Help, budgie losing feathers

ChristinaTFSI · Dec 18, 2018

Hi everyone!

My female budgie is losing feathers! And no, it is not molting unfortunately. I took her to the vet but he said that she doesn't have anything (he didn't even examine her even though I asked him to do it.) She is literally loosing a TON of her feathers... I don't know what it could be so that's why I thought I would ask you. There isn't another vet anywhere near me sadly. Have you any idea what it could be and what should I do?

My male budgie is also pretty bad
He stays puffed up all time and his droppings are lose from time to time. The vet told me that he isn't sick (I think he is definitely sick however) and he says that it is because he is stressed and told me to give him probiotics.

I am very sad for both of them and I can't do anything to help them since my vet turned out to be the worst vet in the world, even though he is a CAV. Any ideas what can I do?? Thanks a lot

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ChristaNL · Dec 18, 2018

Speaking of worlds... where are you?

Maybe we can find you another CAV nearby or set you up with an e-consult somehow.
(Any chance you have some pictures for us? You can use IMGUR -> its free, if you have trouble posting them directly.)

So sorry your CAV is not doing great.

Laurasea · Dec 18, 2018

Loose dropping in a budgie is as abnormal as you can get! Sorry you got an unmotivated vet! Can you post pictures of feather loss? Does she have bald spots, us she pulling them or are they falling out? Is she nesting or laying eggs?

EllenD · Dec 18, 2018

I agree, it doesn't at all sound like your vet is a Certified Avian Vet, maybe he's an Exotics Vet calling himself an "Avian Vet", but if he didn't even examine your bird, and he just told you that the other one is "fine" being fluffed-up all the time and having chronically loose droppings and he didn't just automatically take a fecal-sample and send a culture out and do microscopy on it in his office, then he either doesn't have a clue what he's doing, or he's just lazy, or both...

The first question I would ask you is you've got 2 Budgies, is that all the birds you have living in your home? Are you certain that you've got a male and a female? And if so, are they mating/breeding? Is the female laying eggs or has she laid any eggs?

****If you could post some photos of both of them, but specifically the female who is losing the feathers, that would be helpful...They lose their feathers for a number of different reasons, and in a number of different ways. You said it's not molting, but how do you know? If she is losing a lot of feathers from all over her body and not just from one specific spot or spots, then it may very well be molting...Or does she actually have any bald/thin spots? Do you ever see her pulling feathers out? And if she has been laying eggs during this same time period, they do often pull their feathers out to make a nest, just throwing that out there...Also, if she's been laying eggs, they often become nutritionally deficient and lost a lot of weight in a very short amount of time...

***As far as your male goes, it's not at all normal for them to stay "fluffed-up" all the time, usually the reason they do that is because they are not feeling well and they are being very lethargic and sleeping more than usual because they are sick...And if he's having chronically loose-droppings (and not eating a bunch of fresh fruit or veggies right before the loose droppings every time), then chances are that he has some kind of GI Infection, either Bacterial or Fungal, but the only way to know is to have a Vet do a Fecal-Culture and Microscopy, which is the easiest, most basic test an Avian Vet will run, and they run them all day long, every day. So that's the only way to get a proper diagnosis on what is causing the infection and what medication will treat it correctly (don't just allow this vet to put your bird on an antibiotic without first doing a Fecal Culture and a Gram-Stain, because if it's a fungal/yeast infection, the antibiotics will not help, and they will probably make it much worse)...

You can always give your birds a daily Avian Probiotic supplement, I give my birds one every day, but that is not a treatment/cure for a GI fungal/yeast infection, and will do nothing to help a Bacterial GI infection at all...So you definitely need to find a different Avian Vet asap, because once they start showing outward signs/symptoms like this, they've usually been sick for a long time..

We can help you find a proper Avian Vet if you let us know what city/state you live in/near...

GaleriaGila · Dec 18, 2018

Most of us swear by our avian vets in the event of health concerns. I don't know where you are, but here are some links. I only have USA info...
Certified Avian Vets
https://abvp.com/animal-owners/find-an-abvp-specialist/
If none are near you...
Avian Veterinarians
http://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803
In my opinion, any of the vets listed here should be better than a regular vet.

ChristinaTFSI · Dec 21, 2018

ChristaNL said:
Speaking of worlds... where are you?

Maybe we can find you another CAV nearby or set you up with an e-consult somehow.
(Any chance you have some pictures for us? You can use IMGUR -> its free, if you have trouble posting them directly.)

So sorry your CAV is not doing great.

Thank you for responding and sorry I haven't replied earlier but my phone crushed and I had to fix it.

I asked in a Facebook group related to parrots if anyone knew a CAV in my area but there isn't anyone...

Thankfully my female budgie that has the feather problem is okay now... I was very worried about her and thought that she was loosing feathers NOT because of molting, because she would lose about 20+ feathers in just one hour. And that seemed very weird to me. Well, I guess I was wrong! After about two days she stopped losing feathers and she is okay now!

**HOWEVER
My male budgie is still fluffed up and has loose droppings. I am very sad about him and I don't know what to do.

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ChristinaTFSI · Dec 21, 2018

Laurasea said:
Loose dropping in a budgie is as abnormal as you can get! Sorry you got an unmotivated vet! Can you post pictures of feather loss? Does she have bald spots, us she pulling them or are they falling out? Is she nesting or laying eggs?

