Poor Val can’t fly!

My poor little budgie Valentino has been a bit unwell lately. I took him to our vet about two weeks ago with an irritated weepy eye. Initially I thought maybe Lilly had hooked him in the eye with a claw or something because Val has this habit of hopping into her cage and eating her food and a fight often ensues! Thankfully the vet said there was no damage to the eye, gave me some Metacam for pain/inflammation and sent us on our way.

Val was doing quite well until last Friday when his eye suddenly got all weepy and watery again so we packed him off back to the vet. A different vet saw him and recommended a doxycycline injection to clear up any underlying issues, which has worked well on his eye that now looks great, but now for some reason Val can’t fly! Now I don’t know if this is a remnant of muscular soreness from the injection in his pectoral muscle or what, but I’m not a particularly happy camper right now! Poor little bloke cannot get any lift at all so is now confined to his (very large) cage otherwise he just hits my hard floor and probably just hurts himself that much more.

So I don’t know if this is a “thing” that any of you have ever experienced after an injection, but I’ve spoken to our vet clinic today and will be trying to get him seen to again today. In the meantime though if anyone has any ideas to offer as to why this might be happening I’m all ears!

Poor Val, hope his reticence for flight is solely attributed to sore muscle from injection. Haven't experienced anything like this and cannot imagine his symptoms are the cause. Hopefully the vet will have answers and he'll rediscover the joy of flight!

Sorry! I have no advice (I know...shocking....LOL--I never shut up)!
I hope you get it figured out. I think getting her back to the vet is obviously the best course of action.

Thanx for the moral support guys, we do appreciate it!

Val is booked to see the vet again this afternoon so I’m hopeful of a course of treatment for whatever this is. He’s been such a happy chirpy little soul throughout this whole thing but I know he doesn’t understand why he can’t go flapping around the house with the other two like he used to. Unfortunately the boss man at my local bird vet (a true bird whisperer if ever there was one!) hasn’t been around much for a while and from what I can gather i think he’s been quite ill himself (I’m too scared to ask exactly how ill!)

Anyway I’ll keep you posted once I know more.

Thanx again and Val sends you all his very chirpy best!

Hope you have some good news or at least an explanation by evening! Feathered hugs to you and Val!!

Well folks, Val had his vet visit last evening and submitted to a barrage of tests but was such a brave boy throughout. Dr Jones (lovely young man, had a peacock feather motif on his shirt and macaws on his socks!) had a thorough check of the injection site and thankfully there was no sign of anything nasty like infection or necrosis (!), then checked his wings and joints and was satisfied there is no problem there either. What we think has happened is he has bruised his pectoral muscle on the Saturday morning when I let him out of his cage for a flap, not knowing at the time that he couldn’t fly, and he’s had a hard landing which has aggravated that muscular soreness.

So he’s confined to his cage until at least Friday when I shall pop him down on the floor and see how he goes. Poor little guy has to have his Metacam twice daily in the meantime - I think he and I end up wearing more of that than he ingests but nevertheless we will persist. Fingers crossed that he achieves lift off on Friday morning!

Poor Val!
I hope he gets better soon!

Glad the vet ruled out multiple causes. Val needs what the aviation world calls a JATO bottle or rocket! (Jet Assisted TakeOff) A powerful burst applied during takeoff and lasts a short time once airborne.

The Blue Angels "Fat Albert" used to demo JATO rockets. Seen here to great effect below and aft of the wing.

Well Scott I may be looking at “Fat Val” if he doesn’t get some exercise and soon! He’s confined to quarters and eating like a horse so may need the extra jet-propulsion come Friday morning. And there will be a full array of emergency response services lined up along the runway in case takeoff doesn’t go to plan!

LaManuka said:

Well Scott I may be looking at “Fat Val” if he doesn’t get some exercise and soon! He’s confined to quarters and eating like a horse so may need the extra jet-propulsion come Friday morning. And there will be a full array of emergency response services lined up along the runway in case takeoff doesn’t go to plan!

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:jumping40

This doesn't sound good at all to me, for multiple reasons, but mainly because you didn't mention anything about either one of the Vets who saw your Budgie taking a culture from his "weepy" eye to diagnose the specific Bacteria and/or Fungi causing his infection...The reason I'm pointing this out is because anytime a parrot of any species develops Conjunctivitis in either or both eyes, you MUST rule-out Psittacosis Chlamydia as the cause (usually the eye infection starts in one eye and after a week to a couple of weeks it spreads to both eyes)...Conjunctivitis is typically the very first symptom of Psittacosis, and after a week or two of having an eye infection they start developing minor Upper Respiratory Infection symptoms, such as wheezing, coughing, open-mouth breathing, lethargy, etc.

