Concerned about loud breathing

Hey everyone, glad to be a part of this community!

I'm a first time conure owner, and my conure is a green cheek that is about seven months old. He just recently started to breathe pretty loudly--not all the time--but occasionally at different times throughout the day. It started about two weeks ago, and I've since taken him to an avian vet, who couldn't really give me an answer (it didn't help that my conure wasn't making the noise while I was there, in a noisy vet office to boot). Overall, the vet wasn't able to find anything physically wrong with him.

My question for you guys/gals is whether or not any of you have experienced this "heavy breathing" with your conures, and should I be concerned?

I should mention that the breathing sounds like it's coming mainly from his cere (nose).

Any chance your bird has been exposed to airborne toxins when you notice the breathing change? Remember you might not be able to note or smell what your bird is being exposed to. Think occult things like using a drier sheet when drying cage cover, faded perfume from evening before, tick protection on dog bird cuddles with. Stuff not so obvious as burning candles and air Sanitizer.

Did you see an avain vet? He should have done a chest xray. Also obtained a swab from the nares. He also could have something stuck in the nares. When my grey had pneumonia he definitely started with heavy breathing that turned raspy. You could also see him taking deep fast breathes. I suggest a second opinion before it gets worse. JMHO.

I agree with greycloud, go get a second opinion.
Perhaps the first vet has never dealt with such a problem before.
Take him a.s.a.p, rather be safe than sorry.

No, I have 13 conures (3 nandays, 1 jenday, 1 sun, 3 cherry-heads and 5 quakers) and none of them breathes loudly so, if yours does, there is something not quite right. He could have an obstruction in his nares (nostrils). Sometimes they manage to aspirate the hull of a small seed and it gets stuck in there or, sometimes, it's dried up mucus that accumulates. Take him to a vet and ask him to do a nasal flush on him and to do a cytology on the flushing. This will serve two ways: 1. to remove whatever is in there, and 2. to determine if there is a fungal or bacterial infection. I don't know if your vet did blood work on him but, if he did and his white cell count was normal, he could still have a fungal infection. And, if he didn't, it needs to be done.

Thanks everyone for you post back. After observing my conure for few more days, and seeing that he still has the same symptoms, I think I will take him to another vet. This time I just found out about an avian vet that is actually is certified, putting him on the more pricier end but hopefully will give me some answers this time. Thanks everyone for your suggestions and input!

Hey everyone.. Just wanted to check in with an update...

I took my conure to a reputable avian vet in my area and had a nasal flush done. The vet said he found some debris and is going to run a culture test to see if there is a bacterial infection. Otherwise he thought everything seemed fine.

BUT! My conure is still making the breathing noise, even after the nasal flush. One thing I noticed, though, is that he only makes the noise whenever he gets excited about something -- for example when someone comes over to the apartment or there's a lot of activity going on. Does this make any sense to you guys?

Glad you took him to a reputable avain vet, always make one feel better.
I am not a qualified anything LoL, perhaps his nasal is still raw, from where they found some debris and until that heals, his breathing will remain the same.
When Mishka becomes very excited, she breathes very shallow and hard, almost like she is trying to catch her breath. :57:

Does this make any sense to you guys?
Nope certainly not me, LoL I have a "bird brain' :+o:

If what the vet got from the nasal flush was debris caused by some kind of infection and the bird has not been on antibiotics or antifungals for a number of days, it is possible that the nasal passages are still inflammed and that's why there is only sound when he/she breathes harder (as it happens when they get excited). If after about a while on the meds (sometimes it takes long, it depends on the kind of infection itself and the general health state of the bird -once I had a bird that had to take four weeks of antibiotics before he started breathing more normally), the bird continues to breathe hard, it's possible there is an aspergilloma in there and the only way to determine this is through an endoscopy or exploratory surgery. It depends on the vet which one is done -most AVs don't do endoscopies themselves (the equipment is very expensive) but, in reality and for this particular type of thing, the exploratory surgery is usually the way to go because if the bird does have an aspergilloma, the only way to get rid of it is to excise it, treat the area with topical antifungal -which they do right then and there- and do orals after.