AkridChaos
New member
- Aug 31, 2017
- 129
- 5
- Parrots
-
Rescue Budgie: Snowball (blue/grey)
Normal Budgie: Oliver (yellow/green)
Black Capped Conure: Warbeak
Parrotlet: Lily, Rest In Peace
Canary-Winged Parakeet: Stryker
Alright guys. Thought I’d keep everyone informed on what’s been going on with my little spunky green plucking monster. I just had a vet visit with her (we determined plucking is behavioral, since she has gotten better with it in my care). Well I now have to take her back to the vet this Wednesday. Last week (Wednesday night) she started wheezing again (first occurrence was on 4/20 when I got home from work), most prominently heard after short flights across the room or when overly excited (play time or if I accidentally bump the cage when pulling food/water dishes out). I’m not 100% sure what caused it but I have two thoughts what could potentially have started it.
The first thought is the recent diet change. Lily and Snowball are housed together. I recently was able to make a breakthrough on pellets and able to incorporate them into their daily food (separate dishes though) When I get home, the pellets are all gone. I’ve been trying to slowly incorporate more pellets and less seed, to be about half and half. However, it’s actually possible Lily wasn’t eating the pellets at all, and it was actually Snowball eating all the pellets at the time, although recently I have seen them both eating the pellets (I made absolute certain to watch when the wheezing started on 4/20) so I’m not 100% sure this is the case, unless: she was eating only the seeds for a while, and it’s pretty close to half and half now. Either she was refusing to eat the pellets after finishing the seed, or it forced her to eat the pellets, both options potentially made her sick. Both options technically my fault for not being more aware of who was eating what before cutting down on the seeds and just assuming they were both eating their pellets and seeds at the time. But again I’m not sure this is the case, because I’ve seen them both mowing down on the pellets after watching them night time of 4/20.
The other, more likely option to me, is a new toy bird hut I had put in both their cage and Warbeak’s cage on 4/20. This one would be entirely my fault for being ignorant. I’ve never bought a fabric “toy” for birds before. It never even crossed my mind to add a smell test to a toy before. I feel stupid for not even thinking about it before putting these huts in their cages, because I know birds have sensitive lungs. I feel like it just should’ve clicked in my brain to smell these things. I just did the standard check of making sure they wouldn’t be able to hurt themselves on these things or accidentally swallow something small etc. Well I put it in their cages before work on 4/20. Left at 2:30pm. Came home at 11:15pm. Warbeak was fine. Snowball was fine. Lily was not. She was all puffed up and audibly wheezing (much like she does now in short flights or over excitement), and THAT’S when it clicked in my brain “GO SMELL THE HUT RIGHT NOW DUMMY!!” Dear lord, the smell of chemicals on this thing. Not wreaking of it, you absolutely had to put your nose up against it to smell it. But still, you could definitely smell it upon sticking your nose up to it and huffing it. How can you make a toy for birds but then have it smell that badly of chemicals?! This could have easily ended poorly and I would be half to blame for being so stupid as to not thinking to smell these things. I promptly removed all huts from their cages after that and moved the huts to a separate room. Even washed them that weekend but it still smells of chemical, so I think I’ll give it one more chance in the wash, and if it still smells, toss them. I don’t trust it. I’m so lucky none of them died while I was at work, if I had stayed for overtime, Lily could easily have gotten really bad and Warbeak/Snowball would likely have had symptoms of wheezing as well. Vet was closed that weekend, earliest I could call for scheduling an appointment was Monday, but over the weekend Lily seemed perfect again (she wasn’t super terrible Friday night where I feared she was at risk of death. It’s just the wheezing really scared me where I knew better to not schedule an appointment just in case). So I don’t doubt the hut is the cause if removing it stopped her wheezing, even if temporarily. Because Lily was fine, I scheduled the appointment for this Wednesday, to work around my Mom’s work schedule (I sadly don’t have a drivers license still. I’m a terrible driver). But about halfway through last week, she started that wheezing after short flights and when excited. Which makes me glad I scheduled a visit for her regardless how fine she seemed on 4/21-4/25, but upset I didn’t see that she was doing what birds tend to do best, which is pretending to be ok.
