Back from the vet, it's not great news

[Kiwibird]

Metacam is good animal medicine, ive used it with dogs before and it worked wonders and worth the high expence. Im certain your lil guy is gonna heal up fast and couldnt be in better hands x

I'm so glad to hear that someone knows what this medication is and has something good to say about it.

My husband and I use naturopathic/alternative medicines and won't take prescription drugs (haven't taken prescription drugs in 10+ years), but Kiwi can't make those choices for himself and I know so little about birds on the medical side of things I just have to trust the vet here. I feel like a traitor pumping my baby full of pharmaceuticals but I don't know what alternative course of action to take. I'm stuck sucking it up and giving him this stuff hoping it won't cause him more harm than good. I feel I probably could've taken him in sooner but it really was a very odd symptom that wasn't distinctly that of a sick bird, so I don't feel like a bad owner for waiting until it became clear this was something off. I do feel bad because I know I'm willingly giving him something I wouldn't even consider for a second taking myself. But I don't know what else to do and he is suffering. Very much hoping he will not need round 2 of either of these medications or any other medication and this will be the end of it or at worse, just some dietary changes. His vet is not a big pellet pusher, so I feel I will likely agree with any long term dietary changes she may feel he needs.

 

[LordTriggs]

the one I have seen for liquid medicine to make it appetizing is a fresh squeezed fruit juice. Sure the sugars aren't healthy but better a little extra sugar and the medicine go happily down than to deal with a fight

I'm sure you'll find something kiwi will enjoy the medicine with

 

[jhsatx]

Kiwi's lucky to have a mom like you.

 

[Kiwibird]

the one I have seen for liquid medicine to make it appetizing is a fresh squeezed fruit juice. Sure the sugars aren't healthy but better a little extra sugar and the medicine go happily down than to deal with a fight

I'm sure you'll find something kiwi will enjoy the medicine with

Kiwi does sometimes take a few sips of juice or smoothies, but not consistently or in great enough quantities to use it for meds. Plus, his favorite fruit juices (orange and grapefruit) are both off limits right now as per the vet.

 

[Inger]

It’s really amazing that you noticed it at all, and I’m so glad you pushed for the x-ray! Sending lots of hugs to you and sweet Kiwi. ❤️


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[LordTriggs]

how does kiwi do with birdy bread? Or potentially a little bit of mash? Or are they off the list too?

I'm just thinking to hide the medicine in something and almost treating medicine time like he's getting a big treat

 

[Kiwibird]

how does kiwi do with birdy bread? Or potentially a little bit of mash? Or are they off the list too?

I'm just thinking to hide the medicine in something and almost treating medicine time like he's getting a big treat

I did get these organic graham cookie things to soak with the medicine I will check first to see if he likes them before offering a larger piece with the meds. The vet said something along those lines would be ok as long as it didn't have ingredients he can't have on the diet (everything that would be suitable at the health food store seemingly had ingredients he can't have on this diet!). Birdie bread/muffins are always hit or miss with him. Sometimes he likes them, other times not. Mash he doesn't completely finish ever and makes a big mess with, so while he can have it (sans beans or greens) it's not likely he'd get the full dose of the meds via mash.

 

[LordTriggs]

he sounds about as fussy with his food as I am!

 

[EllenD]

Wow, I didn't see that one coming...Don't at all feel bad about giving him prescription drugs in this case, as it's very fortunate that Kiwi did not become septic considering the amount of time he has had the kidney infection, so he definitely needs the antibiotics as no natural remedy will help him, and as far as the Metacam goes, he definitely needs it as well, as I'm sure he's in some pain, as kidney infections by themselves are painful, and the spinal issue may also be painful. So your vet sounds very good and knows what they're doing, that's amazing, and he should be fine after treatment. So amazing that he was able to hide that amount of pain and illness for that long.

I had a kidney stone in college that was stuck in my right ureter due to it's shape, and my urologist gave me 3 months to pass it, or he was going to operate to remove it. So I went along, drinking tons of fluids, on the same diet as Kiwi is basically, and didn't think anything more about it...until about 2 months later, when my urine suddenly looked like mud and I started spiking 103 degree fevers and feeling like I was literally going to die. Needless to say that the doctor let it go too long and my kidney was so infected from the urine backing-up into it that they almost removed it along with the stone...So this can creep-up without much evidence until it finally becomes so bad that you suddenly get very sick...and I'm not a bird that tries to hide illnesses!

No way you could have ever known about this, and the fact that you noticed the butt-scratching as you did is more than a lot of bird owners would have ever noticed, and certainly would have done anything about. You're a good mamma!

 

[Terry57]

April, I was so hoping for an easy fix for Kiwi. He could not possibly be in better hands, and so many would not have caught it this early. Sending healing wishes and soft scritches to Kiwi, and a hug to you.

 

[Kiwibird]

These are the photos of the X-ray (which was on a computer screen) I took with my phone. Not as clear as what I saw due to photographing a computer screen, but clear enough to see the inflamed kidney on the right side of the frontal photo. As I understood it (I am not an AV and don't have a good grasp of internal anatomy so I may have misunderstood something somewhere) the black patches by the legs on the sides of the body are his air sacks, the left being what a normal air sack looks like going all the way down and the right you can see the kidney is either swollen in front of or maybe pushing up the air sac (not sure). The side view you can see his spine very white right to the point the kidney is pressing on it and it's much lighter. Some kind of bone density issue due to the kidney. Poor little guy Will be interested what the next set of X-rays look like after the meds and diet.

