No improvement after vet Visit

Hi, I got in my cockatoo in January, first time with a sick bird. Not eating, not moving much. Took him to the vet a 3pm yesterday, said his poop looked off from having something not working right with his liver. He got two shots, something for his liver, and another for pain and inflammation. And meds for his water. Said I should see improvement within 12 hours hopefully. That was at 3am this morning. If his conditions worsens, to text the emergency number they gave me. He was eating a very tiny bit yesterday morning at 5 am when I had the light on when I home from work, but not eaten since then.
Today he has shown zero interest in food, and still lethargic. Since he is showing no interest now, would you say that that is a worsened condition, I was gonna wait until noon to text, but should I just text now? He is my first parrot, so not quite sure on judgement calls yet. He is eating Higgins sunburst parrot food, vet said he looks at to have lost a bit of weight, and liver felt normal size.
He's just my baby, and I hate seeing him like this, thanks

purplesunshine said:

Hi, I got in my cockatoo in January, first time with a sick bird. Not eating, not moving much. Took him to the vet a 3pm yesterday, said his poop looked off from having something not working right with his liver. He got two shots, something for his liver, and another for pain and inflammation. And meds for his water. Said I should see improvement within 12 hours hopefully. That was at 3am this morning. If his conditions worsens, to text the emergency number they gave me. He was eating a very tiny bit yesterday morning at 5 am when I had the light on when I home from work, but not eaten since then.
Today he has shown zero interest in food, and still lethargic. Since he is showing no interest now, would you say that that is a worsened condition, I was gonna wait until noon to text, but should I just text now? He is my first parrot, so not quite sure on judgement calls yet. He is eating Higgins sunburst parrot food, vet said he looks at to have lost a bit of weight, and liver felt normal size.
He's just my baby, and I hate seeing him like this, thanks

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Text the emergency number!!! 12 hours have long past and per the Vet's direct if improvement is not seen, text, correct.

If it was me, I would have text first thing this morning while my wife is driving us to the Vet's office!


FYI: Never leave the Vet's office without a Document of the finds of the visitation, list of medications provided at the office and list of medications to provide at home.

Ok, just texted him then. I'm still trying to tempt him with orange slices his favorite, usually come running over, but he is just turning away, don't wanna stress him too much

This is what I have.

Said the shots should last until Tuesday.

purplesunshine said:

Ok, just texted him then. I'm still trying to tempt him with orange slices his favorite, usually come running over, but he is just turning away, don't wanna stress him too much

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I would also consider getting everything ready to leave in a moments notice to the Vet's office! Ready to a point that placing the Parrot in the Travel Carrier and heading to the car was the only things I needed to do! But once again, that just me!

Thank-you, for the Post regarding the Invoice document provided.

Please understand that you are like near everyone of us when we take our kids and pets to the doctors office. Our historical great minds freeze and we remember to darn little.

I take the position and tell the Vet: Hey, I brain Freeze when I'm here, please write down what your findings are (what's wrong) and any directions since I will likely forget the vast majority by the time I pay the bill!

Push for detail! You will need it, as you now see!

Hey, I have the same problem! And, I have been doing this for a very long time!

My 2 did just pick up an orange slice finally. Vet just texted saying to wait until tonight or early tomorrow morning

purplesunshine said:

My 2 did just pick up an orange slice finally. Vet just texted saying to wait until tonight or early tomorrow morning

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Well, very happy that your Too elected to eat something! That is great!

I am guessing that you are in North America and likely in the Eastern time zone. So, based on that tonight would be Saturday night and tomorrow would be Sunday morning. If you are in New Zeeland that really would change things greatly. To assure that information flows based on and around international time zones, it helps to have a very general idea of where in this huge World you are. Not asking for an address, but a very general idea, like North America, Eastern Time Zone.

The Parrot Forums has members World Wide and getting a timely response comes with members understanding some kind of priority based on a general idea of where the Thread's OP is located.

Weekend Vet Services' get thin quickly and the need to response quickly, i.e. move to a support Vet Clinic changes based on time. Another example: If you are in Washington State, you're just starting the morning as morning is nearing an end in Maine.

I sincerely hope your Too continues to improve over the weekend!
Best Wishes!

