I'm at a loss

[Owlet]

I feel like I'll never be able to get Lincoln fully healthy. As some might know we had a series of vet trips for blood work and a bacterial infection (infection is cleared now) and it went great! We found some problem areas in his diet and I fixed it. His toe tapping stopped for a bit... but now it's back. Everytime i change his diet it goes away for a bit but then comes back and I'm just at a loss.

And his beak is so weird compared to every other ekkie I see and I don't know WHY. everyone tells me it's fine but I can't help but feel it's NOT. Every other ekkie I see has these perfect beaks that are smooth and sharp at the end and Lincoln's just isn't. It has pieces flaked off and it's just so dull.

I'm doing everything I'm told to do and trying everything but it doesn't seem like anything is working and I feel like I'm falling him.

 

[noodles123]

You sound like the parents of a lot of the kids I teach, and that is normal when the comparisons seem so "healthy".
Genetics can really take a toll and a lot of that is total chance!
Lincoln may not be in perfect shape, but try to focus on what he has added to your life and what you have added to his. Not all birds (or people) take the standard path, and by experiencing this difficulty, you will only be more appreciative of health in the future. That having been said, none of this discounts your relationship with him. Imagine if he was living with someone less attentive...
I don't think that EVERYTHING happens for a reason, but I do think that certain creatures are entrusted to others who will care for them, not out of coincidence, but out of some sort of divine will.

Trauma creates paranoia, and sometimes that is justified, and other times it is not. Knowing what is what is nearly impossible after having braved a storm, so.....


Thanks for helping him and know that you are loved! You aren't crazy, you do care and you are paying better attention than many people would.

 

[GaleriaGila]

What noodles said!

Linc is your darling, and you're his angel.

No matter WHAT.

 

[Owlet]

he is, I love Lincoln with everything I've got but love doesn't keep a parrot healthy.

 

[Owlet]

the toe tapping is just really stressing me out because of won't go away. I have an idea that might help but I'm just not sure since it keeps coming back and I guess I am a tad discouraged.

 

[wrench13]

Man you take excellent care of Lincoln !! Beaks? Saltys is always flaking off somewhers and if the vet hasn't thought it an issue dont stess on it.

I know ekkies have specail diet reqm'ts but heres a thought - if you change it and the top tappin stops for awhile and comes back why not try a rotating diet? such and such a diet for a week, change, another week, change and so forth.

We have all come tocare a great deal about you and Lincoln, and don't want either of you stressin' out !

 

[Owlet]

yeah that's what I was thinking. I plan to come up with 2 more chop recipes after work today that doesn't have anything his current chop has and I'm thinking of getting rid of fruit in his regular diet (still grapes and apples sauce as treats/snacks though) and rotate it. It's gonna be a pain to make 3 chops at once but yknow it's fine.

 

[Scott]

I don't recall Lincoln's history, but have you taken him for a second CAV opinion? Sometimes a new set of eyes might stumble on unique considerations. Big props for caring so intently and leaving no stone unturned for him.

 

[ChristaNL]

I was thinking about the same lines... if the tapping stops when you try another diet, but starts again after eating the same(ish) stuff for a while.
Its like a build-up of something, or (like a few of my own weird allergy-like-whosnames) its something he can tolerate at incidental exposure and low levels, but not at an incidental higher dosage or the repeated exposure.


I do not envie you in trying to solve that puzzle!!
( But I do wish you all the luck with it. You deserve a few more "lightbulb-moments".)

 

[Owlet]

I don't recall Lincoln's history, but have you taken him for a second CAV opinion? Sometimes a new set of eyes might stumble on unique considerations. Big props for caring so intently and leaving no stone unturned for him.

he's been to 2 different cavs but one had no idea what he was talking about and recommended the fruit cockatiel Zupreem to me (what??) the 2nd seems really knowledgeable and I have a 3rd cav I could see but they're also 2 hours away.

