Kisota
New member
(GAH, I just realized I typo'd and misspelled "polyurea" in the title... if a mod would like to help me save face and fix that, it'd be much appreciated)
Hi, again everybody! Been a while, hasn't it? I've been trying to finish my thesis, so I've been very busy!
In the meantime, my cockatiel Tilli has been having some health problems for months now. She started having problems with really watery, splattery poops sometime last November or December. She had no other symptoms other than slightly off breath and the occasional bout of crop-adjusting, and wasn't losing weight, seemed to be eating and drinking normally... so I gave it a bit to see if it would clear up (stress or something, maybe?)... but it didn't, so it was off to the vet, an exotic-specialist clinic about a half hour away (a challenge of a trip in these frigid temps!)
She was found to have a squishy crop, a sign of a crop infection of yeast, which explained the breath and adjustment of her crop. There was also protozoa in her poop, so we were advised to order Ronidazole from a pigeon supply website.
Things didn't improve, so it was back to the vet, with our conure as well this time just to make sure he was okay. He's fine, thankfully.
But Tilli was found to have a lot of bacteria in her poop as well, so now she was put on an antibiotic.
I thought it was getting better for a few days there, but even before she'd finished the meds, she was having bad poops again.
So it was off to the vet again. This time we paid over $140 to have her poop sent off to the lab to be gram-stained and cultured as well as more thoroughly examined. And she had another crop infection, so she was put on more yeast medicine, a stronger one this time.
A few days later, we got a call with the results: nothing odd in her poop except the yeast. Good, because that was already being treated. And nothing severe was going on! So, I kept up with the medicine and she seemed totally better for a few days.
BUT... again, before the medicine round was even done... she was having wet poop again.
So I called the vet. She's been really nice about all this and has, so far, taken logical steps and not charged me out the bum. This time she said she would send us some metronidazole and I got permission to do another round of the Nystatin yeast medication. The metro isn't here yet, but I've started giving her the yeast medication again. Here's a sign of a good vet: She recommended a more experienced avian vet and said I should go there if this doesn't work, then asked that if I did so, I call her and let her know what he decides to do.
I was advised by the vet to use Apple Cider Vinegar in her water and to feed her Nutriberries instead of pellets and to discontinue feeding vegetables while she was fighting this, so I have. She's still acting fine and seems to be at a constant weight or possibly gaining a bit back (she's at around 86 and used to be closer to 90... but she had gotten a little lower than that).
But man... three vet trips, six rounds of medicine, and over 450 dollars later and she's STILL NOT BETTER!
I'll have to see how she is after these two rounds of meds, but man, it's stressful. She's a very sweet and loving, tame little thing and I hate wrestling her so much and making her nervous of me like this.
I'm going to try taking her cage apart and sterilizing it as much as possible, as well as her perches and toys.
I've had other people suggesting it's something in the water or it's mold in the house or something. I'm really skeptical of that. Cuzco's been fine, and he's a good 20 grams lighter than she is. I suspect it's one of four things:
1) Just a REALLY stubborn infection of some kind - yeast or something else weird that isn't getting killed off easily
2) An underlying condition that isn't an infection: kidney disease, diabetes, an obstruction, or something wrong with her body that makes her prone to the yeast... OR something behavioral. Maybe she just drinks more water than most birds, or has chronic polyuria from her diet (though you'd think switching to the Nutriberries would have helped more in that case)
3) Something in her cage and her cage alone that is encouraging the problem
4) Stress. Cuzco's screaming does seem to stress her out a bit. He's generally quiet when he's not begging for attention when we're around, though. She's nervous of him, though not terrified when they're both out.
It's frustrating. I want to get to the bottom of it so I know my buddy is alright. I guess the good news is that she's not really having any other symptoms, but it does make the situation a particularly kind of frustrating!
Anyone else deal with this before? I saw RavensGryf's post about Robin having chronic metal poisoning. I hope it's not something like that! Ah!