I certainly would not wait another second to take him back. This is your first bird, so you may not be aware how sick birds actually are by the time they show outward signs of illness. They hide any symptoms of illness for as long as they can, it's an instinct that they naturally have as a protective mechanism in the wild. So it's very likely that your bird is very, very ill. I'm glad he ate an orange slice, but that isn't nearly enough to make me feel like he's alright.

It's your choice, and as already mentioned we don't know where you are in the world, but if it's the weekend where you are it will be problematic to get him in later. Not that this matters much, he's still not really any better, so I would already be driving with my bird to the avian vet. Waiting always ends badly.

Is this a certified or qualified avian vet you saw, or was it a general vet or an"exotics" vet that sees birds? I'm asking because there is a huge difference.

"Dance like nobody's watching..."

Hi a few questions if you don't mind? (to add to EllenD) If your parrot is bonded to you they like to please so the orange may have been that? Echoing all that gone before. Not sure of this AV really either? I am surprised they did not want to keep him in for obs etc?

How old is your parrot?
Did the AV draw blood for testing and poop testing?

Sammy is 8. My vet is Dahlhausen, I've heard that he one of the best. He told me already to wait a little longer for the inflammation to go down in his liver from the shot, to wait until tonight, then bring him in if he hasn't improved.
We could get a fecal, cause he never pooped on the way there, since he not eating much.

EST, so I will wait until 5pm to text him back on the condition, I am watching him closely, any worsening, and I will be on my way. (5 hours)

Blood work was planned if I needed to bring him back in today. Sammy was reacting badly at the vet, and it takes him a couple of days to start eating in new places, so they wanted him where he could eat.

He did a mouth swap (said there was basically no mucus, nice dry tongue tip), and there was a tiny amount of unusual bacteria, but said it wasn't causing this sudden loss of appetite.

Vet said it might take longer for the liver to be affected by the meds. I know about them hiding illnesses, but I trust what my vet said, wait out the next couple of hours.

I weighed him on Thursday, and he was 740grams(yes he has always been on the smaller side) and on Friday he was still 740 grams at the vet.

Money is not an issue with vet care, so I will take him back, as soon as my vet says it is needed

So texted the emergency number again at 2:20. Texted again at 2:50, and finally got a response at 4:30 just as we were trying to feed him some formula since I was worried that I wasnt hearing from the vet.

Took him in again, with one of the two poops he had, said it looked slightly better. He's staying at the vet until Monday at the earliest. Getting tube fed twice tonight and then again in the early morning. Hopefully gets better

Oh! I hope he will improve quickly!

Welcome to the forums, thanks for joining. I am sorry your first post is because Sammy is unwell.

Your vet may not yet have a cogent diagnosis pending the remainder of test results. Hopefully this will prove to be a minor issue that is completely curable.

Vet said he's doing good and gets to come today. I get off work in half a hour, and 30 minute drive there. So should have him home soon.

Glad to hear the good news, hopefully your Too is feeling much better !!!

Same here. Hope Sammy is feeling.. slammy!

Not trying to spook ya but this could be AVB/PDD flare up. Testing for this can be a waste of time as in no matter what test used it can give a false negative. Not eating, weight loss... a couple of the first signs. Ask for vets opinion... but IF they carry Celocib as an anti-inflammatory get a few doses in your bird. Meloxacam is not effective, and from my reading as well as experience can make the condition worse. There are other things as well can be going on with your bird... gram negative bacteria infection, crop fungus..etc.. all of which should be looked at. Meantime... celocib (Celebrex) wont hurt and should turn around inflammation causing the lack of appetite.... Fingers crossed for ya.

We're ALL on TEAM SAMMY!

Notdumasilook said:

Not trying to spook ya but this could be AVB/PDD flare up. Testing for this can be a waste of time as in no matter what test used it can give a false negative. Not eating, weight loss... a couple of the first signs. Ask for vets opinion... but IF they carry Celocib as an anti-inflammatory get a few doses in your bird. Meloxacam is not effective, and from my reading as well as experience can make the condition worse. There are other things as well can be going on with your bird... gram negative bacteria infection, crop fungus..etc.. all of which should be looked at. Meantime... celocib (Celebrex) wont hurt and should turn around inflammation causing the lack of appetite.... Fingers crossed for ya.

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Info recently gained from AV: Just to point out that if there are Liver issues/damage anti-inflammatory meds unless exactly the correct one can cause more harm to this organ. The only definitive answer as to which one should be given is provided by a biopsy.

Hoping Sammy is back to normal very soon.