience this?
those can be visually sexed by cream bars on the underside tail feathers or cream on yellow underside spots on the underside of the wing both mean female lack of either of those mean male.
