greenwing seizure

My (probaly) 8 year old greenwing has been having seizures for about a year now. The first one freaked me out on a friday afternoon. She fell to the bottom of her cage and started shaking. Wings spread straight out ,right foot balled ub tight. Squaking and pupils pinned. I scooped her up and held her tight for 30-45 very long seconds until she came out of it.
After a few phone calls I was on the phone with "the best vet" in the area. He was 3-4 hrs away and could see her first thing in the morning for an emergency charge. Long story short they found nothing to blame for this and after sending blood to Miami and elsewhere , lots of money , and no real answers she was put on a round of cipro and was ok fro a couple of months. Then it happened again!
I had lost faith in "the best" vet so I did not call him. I held my girl close , comforted her and let it pass. 1 minut later It was like it never happened. This has repeated itselfe 5 or 6 more times and I might be seeing a pattern.
Her diet has always consisted of pellets plus everything else and nuts. I started taking away things and have narrowed it down to the nuts. She has always eaten them but I took them away for a while and no seizures. Gave her a almond a few days ago and in less than 6 hrs she had an episode. Coincidence?
I live with 2 greenwings a mollucan and a grey. all rescues all with sorted past's, she is my favorite.
Anyone ever have an experience like this?

Never heard or known of anything like this in birds, but my heart goes out to you. You have the right heart for her and she knows your there to protect and look after her while she is in trouble.

My heart and wishes are with you.

Thank you narkissios, She is my friend. Was dog bit when we got her 4 years ago. Scars on her face, no tail and wings hung at her sides. she is in perfect feather and looks great now , not loud and is watchfull of everything I do around her.She is an Old soul in a young body.

burley said:

My (probaly) 8 year old greenwing has been having seizures for about a year now. The first one freaked me out on a friday afternoon. She fell to the bottom of her cage and started shaking. Wings spread straight out ,right foot balled ub tight. Squaking and pupils pinned. I scooped her up and held her tight for 30-45 very long seconds until she came out of it.
After a few phone calls I was on the phone with "the best vet" in the area. He was 3-4 hrs away and could see her first thing in the morning for an emergency charge. Long story short they found nothing to blame for this and after sending blood to Miami and elsewhere , lots of money , and no real answers she was put on a round of cipro and was ok fro a couple of months. Then it happened again!
I had lost faith in "the best" vet so I did not call him. I held my girl close , comforted her and let it pass. 1 minut later It was like it never happened. This has repeated itselfe 5 or 6 more times and I might be seeing a pattern.
Her diet has always consisted of pellets plus everything else and nuts. I started taking away things and have narrowed it down to the nuts. She has always eaten them but I took them away for a while and no seizures. Gave her a almond a few days ago and in less than 6 hrs she had an episode. Coincidence?
I live with 2 greenwings a mollucan and a grey. all rescues all with sorted past's, she is my favorite.
Anyone ever have an experience like this?

Click to expand...

I have never heard of such a thing, but glad you found a pattern. It sounds like an extreme allergic reaction to the nut. If you truly feel it's the almonds, I would have a blood test done and see if the bird's allergic to the nut itself or it may be that there is something toxic on the outside shell of the nut like mold or pesticides unless it's organic.

good idea merlee. I never thought about the outside of the nut. I buy diamond brand nuts at the supermarket and have fed her and my other 3 with no prior problem. The other greenwing , mollucan and grey are all good, just my val that is having problems. Maby I am hopeing for a solution but I will not give her anymore nuts for a while , or ever , if she dose'nt have anymore seizures.
drilsaort, thanks for the referral but I dont think I can find the time to drive to tampa from North Carolina. I am a commercial fish house operator here and she spends a lot of time down on the docks with me but we have to be here for the other fishermen.

Hi burley! I'm genuinely SO sorry you are experiencing this with your sweet Val. I have ZERO experience with seizures of that sort, but if I were you, I'd be very encouraged, especially since you may have found the culprit (the almonds).

It must be so very scary for you to witness when she has those episodes.

I wish all of you the best of luck.

Aye, I have. My cherry headed conure had seizures. One side of his body would go limp/numb, his foot would clasp close and he'd go blind - although he already had bad eyesight to begin with and developed cataracts, too. I think, during an episode, he could see shadows, but couldn't actually see anything else.

I couldn't find anything that triggered it definitely except injury/falls seemed to be the biggest culprit. Like Val, Noel was also attacked by an animal - although it was a ferret. I believe her seizures were related to that attack, along with some other health issues. I had a vet tell me that Noel didn't have seizures frequently enough to warrant medications, but another vet told me about something that is supposed to help control them and maybe even stop them from occurring... or at least reduce them. Don't know if it ever helped Noel, but you might want to give it a shot, too.



It's known as Vetri-DMG Liquid Supplement
Vetri-DMG™ Liquid for Dogs and Cats

And this is one of the best places that I've found to buy it at (cheaper than going through my a-vet)
Vetri-DMGboost boosts the immune response


I think, worse case it doesn't do anything, best case it helps!

So sorry to hear about Val's seizures, burley My Hy, Zaf, had one seizure-like episode about a year ago. He was on a perch in his cage and I noticed he was wobbling. I rushed to him and he couldn't step off of the perch and onto my arm... so I embraced him and pulled him onto my wrist. He had this vacant straight-ahead stare and had no strength at all in his feet. He seemed entirely unresponsive as well. He had never acted like that prior to the incident, and he'd been living with me for 7 years at the time.

At the outset I was worried that Zaf may have been experiencing a stroke - my Military Macaw suffered a stroke in 2011. But after setting Zaf on my lap where I held him close while petting and speaking softly to him (for about 45 seconds) he began to gain some strength as well as to move and respond to me. Soon thereafter he seemed entirely back to his normal, playful self.

My vet agreed that apparently Zaf had experienced a seizure of some sort. Zaf had no other medical signs and my vet said that such episodes may either begin to occur more frequently, or that he may never experience another one. My vet further said that signs would point toward the latter if Zaf were to remain free from additional similar episodes for six or so months. Thankfully, Zaf has not had a single seizure-like episodes since the described event. I was not able to attribute the episode to anything around him.

I think you're right to observe for patterns and consider potential environmental factors. I'm very much hoping that you're on to something concerning the nuts.

Best of luck to you... and certainly to Val!

burley said:

good idea merlee. I never thought about the outside of the nut. I buy diamond brand nuts at the supermarket and have fed her and my other 3 with no prior problem. The other greenwing , mollucan and grey are all good, just my val that is having problems. Maby I am hopeing for a solution but I will not give her anymore nuts for a while , or ever , if she dose'nt have anymore seizures.
drilsaort, thanks for the referral but I dont think I can find the time to drive to tampa from North Carolina. I am a commercial fish house operator here and she spends a lot of time down on the docks with me but we have to be here for the other fishermen.

Click to expand...

I have a German Shepherd who has been dealing with allergies all her life so isolating foods is something I have had some experience with. Along the way we have done a lot of blood tests to confirm my suspicions. Luckily it has not been as extreme as your bird.

I have never heard of a seizure like that. I have heard of the type of seizure that plax described.

I'm sorry you both had to go through such a terrible experience like this so many times. I would like to say 'good for you' for being so diligent and trying to figure out the cause of the seizures. I hope you are right and that the seizures can now come to an end.

Thank you all you are very kind. it helps knowing I am not the only one.