Potential respiratory issue - Green Cheek

smith365film

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Jul 31, 2017
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Long Beach, CA
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Meechum - Pineapple Green Cheek Conure
My pineapple Green Cheek starting making an odd sound, as if he's trying to clear his sinuses, about a month ago. I noticed it after sharing some peanut butter (natural, no added sugar) one morning, and thought he might just be trying to clear any remnants stuck to his upper mandible. No more peanut butter for him, but he continued to make the noises. Here's a video I took of him doing it:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/stm6oyzzht5ha2f/IMG_1202.MOV?dl=0

It really concerned me after I heard him making the noise one night, when he was supposed to be sleeping. A visit to the vet the net day revealed not apparent respiratory issues, but I was told to put him on antibiotics for a week as a precautionary measure. The vet only used a stethoscope to listen to his chest, and no further examinations were done.

By the end of the antibiotic run, he no longer seemed to be making this noise. I'm not sure if they helped, since this behavior was never consistent and I stopped cooking around this time, just to be safe. I never used any Teflon cookware to begin with, but I wanted to make sure that there weren't any environmental factors causing this.

A couple weeks later, he's still occasionally making this sound, usually in the mornings. As far as I can tell, there isn't anything specific that triggers it, but he has been sneezing a lot more often. These sneezes are sometimes provoked by him scratching his beak and inserting a nail into a nostril, but not always. He'll sneeze in batches of 3 or so, as if he's reacting to allergies or dust. The sneezes are slightly wet (I can feel the projectile moisture if I'm holding him at the time of the sneeze), but it's clear/not visible to the eye and his nostrils are always dry.

Today, I noticed that I can hear him exhaling if he's close enough to my ear. Here's a short audio clip of his breathing:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mlat42g629qc4xi/Meechum%20Breathing.m4a?dl=0

He did take a bath a couple hours ago, so it's possible that it's water still in the nasal passages, but it seems to me that all of these symptoms point to a respiratory issue. I'm going to schedule another trip to the vet, but was hoping someone here might have some insight. My bird's behavior has never changed, and he still acts, plays, and eats like a perfectly healthy bird. I want to make sure that my vet is performing the appropriate tests, or else I may go to a different avian specialist. Any help is greatly appreciated.
 

LordTriggs

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May 11, 2017
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that vet doesn't sound good to me. Are they a certified avian vet? If not then they know less about birds than you do! Find a CAV, get a gram stain done and that should hopefully get some insight, to me it sounds like the stat of a minor bacterial infection so a CAV should be able to help with that
 

SailBoat

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Jul 10, 2015
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Talk to your Certified Avian Vet about a crop swab test and a full blood screen. This will confirm to you whether your Parrot has an infection of the Air Pathway and Air Sacks. The CAV could also preform a sinus flush that would clear the sinuses of any dust or other matter.

The timelines really discounts the first event as the source of a repeat. That said, a hot spot could exist in your home that may lead to a repeat.

I do not disagree with your Vet's choice to simply listen to the Air Sacks as there are very specific sounds that a trained ear can define. It is not Poor Vet Care to not undertake extensive testing if there is no indication of a problem.

As with Humans, Summer can be a difficult time for sinus issues.

Please note that I am the first one to be rushing off to my CAV. I agree with you're want to confirm the Health Status of your Parrot. My comments are more along the lines of providing some understanding of why your Avian professional elected not to complete an extensive list of tests.
 
OP
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smith365film

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Jul 31, 2017
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Long Beach, CA
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Meechum - Pineapple Green Cheek Conure
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Thanks! I ended up taking Meechum (my green cheek) to the vet again yesterday, and he saw a different doctor. Much more time was spent examining him, and we ended up having a culture swab done to determine any potential bacterial or fungal infections. Results should be back later this week.

The vet also recommended I get an air purifier, which will improve the air quality in my apartment and rule out any environmental factors. I'm doing research on those now.

As for antibiotics, Meechum is now on a dose of SEPTRA (0.05ml's every 12 hours), for the next 21 days. He was previously on Orbifloxacin, and the vet felt we should try a different family of antibiotics. Meechum hates the syringe, and is able to shake a decent amount of the medicine from his beak before swallowing it, so I'm going to try mixing it with something he'll consume willingly.
 

