Hello Everybody. Please allow me to introduce ourselfves

[Nohora]

Hello Everybody. Please allow us to introduce ourselves

Hello Dear forum members,
My name is Nohora and my baby's name is Rorro We are new in this world of forums and Nohora (human member of this partnership) is also new as a conure/parrot/bird owner.
Our story is a love story that proofs we are angels sent to help humans.
Rorro, a NC, was rescued almost a year ago. Therefore Nohora has no idea about his age and background (which at the end, is not that important to her.)
Due to a family tragedy, we had to move to the border of VA and TN States and trying to get familiar to everything, while learning to live together, which has not being that difficult, since we fall in love since day one.
We will love to receive some advise and information from more experienced NC owners and, if possible, help other members as well.
Nohora is retired and likes to cook, to sew, to read, and, to learn about how to provide a better life for Rorro: as well as to start a new organic garden.
At this very moment, we are worried about Rorro's health since he has being vomiting and having diahrrea for almost a month. Nohora cleans his cage twice a day and washes it with soap, vinegar and hot water every other week.
Due to the recent quarantine situation we are not going out.

 

[noodles123]

Hello and welcome- sounds like we like to do a lot of the same things lol ! Do you have an avian certified vet in your area? The vomiting etc is concerning. As you probably know, birds hide illness, so when they show symptoms, it is very important to act quickly. My vet is open for curb-side assistance if you call ahead--even though the building looks closed (basically, I pull up and drop off the bird while standing 6ft away from anyone--then they do the procedures while I stand outside the building in front of a glass window where I can see what is happening and the bird can see me).

 

[Nohora]

Thank you so very much for your prompt reply! we both sincerely appreciate it.
We have moved to a very tiny, isolated, country area and we have not being able to find an avian certified veterinarian in more than a 3 hours distance from us.
I asked a veterinarian online in South America, since the Nanday Conure is originally form there, and he said that maybe Rorro wasn't being deparasited (removing parasites), therefore I ordered some deparasite spray online.
I also checked his cage for mites and spiders and place a 8in1 Bird protector for small Birds/cages (as per veterinarian advise, even though his cage is not that small) also I bought him a 8in1 Ecotrition Vita-Sol Multi-Vitamin for Birds and I'm giving it to Rorro in his water.
Since he had bad experiences before I rescued him, sometimes it is very difficult to help him, since my husband nor I want to stress him.
He was living in a house where he used to scream all the time, because nobody really paid attention to him, once one of the kids put the vacuum cleaner to the bird, and every time the bird "screamed" someone in the house screamed at him in a bad manner what made him very scared. Also they let him by himself in an empty house and only cleaned up his cage like every other week.
Once we met he really adopted me, because the first thing I did was to talk to him in a kind way and cleaned his cage, after that I cleaned it every day and changed his food everyday as well, while he was still at the empty house. And since he moved with us he doesn't scream at all, he calls his flock twice a day (early in the morning and at sunset time.)
Now, he had diahrea every once in a while and the previous owner said that I needed to add some vinegar to his water and to give him some scrambled eggs once a week.
I visited a website specialized in parrots, and their advise was to add 1 tablespoon vinegar per gallon of water. Therefore I add 1/8 of a Teaspoon in his water container (which has 1 cup capacity) And in the same website it stated that we were no suppossed to provide fried food or anythig with salt to the birds, then, instead of scrambled eggs I just boiled an egg and give him half of the eggyolk, which he eats sometimes once a week.
The kids in the previous owners house used to give him mash potatoes and leftovers food.
I never give him any potatoes since I have read it is bad for the conures. Therefore, he has turned a bit picky and do not like any fruits or vegetables, only his conures specialized food, which many times he only eats the seeds.
He is very strong headed and does whatever he wants, the only thing is he doesn;t goes all through the house, even though his cage is open all the time and he goes in and out of it. During the day he spends the majority of the time out of it, on top of the cage or in a small table that I have next to it.
I really don't know what to do to help my Rorro since there is not a veterinarian near we lived and the veterinarians from 3 or 4 hours distance are not avian certified.