And for your enjoyment, here's a photo of Senorita Splatterpoops.
Hi, again everybody! Been a while, hasn't it? I've been trying to finish my thesis, so I've been very busy!
In the meantime, my cockatiel Tilli has been having some health problems for months now. She started having problems with really watery, splattery poops sometime last November or December. She had no other symptoms other than slightly off breath and the occasional bout of crop-adjusting, and wasn't losing weight, seemed to be eating and drinking normally... so I gave it a bit to see if it would clear up (stress or something, maybe?)... but it didn't, so it was off to the vet, an exotic-specialist clinic about a half hour away (a challenge of a trip in these frigid temps!)
She was found to have a squishy crop, a sign of a crop infection of yeast, which explained the breath and adjustment of her crop. There was also protozoa in her poop, so we were advised to order Ronidazole from a pigeon supply website.
Things didn't improve, so it was back to the vet, with our conure as well this time just to make sure he was okay. He's fine, thankfully.
But Tilli was found to have a lot of bacteria in her poop as well, so now she was put on an antibiotic.
I thought it was getting better for a few days there, but even before she'd finished the meds, she was having bad poops again.
So it was off to the vet again. This time we paid over $140 to have her poop sent off to the lab to be gram-stained and cultured as well as more thoroughly examined. And she had another crop infection, so she was put on more yeast medicine, a stronger one this time.
A few days later, we got a call with the results: nothing odd in her poop except the yeast. Good, because that was already being treated. And nothing severe was going on! So, I kept up with the medicine and she seemed totally better for a few days.
BUT... again, before the medicine round was even done... she was having wet poop again.
So I called the vet. She's been really nice about all this and has, so far, taken logical steps and not charged me out the bum. This time she said she would send us some metronidazole and I got permission to do another round of the Nystatin yeast medication. The metro isn't here yet, but I've started giving her the yeast medication again. Here's a sign of a good vet: She recommended a more experienced avian vet and said I should go there if this doesn't work, then asked that if I did so, I call her and let her know what he decides to do.
I was advised by the vet to use Apple Cider Vinegar in her water and to feed her Nutriberries instead of pellets and to discontinue feeding vegetables while she was fighting this, so I have. She's still acting fine and seems to be at a constant weight or possibly gaining a bit back (she's at around 86 and used to be closer to 90... but she had gotten a little lower than that).
But man... three vet trips, six rounds of medicine, and over 450 dollars later and she's STILL NOT BETTER!
I'll have to see how she is after these two rounds of meds, but man, it's stressful. She's a very sweet and loving, tame little thing and I hate wrestling her so much and making her nervous of me like this.
I'm going to try taking her cage apart and sterilizing it as much as possible, as well as her perches and toys.
I've had other people suggesting it's something in the water or it's mold in the house or something. I'm really skeptical of that. Cuzco's been fine, and he's a good 20 grams lighter than she is. I suspect it's one of four things:
1) Just a REALLY stubborn infection of some kind - yeast or something else weird that isn't getting killed off easily
2) An underlying condition that isn't an infection: kidney disease, diabetes, an obstruction, or something wrong with her body that makes her prone to the yeast... OR something behavioral. Maybe she just drinks more water than most birds, or has chronic polyuria from her diet (though you'd think switching to the Nutriberries would have helped more in that case)
3) Something in her cage and her cage alone that is encouraging the problem
4) Stress. Cuzco's screaming does seem to stress her out a bit. He's generally quiet when he's not begging for attention when we're around, though. She's nervous of him, though not terrified when they're both out.
It's frustrating. I want to get to the bottom of it so I know my buddy is alright. I guess the good news is that she's not really having any other symptoms, but it does make the situation a particularly kind of frustrating!
Anyone else deal with this before? I saw RavensGryf's post about Robin having chronic metal poisoning. I hope it's not something like that! Ah!
And for your enjoyment, here's a photo of Senorita Splatterpoops.
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