I guess let this be a lesson to anyone who has never bought a fabric toy for your fid(s), SMELL THE TOY FIRST. As in, actually put your nose up in it and smell it. Because that’s what it took for me to smell those chemicals. They were there, but not obviously so. If I had gotten a whiff of it when doing my standard new toy inspections, they would have never gone anywhere near their cages. I almost wish it smelled that badly where I didn’t have to put my nose up to it. It would’ve potentially prevented this entire thing from happening and I would’ve learned without toy hut going into the cage “smell test is necessary from this point forward”.
So definitely when we go to the vet on Wednesday, I’ll relate both things (diet change and bird hut), and hopefully it will at least help the vet narrow down the potential causes instead of grasping at straws. I might even take one of the huts with me, seal it in a bag, to see if she thinks that was the more likely cause than the diet. Personally I think it is, since I’ve seen her actively eating pellets after her first wheezing incident on 4/20, and removing the hut on 4/20 caused her to stop wheezing over the weekend until about 4/25 at night. Scary thinking about what could’ve happened if I had stayed late at work on 4/20 instead of wanting so bad to just come home to the fids. That is, if the huts are the cause (which I don’t doubt they are). It does seem a little strange to me that the other two fids are perfectly fine. Not one wheeze out of them. Lily likely has more sensitive lungs than they do. Poor girl. I feel so bad about this. Hopefully the hut experience is an eye opener for people not experienced in a fabric toy like I was. Please don’t make the same mistake. I got so lucky I think. Smell your toys first before they go in the cages.
I’m sure Lily will be fine, she’s probably going to need some form of medicine to help her through this, regardless what the cause may be. Yes, she’s in a separate cage for now, after the wheezing started back up on 4/25, and continued on 4/26 and 4/27, I decided to finally move her to her old cage, just in case it is something that can spread to Snowball (as in, diet and hut are not the cause of her wheezing). No point in taking unnecessary chances. I know neither of them like the current set up, but I’d rather be extra safe at this point after getting lucky with them all, than be sorry. I let them both out still but I “take turns” with them. I have to cover the other’s cage though to prevent them trying to just be near the other. I let Lily out just because I don’t want her plucking like crazy over this. It’s kind of conflicted thoughts on pros and cons to letting her out in her current state. I’m sure she’s worse than what she’s letting on. But I don’t want her to make it worse on herself by pulling her feathers out because she can’t fly around. Snowball I don’t want to “punish” because of Lily’s condition. Of course I have to let him out. I just have to make sure they don’t go near each other for now. Solution being cover up the bird cage of the bird who isn’t out at the time.
The first thought is the recent diet change. Lily and Snowball are housed together. I recently was able to make a breakthrough on pellets and able to incorporate them into their daily food (separate dishes though) When I get home, the pellets are all gone. I’ve been trying to slowly incorporate more pellets and less seed, to be about half and half. However, it’s actually possible Lily wasn’t eating the pellets at all, and it was actually Snowball eating all the pellets at the time, although recently I have seen them both eating the pellets (I made absolute certain to watch when the wheezing started on 4/20) so I’m not 100% sure this is the case, unless: she was eating only the seeds for a while, and it’s pretty close to half and half now. Either she was refusing to eat the pellets after finishing the seed, or it forced her to eat the pellets, both options potentially made her sick. Both options technically my fault for not being more aware of who was eating what before cutting down on the seeds and just assuming they were both eating their pellets and seeds at the time. But again I’m not sure this is the case, because I’ve seen them both mowing down on the pellets after watching them night time of 4/20.