 

[Laurasea]

Hi,
Do not add vitamin to water, it rots and makes birds sick. I also would but spray him for parasites, no way! Very very very rare that our captive parrots have parasites! Also don't hang any parasite thing in the cage. These are not safe in my opinion.

What you can do that is safe, is get bird probiotics to sprinkle over food. I myself prefer to offer a little live cultures yogurt with no artificial sweeteners, I offer about a teaspoons worth. My birds lick it right off my fingers. This might help balance his digestive system, it won't hurt him it's safe. Since he us off I would offer every day for a week, then go to twice a week for a month then once a week for life.

I don't know what you are feeding? But red chilli peppers are great for parrots and bear all live them. A good source if vitamin A, which helps immunity. They still hsc vitamin A even dried
you can order dried chili peppers from Amazon. All peppers are good for parrot. The heat in peppers doesn't bother them at all! But watch out for kisses after they eat the heat will effect you Offer leafy greens and veggies. Do not feed citrus fruits, the citric acid upsets them and can cause iron storage disease. South America parrots didn't evolve to eat the Asian citrus fruits like oranges, lemons, grapefruit ECT. But you can feed cherries, berries, plums.

A vomiting and diarrhea bird needs an avain vet, even if it is a long drive during a Pandemic , that's a very sick bird. I'm worrying for you. Tho I'm hoping stoping all that deworming and parasites stuff, and stopping adding anything to water will help. As well as giving the probiotics.

 

[Scott]

Welcome Nohora and Rorro, thanks for joining!

I strongly agree with the advice give, please do not give Rorro supplements unless recommended by an avian vet. His current food may be vitamin fortified and additional can be harmful. Same with anti-parasite sprays which may be toxic.

Diet is extremely important and may be the cause of long term diarrhea. Some advice for improving: http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-...7-converting-parrots-healthier-diet-tips.html
Suggested foods: http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-...afe-fresh-foods-toxic-food-lists-sprouts.html

Parrots are stubborn and will not easily change diet. My technique is to create two bowls of fresh vegetables and fruit. Give one to Rorro, begin eating from the other. Make "mmmm" sounds, bob your head up and down to show excitement. Birds are flock eaters and you are a member of the flock.

 

[GaleriaGila]

I'm glad you're here. Good for you, for reaching out and wanting to learn!
Maybe this will help...

Certified Avian Vets
https://abvp.com/animal-owners/find-an-abvp-specialist/
If none are near you...
Avian Veterinarians
http://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803
In my opinion, any of the vets listed here should be better than a regular vet.
International contacts, too.
Or... sometimes I find a place to start just by Googling "avian veterinarian near ((your location))"

 

[Flboy]

Welcome! Do some calling around and some FB(bad word!) searches for vets! Sometimes, a good farm vet may be helpful! Your South American vet was helpful, but remember, they deal with a whole different set of normalcies! We really are quite fortunate in the USA!

 

[Nohora]

Hello and welcome- sounds like we like to do a lot of the same things lol ! Do you have an avian certified vet in your area? The vomiting etc is concerning. As you probably know, birds hide illness, so when they show symptoms, it is very important to act quickly. My vet is open for curb-side assistance if you call ahead--even though the building looks closed (basically, I pull up and drop off the bird while standing 6ft away from anyone--then they do the procedures while I stand outside the building in front of a glass window where I can see what is happening and the bird can see me).

Hi, thank you very much for your personal interest on Rorro's progress.
Today he is already looking better; the vomiting is improving, he is just regurgitating, today but not as bad as he was doing it before and no vomiting as he was doing before.
Yesterday, I gave him a little bit of my homemade natural yogurt, and, I think it is helping him. I'm stopping the vitamins in his water and keep paying close attention to his progress.
The inconvenience is that we lived in a very isolated, country area, and the closest vet is almost 4 hours away by car and he is not an avian certified vet. Therefore I don't want to give Rorro the additional stress that traveling causes him.
I will keep asking around if somebody knows of a good avian certified vet.
Again, thanks a million. Have a wonderful day.

