Distended Gut...my vet is baffled!

Hi all,

I am at a complete loss. My sweet Ducky has had a distended gut for over a year now. We're at the vet every few weeks and the vet still has no clue as what it could be. She's supposedly one of the best Avian vets in the country, but we still don't have answers.

My sweet girl is happy and in the best of spirits. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it. But she pees / poos every 2 minutes and it is projectile diarrhea... it goes EVERYWHERE. I've never seen so much fluid come out of such a tiny thing. She's for the most part free range, so I'm constantly running after her wiping up pools of stool.

She's currently on antibiotics for a bacterial infection. She's prone to those. At the end of the week we go for a check up and hopefully they'll tell me she can come off of the antibiotics. The vet suggested an anti inflammatory, which we're doing to try at our next appointment if she can come off of the meds.

Ducky is on a diet of several different pellets, a veggie mash, and some fruit here and there and has been for years. She has no signs of being overweight other than her actual weight because of whatever is in her gut. She's been at 90g give or take, and she's supposed to be only 72g.
Her blood is normal except for some elevated white blood cells due to the bacterial infection.
Her liver levels are normal.
She's had an xray for a possible egg binding but that was negative.
She's had an ultrasound and originally they thought her liver was enlarged, then they thought her pancreas.

The weird thing to me is that twice she GOT BETTER! Once, last October, all of a sudden all symptoms went away for a month and she was back to her normal weight. Then same in April of this year - for a month she was symptom free.

I'm completely baffled. I just made another appointment for an ultrasound, but now I honestly have no hope. The last one didn't help, why would this one?

I feel at such a loss. I don't know if anyone has any other ideas that might be helpful. Has anyone experienced this?

Search for Avian Vets here. You need to sign up for the site. A second opinion is always good especially when your vet is stumped.

https://www.aav.org/search/newsearch.asp

Thank you. Unfortunately, I am in the city and do not have a car. So I am limited in where I can go.

Can you get a ride to an avian vet or take an Uber? It would be worth your while.

Have you done PDD testing? I am guessing they checked her for yeast and parasites etc?

Avian medical care is a speciality and one should be seeing a Avian Professional. Assure that your Avian Vet is a Certified Avian Vet. A quick visit to the Clinic's Website should allow you to confirm that point.

A Distended Gut would imply an organ that has increased in size, which includes the digestive track. It also, could imply a weakening of the lower wall of the lower chest.

The free roaming status of your Parrot could imply that 'something' in the home is being ingested and resulting in the projectile diarrhea, which commonly inflames the gut causing it to expand. Your point regarding that it 'went away' for a month kind of supports that possibility.

"I'm completely baffled. I just made another appointment for an ultrasound, but now I honestly have no hope. The last one didn't help, why would this one?" An ultrasound is not a treatment it is an investigative tool. Time between such testing can allow a condition to develop and what was not seen last time, 'maybe' seen this time.

FYI: "but now I honestly have no hope." Modern Medical Care continues to expand in its understand in the 'Art' of medical care. Regardless of Human or Avian Medical Care: All We Have is Hope!

If it were my bird, with constant diarrhea, I would try to limit the amount of water in her diet to see where this extra water is all coming from. What happens if she's fed pellets and seeds only? A good quality seed mix is still okay to feed, my birds get it and love them, and it could be contributing to the excess fluids in her system with all that veggie mash and fruit with so much water to them. Could you feed dried fruits?

I feed Volkman's seeds and Higgins, both great quality mixes. Just something to try, seems like she has way too much fluids in her system as it is.

Yes, I have been seeing an avian vet. That is the only reason I got a bird in the first place is because I live next to one of the best animal hospitals in the country.

Thank you, hopefully the next ultrasound will show something.

SailBoat said:

Avian medical care is a speciality and one should be seeing a Avian Professional. Assure that your Avian Vet is a Certified Avian Vet. A quick visit to the Clinic's Website should allow you to confirm that point.

A Distended Gut would imply an organ that has increased in size, which includes the digestive track. It also, could imply a weakening of the lower wall of the lower chest.

The free roaming status of your Parrot could imply that 'something' in the home is being ingested and resulting in the projectile diarrhea, which commonly inflames the gut causing it to expand. Your point regarding that it 'went away' for a month kind of supports that possibility.

"I'm completely baffled. I just made another appointment for an ultrasound, but now I honestly have no hope. The last one didn't help, why would this one?" An ultrasound is not a treatment it is an investigative tool. Time between such testing can allow a condition to develop and what was not seen last time, 'maybe' seen this time.

FYI: "but now I honestly have no hope." Modern Medical Care continues to expand in its understand in the 'Art' of medical care. Regardless of Human or Avian Medical Care: All We Have is Hope!

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Thank you, I only fed her pellets for 4 weeks and there were no changes The funny part is, is that I used to give her some seeds. I decided to eliminate the seeds and she got better! But then slowly started to decline again, which just completely stumps me, because she hasn't had seeds since.

Yes, thank you. She was tested for that and avian bornavirus, both came back negative. She does have AVG, which I have a feeling she got from my budgie, they used to play together. I don't let them play together anymore. But she's been on ampho b and did nothing, so the vet says she may have been a carrier all along.

It may sound strange but try removing one food type from her diet for a couple of weeks and see if there is any change. No change reintroduce and remove something else. It's possible that she is having an allergic reaction to something in her diet. While not the most likely thing for it to be it gives you a way to eliminate possible causes from her diet.