The other, more likely option to me, is a new toy bird hut I had put in both their cage and Warbeak’s cage on 4/20. This one would be entirely my fault for being ignorant. I’ve never bought a fabric “toy” for birds before. It never even crossed my mind to add a smell test to a toy before. I feel stupid for not even thinking about it before putting these huts in their cages, because I know birds have sensitive lungs. I feel like it just should’ve clicked in my brain to smell these things. I just did the standard check of making sure they wouldn’t be able to hurt themselves on these things or accidentally swallow something small etc. Well I put it in their cages before work on 4/20. Left at 2:30pm. Came home at 11:15pm. Warbeak was fine. Snowball was fine. Lily was not. She was all puffed up and audibly wheezing (much like she does now in short flights or over excitement), and THAT’S when it clicked in my brain “GO SMELL THE HUT RIGHT NOW DUMMY!!” Dear lord, the smell of chemicals on this thing. Not wreaking of it, you absolutely had to put your nose up against it to smell it. But still, you could definitely smell it upon sticking your nose up to it and huffing it. How can you make a toy for birds but then have it smell that badly of chemicals?! This could have easily ended poorly and I would be half to blame for being so stupid as to not thinking to smell these things. I promptly removed all huts from their cages after that and moved the huts to a separate room. Even washed them that weekend but it still smells of chemical, so I think I’ll give it one more chance in the wash, and if it still smells, toss them. I don’t trust it. I’m so lucky none of them died while I was at work, if I had stayed for overtime, Lily could easily have gotten really bad and Warbeak/Snowball would likely have had symptoms of wheezing as well. Vet was closed that weekend, earliest I could call for scheduling an appointment was Monday, but over the weekend Lily seemed perfect again (she wasn’t super terrible Friday night where I feared she was at risk of death. It’s just the wheezing really scared me where I knew better to not schedule an appointment just in case). So I don’t doubt the hut is the cause if removing it stopped her wheezing, even if temporarily. Because Lily was fine, I scheduled the appointment for this Wednesday, to work around my Mom’s work schedule (I sadly don’t have a drivers license still. I’m a terrible driver). But about halfway through last week, she started that wheezing after short flights and when excited. Which makes me glad I scheduled a visit for her regardless how fine she seemed on 4/21-4/25, but upset I didn’t see that she was doing what birds tend to do best, which is pretending to be ok.
I guess let this be a lesson to anyone who has never bought a fabric toy for your fid(s), SMELL THE TOY FIRST. As in, actually put your nose up in it and smell it. Because that’s what it took for me to smell those chemicals. They were there, but not obviously so. If I had gotten a whiff of it when doing my standard new toy inspections, they would have never gone anywhere near their cages. I almost wish it smelled that badly where I didn’t have to put my nose up to it. It would’ve potentially prevented this entire thing from happening and I would’ve learned without toy hut going into the cage “smell test is necessary from this point forward”.
So definitely when we go to the vet on Wednesday, I’ll relate both things (diet change and bird hut), and hopefully it will at least help the vet narrow down the potential causes instead of grasping at straws. I might even take one of the huts with me, seal it in a bag, to see if she thinks that was the more likely cause than the diet. Personally I think it is, since I’ve seen her actively eating pellets after her first wheezing incident on 4/20, and removing the hut on 4/20 caused her to stop wheezing over the weekend until about 4/25 at night. Scary thinking about what could’ve happened if I had stayed late at work on 4/20 instead of wanting so bad to just come home to the fids. That is, if the huts are the cause (which I don’t doubt they are). It does seem a little strange to me that the other two fids are perfectly fine. Not one wheeze out of them. Lily likely has more sensitive lungs than they do. Poor girl. I feel so bad about this. Hopefully the hut experience is an eye opener for people not experienced in a fabric toy like I was. Please don’t make the same mistake. I got so lucky I think. Smell your toys first before they go in the cages.
I’m sure Lily will be fine, she’s probably going to need some form of medicine to help her through this, regardless what the cause may be. Yes, she’s in a separate cage for now, after the wheezing started back up on 4/25, and continued on 4/26 and 4/27, I decided to finally move her to her old cage, just in case it is something that can spread to Snowball (as in, diet and hut are not the cause of her wheezing). No point in taking unnecessary chances. I know neither of them like the current set up, but I’d rather be extra safe at this point after getting lucky with them all, than be sorry. I let them both out still but I “take turns” with them. I have to cover the other’s cage though to prevent them trying to just be near the other. I let Lily out just because I don’t want her plucking like crazy over this. It’s kind of conflicted thoughts on pros and cons to letting her out in her current state. I’m sure she’s worse than what she’s letting on. But I don’t want her to make it worse on herself by pulling her feathers out because she can’t fly around. Snowball I don’t want to “punish” because of Lily’s condition. Of course I have to let him out. I just have to make sure they don’t go near each other for now. Solution being cover up the bird cage of the bird who isn’t out at the time.