Rorro and Nora

 

[noodles123]

And exotics vet isn't ideal, but it is better than nothing 95% of the time. With an exotics vet, you really have to research what they tell you before doing it because it has been my experience that they are sometimes incorrect...that having been said, if they see a lot of birds, they could still work and they can easily run basic testing for bacteria infections etc (just have to always verify their suggestions etc with research first)...If dealing w/ a very sick bird, a vet that frequently treats birds (even if exotics) is still going to be better than nothing in most cases-- but I get what you mean about not wanting to stress him with a 4 hour drive when already sick etc.

If there is a vet that can do gram-stains, you don't even need to bring the bird in...just the poop (although in most cases you have to be established as a patient already). This would allow them to look for fecal bacteria...and yes, a million other things could be wrong, but at least that would be one thing out of the way.

 

[Nohora]

And exotics vet isn't ideal, but it is better than nothing 95% of the time. With an exotics vet, you really have to research what they tell you before doing it because it has been my experience that they are sometimes incorrect...that having been said, if they see a lot of birds, they could still work and they can easily run basic testing for bacteria infections etc (just have to always verify their suggestions etc with research first)...If dealing w/ a very sick bird, a vet that frequently treats birds (even if exotics) is still going to be better than nothing in most cases-- but I get what you mean about not wanting to stress him with a 4 hour drive when already sick etc.

If there is a vet that can do gram-stains, you don't even need to bring the bird in...just the poop (although in most cases you have to be established as a patient already). This would allow them to look for fecal bacteria...and yes, a million other things could be wrong, but at least that would be one thing out of the way.

Thanks a lot for your advice. I'm still talking with some people who have chickens and other birds to find out if there is a vet which doesn't really have an office but is visiting the farms or something like that.
Thanks, again,

Rorro and Nohora

 

[noodles123]

Ideally, you do want someone with parrot experience. In the worst-case-scenario, you might be able to use a farm vet, but chickens are so much different from parrots. All vets learn a bit about birds in med-school, but just research if you use a farm vet because what works for chickens often does not work for parrots (parrots live a lot longer, so certain things that work for one could really harm the other).
I mean- if it gets really bad, call any vet with bird experience because if things get to that point, doing nothing would likely be as fatal as doing something, you know?

 

[Nohora]

And exotics vet isn't ideal, but it is better than nothing 95% of the time. With an exotics vet, you really have to research what they tell you before doing it because it has been my experience that they are sometimes incorrect...that having been said, if they see a lot of birds, they could still work and they can easily run basic testing for bacteria infections etc (just have to always verify their suggestions etc with research first)...If dealing w/ a very sick bird, a vet that frequently treats birds (even if exotics) is still going to be better than nothing in most cases-- but I get what you mean about not wanting to stress him with a 4 hour drive when already sick etc.

If there is a vet that can do gram-stains, you don't even need to bring the bird in...just the poop (although in most cases you have to be established as a patient already). This would allow them to look for fecal bacteria...and yes, a million other things could be wrong, but at least that would be one thing out of the way.

Thanks a lot for your advice. I'm still talking with some people who have chickens and other birds to find out if there is a vet which doesn't really have an office but is visiting the farms or something like that.
Thanks, again,

Rorro and Nohora

 

[Nohora]

Ideally, you do want someone with parrot experience. In the worst-case-scenario, you might be able to use a farm vet, but chickens are so much different from parrots. All vets learn a bit about birds in med-school, but just research if you use a farm vet because what works for chickens often does not work for parrots (parrots live a lot longer, so certain things that work for one could really harm the other).
I mean- if it gets really bad, call any vet with bird experience because if things get to that point, doing nothing would likely be as fatal as doing something, you know?

Thank you so very much! I have been calling vets. over 4 hours from here, in different states and their answer is that they really have no much experience with parrots, none about Nanday Conures.:26: and due the quarentine situation they don't want us to drive all the distance without being sure they are the right thing for Rorro.
Therefore I'm in a bad cash 22 situation.
On the other hand, Rorro has stopped vomiting and his diarrhea is improving. He is only a little bit fussy, but it doesn't bother me since he is sick and has been very patient, with all what he has deal through the last 2 or 3 years...

Thank you so very much for your enthusiasm to help us in this situation.

Rorro and Nohora