Thank you for responding!

No she wasnt nesting. Her feathers were kinda falling out. Now she is okay. I guess it was molting.

However, my male budgie who had loose droppings is still not okay and he is fluffed up all the time.

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ChristinaTFSI · Dec 21, 2018

EllenD said:
I agree, it doesn't at all sound like your vet is a Certified Avian Vet, maybe he's an Exotics Vet calling himself an "Avian Vet", but if he didn't even examine your bird, and he just told you that the other one is "fine" being fluffed-up all the time and having chronically loose droppings and he didn't just automatically take a fecal-sample and send a culture out and do microscopy on it in his office, then he either doesn't have a clue what he's doing, or he's just lazy, or both...

The first question I would ask you is you've got 2 Budgies, is that all the birds you have living in your home? Are you certain that you've got a male and a female? And if so, are they mating/breeding? Is the female laying eggs or has she laid any eggs?

****If you could post some photos of both of them, but specifically the female who is losing the feathers, that would be helpful...They lose their feathers for a number of different reasons, and in a number of different ways. You said it's not molting, but how do you know? If she is losing a lot of feathers from all over her body and not just from one specific spot or spots, then it may very well be molting...Or does she actually have any bald/thin spots? Do you ever see her pulling feathers out? And if she has been laying eggs during this same time period, they do often pull their feathers out to make a nest, just throwing that out there...Also, if she's been laying eggs, they often become nutritionally deficient and lost a lot of weight in a very short amount of time...

***As far as your male goes, it's not at all normal for them to stay "fluffed-up" all the time, usually the reason they do that is because they are not feeling well and they are being very lethargic and sleeping more than usual because they are sick...And if he's having chronically loose-droppings (and not eating a bunch of fresh fruit or veggies right before the loose droppings every time), then chances are that he has some kind of GI Infection, either Bacterial or Fungal, but the only way to know is to have a Vet do a Fecal-Culture and Microscopy, which is the easiest, most basic test an Avian Vet will run, and they run them all day long, every day. So that's the only way to get a proper diagnosis on what is causing the infection and what medication will treat it correctly (don't just allow this vet to put your bird on an antibiotic without first doing a Fecal Culture and a Gram-Stain, because if it's a fungal/yeast infection, the antibiotics will not help, and they will probably make it much worse)...

You can always give your birds a daily Avian Probiotic supplement, I give my birds one every day, but that is not a treatment/cure for a GI fungal/yeast infection, and will do nothing to help a Bacterial GI infection at all...So you definitely need to find a different Avian Vet asap, because once they start showing outward signs/symptoms like this, they've usually been sick for a long time..

We can help you find a proper Avian Vet if you let us know what city/state you live in/near...

Thank you for responding!

I have two budgies (a female and a male) and they never mate/breed since I don't provide them with a nesting box. In addition I have a cockatiel who just over three months old.

As for the molting - I guess you were right- she was molting. I was just really worried about her cause she would lose 20+ feathers in just an hour! Including flight feathers that were tiny and hadn't develop yet. Now she isn't losing them anymore (at least not as many as she used to) so I guess it was molting.

Now when it comes to the CAV I asked in a Facebook group related to parrots if there was an avian vet in my area but there isn't anyone except the one that I have already visited.

My male budgie is still not okay and he has been this way (fluffed up, sleeping all day ect) for a pretty long period of time. His droppings aren't very loose anymore but they are still weird. However Idk what to do to help him...

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EllenD · Dec 21, 2018

Okay, so you can't believe everything you read on the internet, that's rule #1....So just because your Facebook Group couldn't find any Avian Specialist Vet near you does not mean that there isn't one, and your male Budgie needs to get to one ASAP or you're going to lose him..He most-likely has a bad infection and he needs to have a fecal culture/microscopy done to diagnose what it is so that he can be put on the correct medication, and you better do it soon before the holiday? We are trustworthy here, we don't need your address, just the town/city and state you live in, and I assure you that we can find someone for you to take him to on an emergency basis...

And just as an FYI to you, just because you don't have a nest-box in your Budgie's cage does not at all mean they aren't mating, in-fact if they are a male and a female living in the same cage and they get along well, then I guarantee they are mating...That's what Budgies do, I bred them for 20 years and if they bond with each other they mate, over and over again...So you need to make sure you always have both a Cuttlebone and a Mineral-Block in their cage at all times for your female, and don't be surprised if you find an egg on the bottom of the cage sometime soon...

Please make an effort to get your male to an Avian Vet ASAP, as they hide all outward signs of illness for as long as possible, it's a survival instinct, and by the time we can see that they are acting/appear sick, they usually have already been sick for weeks to months, and are very, very sick and need treatment. Budgies commonly contract GI Tract bacterial and fungal infections, and there is no "home-remedy" to treat them, nor can you just go out and buy an antibiotic and give it to him because #1 you don't know if it's bacterial or fungal, and antibiotics will not help a fungal infection and actually make the worse, and #2 if it is bacterial you don't know what antibiotic will treat it without knowing what bacteria it is...

We can help you find an Avian Vet if you let us, that really is your only option..

Help, budgie losing feathers

ChristinaTFSI

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ChristaNL

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Laurasea

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EllenD

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GaleriaGila

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ChristinaTFSI

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ChristinaTFSI

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ChristinaTFSI

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EllenD

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Such a clever girl!!!!

How old are they and gender of my budgie?

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