***The problem with Psittacosis is that it develops/progresses gradually, it first appears as a simple case of Conjuctivitis or an Upper Respiratory or Sinus infection and is misdiagnosed, and then once it is positively diagnosed it takes FOREVER to treat and completely eliminate, and probably 95% of the time it seems to get better, even be completely gone, then it suddenly comes back with a vengence because 9 times out of 10 the Vet doesn't prescribe a long enough treatment, which is typically 48-days of Doxycycline (if giving it by injection instead of orally, then it's 1 Doxy injection every 7-days for 7-weeks to completely cure it; some Vets try 21-days or 3 weeks of injections but this usually results in it coming back harshly up to even a month after it seems to have gone away!)...And sometimes the Doxycycline must be paired with Azithromycin (usually it's 7-weeks of Doxycycline and then 3 weeks of Azithromycin), and often they must also add Nebulizer-treatments to the injectable Antibiotics, usually they use either Doxycycline or Tylosin (Tylan50) for the Nebulizer treatments)...So while not usually lethal and usually able to be successfully treated/cured, Psittacosis Chlamydia is a nasty bug that is able to literally "hide-out" for long periods of time while in a dormant-state that makes it appear that it's gone...

***I highly suggest that you watch your Budgie very closely for any Upper-Respiratory or Sinus signs/symptoms, including continued Conjunctivitis from one or both eyes, discharge from his Nostrils/Nares, coughing, wheezing, labored-breathing, open-mouth breathing, sneezing, etc., because any of these will almost guarantee he has Psittacosis...I'd also suggest that you request/demand that they take a swab/culture of his eye(s) and run a Culture & Sensitivity (sent out to a lab to be plated and grown, takes a few days to get the results), as well as having them do a Gram-Stain of it and looking at it under their own Microscope in their office to try to diagnose what Bacteria is causing the eye infection, along with ruling-out any Fungi present as well...

***In regards to him suddenly not being able to fly, if he doesn't start flying again very soon, I would highly, highly recommend that they take an X-Ray of him, which will require short-term sedation with Isoflurene Gas, but is very, very necessary at this point, because what they aren't considering here or discussing with you is that he could very likely have 1 or more infected, fluid-filled Air-Sacs, which are commonly the reason why birds suddenly can't fly, especially when they are also suffering from other symptoms of an Upper Respiratory or Sinus infection (Conjunctivitis being one of the main ones), like your Budgie is...An infected/fluid-filled Air-Sac will be immediately seen on a regula X-Ray, and this will also rule-out Pneumonia/fluid and infection in the lungs, both of which will not typically get better without Nebulization of the proper Antibiotics right into the lung-tissue and the Air-Sac(s).

Thank you Ellen and believe me I am watching Val like the proverbial hawk!

He was tested for psittacosis and PBFD late last year and was negative for both. When I first took him in for his eye issues they did a faecal test which showed nothing nasty. Dr Jones did a stain test on his eye and another one last Friday which found some eyelashes were encroaching into his eyeball and we’re reasonably sure this is the main cause of irritation. I think the main issue with his current inability to fly is bruising from when he hit my hard wood floor last week when I let him out of his cage not realising he couldn’t fly. Both vets listened to his airways which showed no signs of congestion and I’ve not noticed any laboured breathing here at home.

Other than that he’s looking really good today and is eating, drinking, preening, bathing, singing and pushing Fang around as per normal. I’m going to give him another 24 hours of bed rest before trying his wings out again and will be making a beeline back to the vet if he’s still unable. They’ve already suggested an x-ray if he still can’t fly. I have another 10 days or so off work so fortunately I am able to keep a very close eye on him. My thought is he may have sustained some damage to his pectoral muscles and/or keelbone when he hit our floor. Even if he does fly tomorrow he’s still not out of the woods because after this period of inactivity he may hurt himself trying to keep up with the other two!

Whatever happens next I certainly will keep you posted. Thanx again for all your info, I was actually hoping you’d reply to my post Ellen because of the depth of your knowledge and experience with budgies. Your input is always most welcome!

I am considering changing Valentino’s name to Valiant, because he is!

We are carefully re-introducing him to flying after about a week of confinement and he is doing much better although he’s a bit wobbly. He just completed almost a full lap of our living room and although he didn’t stick the landing he is now able to gain and sustain altitude. Unfortunately a few days ago I managed to inadvertently pull pretty much all of his tail feathers out whilst trying to catch him to give him his Metacam so he is also rudderless right now. At present I’m just letting him out for short spells and keeping Lilly well away from him while he is in rehab. His eye looks great and other than being tailless he’s doing pretty well.

Naturally as a nervous mother I’m watching his EVERY move but it does appear his muscular soreness is dissipating and I’m hopeful he’ll be back to fully flighted very soon!

Thanks to mum's valiant rehab efforts, Val might soon take to the skies!