Abnormal breathing

bluetail · Sep 3, 2014

Hi guys,

Kiki my lovebird has been having trouble with breathing lately, it is heavy and her tail bobs. She also gets nasal discharge and sometimes 'clicks' when she breathes. We changed her preening material she uses to make a nest with as we thought the dust was causing this, but just now i have noticed she still is still getting a runny nose. I took her to the vets and they gave me Baytril which is an antibiotic but it hasn't helped. Although, she does seem more active and louder than she was before.

I just wondered what else i can do or what else might be causing it, could it be a tumour?

It's stressing me out a lot and I just want to make her better.

Thanks, Loren and Kiki :rainbow1:

xx

JerseyWendy · Sep 3, 2014

Welcome to the forum, Loren.

I'd recommend you take Kiki straight back to the vet. Did your avian vet do any cultures on Kiki? How did you administer the Baytril, and how long was she on it?

None of us are avian vets, so we can all only guess what could be wrong with Kiki.

The clicking noises you hear could possibly indicate mites, but again, only a doctor can confirm this.

bluetail · Sep 3, 2014

Hello, thank you for replying!

Well I work at the vets I took her too so I can get advice when I need.

For the Baytril, her dosage rate is 0.4ml in 50ml of water. So we change this everyday, but now her medication has finished so I do need to ask my vet what now.

Sorry could you explain to me what cultures are please? But i don't think she did. The vet got her out and examined her, but as Kiki is untame she was terrified and was hard to look at, she also bit the vet!

The vet said Kiki is very thin, I also felt Kiki and you can feel her breast bone very much so. We have loads of different foods for her in the cage but she just doesn't seem to be putting any weight on

.

Yes, that could be as I think Kiki does have mites. We found red bugs on the towel that covers her cage. Me and my mum have steam cleaned her cage twice now to try and rid them, and I think they are getting reduced.

Loren.

JerseyWendy · Sep 3, 2014

Cultures are when the vet takes samples of Kiki's droppings, a mouth swap, nostril swap, blood, scrapings, etc. and runs specific tests.

If she has mites inside her airways, steam cleaning isn't going to get rid of them, she will need to be treated with meds prescribed by the vet.

And putting antibiotics in water, you really don't know how much she's actually getting, so I wouldn't recommend using antibiotics in that manner.

The vet you work with/at, is this an Avian vet (specialist for birds)??

It's critical that Kiki gets treated EFFECTIVELY for whatever may be wrong with her. Birds are very good at hiding illnesses and/or diseases, and unfortunately all too often by the time we notice something is off, it may be too late.

I certainly hope this is not the case with your Kiki.

bluetail · Sep 3, 2014

Oh right okay thanks, no she didn't do that. We didn't want to do any blood testing for the first appointment as we wanted to see if the anti-biotics cured it, to not stress her out as much.

Do you know how she could of picked the mites up though?

Well I know she does get a sufficient amount as I watch her drink and the water level does drop a lot.

No shes not, this is the problem. I don't know of any in my area, but my vet was the best thing I could go to as I was so worried about Kiki. But don't get me wrong my vet is very good seeing as though shes not as experienced with birds!

Kalidasa · Sep 3, 2014

I was thinking about a member in here who had a problem with air-sac mites (crimson) with many in her flock, and she always described the clicky breathing. You really need to get to an avian vet ASAP, perhaps you could tell what city you're in...this forum has an extensive avian vet list across the globe, and people will be more than happy to direct you to ones in your area. A non-avian vet won't do.
Air sac mites if left untreated too long cause suffocation and death. And if not caught in time, even after the proper meds to kill them off, will still cause suffocation from their dead bodies filling up the air-sacs and lungs, which cannot be removed.
I'm not trying to scare you, just letting you know a possibility if it is in fact mites. Hopefully it's not, but if it is, you need to act fast. Breathing with a clicking sound is never ever normal.

bluetail · Sep 4, 2014

No thats fine, I like to know the facts and what happens.

I live in Leiston in suffolk, England. Which i doubt anyone will know where that is.

I mean, she doesn't always click when she breathes it was only that time I had heard it.

It just seems like she has so much wrong with her

But thank you everyone for replying!

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