 

[LordTriggs]

yeah can see the almost lopsided look

welp, you have your diagnosis, now it's all about making sure Kiwi gets his meds in him. I'm sure you'll figure a way for him to at least tolerate them

 

[Scott]

April, might consider mixing meds with a small quantity of cooked oatmeal or similar cereal. My amazon absolutely loves it, and our CAV has previously approved such substrate for virtually all meds.

I understand your views towards pharmaceuticals. At least there is substantial research with human use of homeopathic therapies and empirical evidence for a studious user to contemplate. No so much with avians, with the possible exception of milk thistle, refined aloe, etc.

 

[Kiwibird]

April, might consider mixing meds with a small quantity of cooked oatmeal or similar cereal. My amazon absolutely loves it, and our CAV has previously approved such substrate for virtually all meds.

I understand your views towards pharmaceuticals. At least there is substantial research with human use of homeopathic therapies and empirical evidence for a studious user to contemplate. No so much with avians, with the possible exception of milk thistle, refined aloe, etc.

Scott, you may have saved the morning! He promptly rejected the treat soaked with a 1/2 dose of the clavamox so I tried to towel him for the metacam, but that didn't go so well and I stopped because none of the dose was going to ever make it in his beak. Oatmeal with (real) maple syrup did the trick and he got about 1/2 his am dose of antibiotics and about 3/4 of the metacam in that and ate most of it. Will definitely have to figure out some other things for his pm dose.

 

[EllenD]

Wow, that's a swollen kidney! Poor guy, it's amazing how well they hide their pain...The good news is that his bone-density in-general looks extremely good on the x-ray, and the spinal area the vet is talking about is visible, but not anything that has caused an injury or functional problem with the spine, and the density should fill right back in after the infection is resolved. Think about his spinal issue like you would a broken bone, the density and the strength of the bone in the area of the break is compromised, and even more so if they operate and put hardware in as they often do. However, within 6 months to a year you can hardly see where the fracture was, if at all, and in a good year and a half you can no longer see any holes in the bone that were drilled for the hardware screws, as the body fills them in very quickly as long as the diet of the patient is nutritious, varied, and contains enough calcium. So the spinal bone density will quickly recover as well with no issues.

There's a law in medicine called "Wolfe's Law" which states that "Bone grows in the direction of the force placed on it", and as you can see it's an accurate statement. This is also the explanation for conditions like bunions on the feet caused by ill-fitting or oddly-shaped women's shoes, or bone-spurs that occur also from bad shoes or simply from the way a person walks and the places on their feet/heels that they put the most pressure. So Kiwi's swollen kidney applying pressure against his spine in a direction that isn't normally supposed to be there is what caused this. However, because you took such great notice of his abnormal butt-scratching issue and got him to his CAV so quickly, he'll be just fine in a short amount of time...It's nice to have a happy ending!

 

[Kiwibird]

Wow, that's a swollen kidney! Poor guy, it's amazing how well they hide their pain...The good news is that his bone-density in-general looks extremely good on the x-ray, and the spinal area the vet is talking about is visible, but not anything that has caused an injury or functional problem with the spine, and the density should fill right back in after the infection is resolved. Think about his spinal issue like you would a broken bone, the density and the strength of the bone in the area of the break is compromised, and even more so if they operate and put hardware in as they often do. However, within 6 months to a year you can hardly see where the fracture was, if at all, and in a good year and a half you can no longer see any holes in the bone that were drilled for the hardware screws, as the body fills them in very quickly as long as the diet of the patient is nutritious, varied, and contains enough calcium. So the spinal bone density will quickly recover as well with no issues.

There's a law in medicine called "Wolfe's Law" which states that "Bone grows in the direction of the force placed on it", and as you can see it's an accurate statement. This is also the explanation for conditions like bunions on the feet caused by ill-fitting or oddly-shaped women's shoes, or bone-spurs that occur also from bad shoes or simply from the way a person walks and the places on their feet/heels that they put the most pressure. So Kiwi's swollen kidney applying pressure against his spine in a direction that isn't normally supposed to be there is what caused this. However, because you took such great notice of his abnormal butt-scratching issue and got him to his CAV so quickly, he'll be just fine in a short amount of time...It's nice to have a happy ending!

While I am sad Kiwi is sick and has been suffering a great deal of needless discomfort since he refused to indicate there was a problem sooner, I am very grateful the vet located the issue so quickly from such a vague symptom. Undoubtedly, had this continued untreated his prognosis would not include a full recovery to being totally healthy again.

 

[EllenD]

You're not kidding, I was just thinking about how many Veterinarians, even Avian Vets, would have completely misdiagnosed this, simply because they would have neglected to do a plain-film x-ray, as they often do. You've got an excellent Avian Vet!

 

[GaleriaGila]

I am so relieved, and glad, and optimistic.

You can see how much care and support people here want to give you. We love our Kiwi.

Wow, Scott's oatmeal trick worked. I'm gonna remember that one.

 

[Scott]

So happy to hear of some success, April! I've had huge success by mixing meds with oatmeal or other cooked cereal. In fact, the flock is served oatmeal once weekly because they love it *and* to keep a channel open should they need meds.

 

[Anansi]

April, you're a wonderful mom to Kiwi... and I'm glad he has an avian vet to match. What a phenomenal catch!

I'm glad Scott's oatmeal idea worked. Force medicating a bird is not fun at all. Another option, in case he catches on to the oatmeal, is peanut butter. Worked wonders for Maya.