I am sick over my sick Sun Conure

Hi,

My Sun Conure, Dobby, was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection. She's going to be okay, we caught it early, but we have to give her liquid antibiotics for 12 days.

I don't think I'm going to make it. We've only had her a year and have such wonderful trust and affection and I am worried that this process will damage our interaction with her. My husband and I have to restrain her in a dish towel and squirt the medication down her throat. She gets so upset with us afterwards. She flies up on a ledge and won't look at us or talk to us, and I am just dying inside the whole time.

Today was just the first day of the medication. By bed time I was forgiven, but 11 more days of this, I just don't know! Can anyone please give a new bird mommy some advice? :smiley2:

Hi hi! Sorry to hear your little guy is sick. its always upsetting, the whole process, especially having to give medication. Our conure, Charlie, got super sick about three weeks after we adopted/rescued him (his old cage was so filthy and moldy that they think something from that finally caught up to him). So not having built up a very big bond, we had to give him four medications, several times per day (three in the am, then 1/2 hour later another one, then one in the evening with that 1/2 hour med after that). So we were super bummed and hated doing this especially since he was so new. But we made it through! Later, we discovered that he actually liked two of the medications so that was helpful. Once when we were trying to catch him to give him his evening meds, he ran from us yelling "Good Charlie!". Super cute. Anyways, we made it through and he still loves us. We gave him a treat immediately after giving him his meds (bit of almond) which helped. He was definitely shy of hands reaching for him after that but he still stepped up, allowed us to scratch his head and always wanted to be out and with us. SO don't be disheartened, all will be OK. Just make sure you get plenty of other good interaction throughout the day and all will be well. You will get through it! We just reminded ourselves it was for his good health and that it would be over soon. Good Luck!

He's gonna forgive you trust me. As time goes on he will know that your trying to help him. I know all that stuffs too well, done it all before. I rescue sick animals and have to quarantine them in a room by themselves, give them meds twice a day, sanitize their room multiple times a day on a daily basis. I have sanitizers everywhere in my house...lol.... You know who I blame? Idiots that did not care for them properly in the first place. But things do happen unexpectedly. Don't be hard on yourself. You gotta do what you gotta do, you will be forgiven by the little baby!!!! Trust me, I know that first hand cause I've done it too many times. Keep a smile on your face, think of the good your doing. He will feel it too!!!

One thing to add, make sure to keep her wings clipped. That way if she tries to fly away from you after giving the medicine, she will have to rely on you to pick her up. I am sure that when this is all over she will forgive you.

I know just how bad you feel, my heart goes out to you, know that we are all here to support you ALL the way through.

My girl was in hospital for a week receiving meds twice a day and then came home and I had to give her meds for almost 3 weeks. It was a horrible-horrible time!

First it is important to get the technique of holding her correct and I know it is hard at first. I did not use a towel cause my girl is scared of it and I did not use the help of anybody. Choose an area where she feels comfortable and safe and where you will not have distractions. Place your hand over her wings and her head must be in between your fingers. I'll go look if I can find a photo showing this method. It is the only method that worked for me and where I could get all the meds into her mouth instead of all over her. It is also important to talk very calmly and loving from beginning till the end. If your girl see that you are upset or stressed like you currently are then she will also feel the same about this whole process.

The bad thing is, as soon as you think you've got the technique and every thing else under control then our parrots also figured out a way to escape. I always gave my girl her most favourite treat afterwards to say I am sorry, after about 2 weeks of meds she did not even want the treat any more.

A point came where she did not even wanted to come to me, that was really painful because we are talking about a girl that use to be with me ALL THE TIME and even went surging for me if she could not see me. But fortunately after the whole ordeal with the meds she became her old self again and she started coming to me like the old days.

I wish you all the best and things will get better, I promise.

Here is the website that helped me and that show the technique.

Medicating Pet Birds Orally

Very good information from Linky -- thankyou. I can only add that you could try a liquid she likes in the syringe a few times so she may like the idea of "eating like she did as a baby". Good luck and I pray your little girl gets better.

I was also going to say to mix up a little hand rearing formula or something she really likes & drop the meds into that & feed from & spoon or syringe. Takes so much stress away from the bird & handler.

It's funny you say that now, because I recently saw a video on a different way to give medicine orally to a bird! And I don't even have a bird yet lol. Here it is

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCxO1wOkgZo"]YouTube - Sick Parrot[/ame]

You could probably find a safer juice to use (I don't know if apple juice is safe because human apple juice probably has lots of sugar in it), but this way worked for him, so I think it's worth a shot!

What a coincidence that he also has a sun conure lol . I wish you the best of luck, I hope he feels better soon!

Bunch of good points there!!! I used to mix a batch of food on my own that's high in protein. Hard boiled egg yolk, cottage cheese, and something else I can't remember... so my birds knows after meds they get fed the good stuffs with the syringe as well....

Here is what you can do. My sun Linius LOVES orange juice. cut half an orange and get a gatorade lid. put the meds into the lid then squeeze orange juice into it. My linius could probably drink a whole cup of juice if I let him! lol. She might see this as a treat instead of a punishment of you make it awesome for her! Best of luck and may she get well soon

I think the juice thing could be a great idea BUT I know that with some people medication, you reduce the effectiveness of the medication if you mix it with a citrus fruit or drink. Perhaps just call in to your vet to make sure that the citrus won't mix adversely with the medication. But if it does work, awesome!

That's a good idea with the apple juice. Also a very pretty sun.