LordTriggs

New member
May 11, 2017
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Surrey, UK
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Rio (Yellow sided conure) sadly no longer with us
Thanks! I ended up taking Meechum (my green cheek) to the vet again yesterday, and he saw a different doctor. Much more time was spent examining him, and we ended up having a culture swab done to determine any potential bacterial or fungal infections. Results should be back later this week.

The vet also recommended I get an air purifier, which will improve the air quality in my apartment and rule out any environmental factors. I'm doing research on those now.

As for antibiotics, Meechum is now on a dose of SEPTRA (0.05ml's every 12 hours), for the next 21 days. He was previously on Orbifloxacin, and the vet felt we should try a different family of antibiotics. Meechum hates the syringe, and is able to shake a decent amount of the medicine from his beak before swallowing it, so I'm going to try mixing it with something he'll consume willingly.

this vet sounds a lot better.

For the medicine try asking amymybluefront how she has done it with her tiel. They hated their medicine but ended up taking it so some tips may be handy for you
 

Skyenalani

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Dec 8, 2020
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Hi there, Iā€™m just curious if your green cheek conure was ever diagnosed. My little guy has been doing the same thing recently. I took him to the vet the fist time about a month ago and she thought the ā€œnose clearingā€ was linked to a GI issue. After taking a poop sample and finding slightly elevated yeast she decided to put him on antibiotics. The antibiotics seemed to clear it up for about 2 weeks and now itā€™s slowly coming back again. I have another vet appointment on Monday. Thanks!
 

Cherimolagrape

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May 24, 2022
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5
Parrots
GCC 10+ Years old
Pineapple 2 years
Hi there, Iā€™m just curious if your green cheek conure was ever diagnosed. My little guy has been doing the same thing recently. I took him to the vet the fist time about a month ago and she thought the ā€œnose clearingā€ was linked to a GI issue. After taking a poop sample and finding slightly elevated yeast she decided to put him on antibiotics. The antibiotics seemed to clear it up for about 2 weeks and now itā€™s slowly coming back again. I have another vet appointment on Monday. Thanks!
I'd love an update too! Mine started making strange breathing noises in April, faint at first bit now louder. I can hear him breathing out much like the recording. He gets out of breath after he flies or sometimes for no reason. Otherwise he's his normal self except I noticed he stopped certain tweets he used to make. He still has an appetite and is maintaining his weight.

We went to the vet several times. He's been on Baytril and Doxycycline. We did a CT which did not show anything abnormal. Bloodwork showed elevated liver enzymes.

I just want to know what's wrong with my baby šŸ˜”
 

HeatherG

Well-known member
Apr 25, 2020
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I keep hearing that with the novel heat waves we have incredible amounts of pollen in the air. I wonder if this can affect birds as it does humans? I would not be surprised if birds have respiratory allergies. That said, extra mucus or inflammation from allergies could cause greater vulnerability to respiratory infections.
 

LaManuka

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@Cherimolagrape, unfortunately the OP of this thread has not been active since 2018, and the member that you've quoted has not visited us since December 2020. You could try private messaging them, although you won't be able to do so yourself as you have less than the requisite 10 posts needed to access our PM system. If you would like me to, I'm happy to forward a message to @Skyenalani and/or @smith365film on your behalf, although as they've not been here in a while, I cannot guarantee I'll get a response.

Please PM me directly @LaManuka if you'd like me to forward a message for you :)
 
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HeatherG

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Apr 25, 2020
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Oops, sorryā€¦I did not notice that most of the thread is old.

But still, we ARE having a lot of pollen, decreased air quality, heat and humidity in the US and seemingly other parts of the world. Itā€™s irritating to MY lungs and I havenā€™t got bad allergies. Birds have similar immune cells though much more space for air in their bodies.
 

LaManuka

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Oops, sorryā€¦I did not notice that most of the thread is old.

But still, we ARE having a lot of pollen, decreased air quality, heat and humidity in the US and seemingly other parts of the world. Itā€™s irritating to MY lungs and I havenā€™t got bad allergies. Birds have similar immune cells though much more space for air in their bodies.
No worries Heather, your info is still valuable and may well be relevant for @Cherimolagrape and her GCC's condition anyway because of the weather conditions being experienced - it's just that the thread itself is a little older :)
 

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