My baby caique just died and it's a complete mystery as to why. He was only a little over a year and a half old.
The other day I noticed he had puffed up feathers, looked weak, and the irises in his eyes had turned a light orange (when they're usually red). There was blood in his stool. A lot. I rushed him to the vet but by the time I got there he was down to 20% red blood cell count. He ended up passing away from internal bleeding in his cloaca within an hour.
The vet thought it was lead poisoning at first but did an x-ray and there was no sign of anything metal in him. We don't think it was anything he ingested because there was nothing when the vet did an autopsy and there's nothing he could've gotten to that would've done this (like rat poisoning/lead).
I looked it up on the internet and, since it's not poisoning, it sounds like it could possibly be from a mass or tumor erupting in his cloaca caused by some kind of genetic malformation. Now I'm wondering if there was some kind of inbreeding done by the breeder (I got him from Shady Pines Aviary). I know caiques are a little weird, but my baby was still falling from his perch in the middle of the night pretty regularly even though he was over a year and a half old. He also suffered from bad sinuses and I took him to the vet multiple times for sinus infections.
Does anyone have any idea as to what could have happened?
The other day I noticed he had puffed up feathers, looked weak, and the irises in his eyes had turned a light orange (when they're usually red). There was blood in his stool. A lot. I rushed him to the vet but by the time I got there he was down to 20% red blood cell count. He ended up passing away from internal bleeding in his cloaca within an hour.
The vet thought it was lead poisoning at first but did an x-ray and there was no sign of anything metal in him. We don't think it was anything he ingested because there was nothing when the vet did an autopsy and there's nothing he could've gotten to that would've done this (like rat poisoning/lead).
I looked it up on the internet and, since it's not poisoning, it sounds like it could possibly be from a mass or tumor erupting in his cloaca caused by some kind of genetic malformation. Now I'm wondering if there was some kind of inbreeding done by the breeder (I got him from Shady Pines Aviary). I know caiques are a little weird, but my baby was still falling from his perch in the middle of the night pretty regularly even though he was over a year and a half old. He also suffered from bad sinuses and I took him to the vet multiple times for sinus infections.
Does anyone have any idea as to what could have happened?