 

[EllenD]

Ya know, Lincoln's toe-tapping may be less physical and more psychological than is typical...He has had so many different diets, and each time you change them the toe-tapping stops, then eventually, within a certain amount of time (whatever that usually is), the toe-tapping returns, until you once again change-up his diet, then it goes away again for a while, etc. So it may very well be that Lincoln is simply getting bored with his regular, daily diet after a certain amount of time, and whenever it is that that happens, his toe-tapping returns, but not as a symptom of a physical or metabolic issue, but rather an anxiety issue. So just putting him on an always-fluctuating or rotating diet that you simply automatically change BEFORE THE TOE-TAPPING STARTS AGAIN may just be the answer...

For example, if Lincoln usually starts toe-tapping again around 2 months after you first change-up his diet (I'm just picking a time period at random, use whatever the average amount of time is between the changing of his diet and then the restart of his toe-tapping), then instead of waiting for the toe-tapping to start again, from now on just automatically change-up his diet again after a month and a half, BEFORE he starts toe-tapping again, and then see if it still returns...If you do this and the toe-tapping doesn't come back, then again just automatically change-up his diet at a month the next time, and so on. It's very likely that if Lincoln's toe-tapping is actually a psychosomatic anxiety response to boredom or to his regular, daily diet, for whatever reason, then that means that he may have just gotten stuck in a routine of automatically starting the toe-tapping to get you to change up his diet! It's not far-fetched, it's just like the "If I scream they come to me, so I'm going to scream" thing. Lincoln could very well be going "When I toe-tap she changes my food, so I'm going to toe-tap". Or it could be less of a conscious decision for him than that, he may just unwittingly do it as an autonomic response to boredom with his food. Either way, you have to break the cycle, and the way you do this is by changing up his diet BEFORE he starts toe-tapping again, and do this each month, or each two months, whatever the time period is. Try to anticipate it and change it before he ever has a chance to start. And if you do this for a long enough period of time, it may just break the cycle and stop it.

****And if you think that you have "failed" Lincoln because he toe-taps once in a while due to food boredom, can you imagine what kind of shape he'd be in right now if ANYONE ELSE had him? As finicky and sensitive as Ekkies are to everything, and as many Ekkies that I've seen who are pluckers, who self-mutilate badly, who are an anxious wreck, who cannot be interacted with at all, etc., you've done just a fantastic job with Lincoln...he loves you, and he needs you! And he knows it too!

 

[Anansi]

Any updates? I particularly liked the ideas from these posts, and it looked as though you were leaning toward trying them out, so I just wanted to check in and see if there has been any improvement.

Man you take excellent care of Lincoln !! Beaks? Saltys is always flaking off somewhers and if the vet hasn't thought it an issue dont stess on it.

I know ekkies have specail diet reqm'ts but heres a thought - if you change it and the top tappin stops for awhile and comes back why not try a rotating diet? such and such a diet for a week, change, another week, change and so forth.

We have all come tocare a great deal about you and Lincoln, and don't want either of you stressin' out !

I was thinking about the same lines... if the tapping stops when you try another diet, but starts again after eating the same(ish) stuff for a while.
Its like a build-up of something, or (like a few of my own weird allergy-like-whosnames) its something he can tolerate at incidental exposure and low levels, but not at an incidental higher dosage or the repeated exposure.


I do not envie you in trying to solve that puzzle!!
( But I do wish you all the luck with it. You deserve a few more "lightbulb-moments".)

Btw, like so many others have said, you are a fantastic parront.

 

[Owlet]

We are still working on new foods for him. We made 2 chops for him that we planned to rotate into his weekly diet but I mistakenly put chives into one of them so we had to halt that until we figured out which had the chives (which required sitting down and eating anything chive-looking that we found in his food). we figured that out and trashed the offender and we just got new supplies for a replacement chop yesterday and I'm hoping we can make it tonight and get Lincoln rotating. He seems to be doing well though

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

I like Ellen's idea of rotating Lincolns food just BEFORE he starts tapping away.

And after some time,maybe he will "forget" about tapping. It'll be a p.i.t.a. making a variety of chop for the boy,but isn't he worth it???


I'm with the others who responded about where would Lincoln be if he didn't have YOU taking such great care of him

You're doing an awesome job with him..don't feel/think that you failed him!


As I have said before..I just LOVE the face of an Ekkie,and Lincoln is no exception



Jim