My bird was recently diagnosed with fatty liver. Bile test was 60.0.

[Nicole P]

My grey has fatty liver disese, my vet is treating with doxycycline. Everything that I have read states doxycycline is hard on their liver. I am confused, however, she is showing some but not all signs. I feed her Harris pellets, vegetables, fruit, and almonds. She very rarely gets what anyone would consider junk.. I have read milk thistle and dandelion root is good, I have ordered that. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ravvlet]

I am not a vet, and would not want to steer you wrong here as your bird’s health is on the line, but doxycycline is an antibiotic and I find it strange they’d prescribe it for liver disease. Did she perhaps have another health issue (infection, chlamidyosis, etc)? Silymarin is the drug of choice for liver disease in parrots, broadly speaking.

Which leads me to ask; is this vet avian board certified? You can check and see if they’re listed here:

https://www.aav.org/search/

If they are not - and I hate to say this because it means spending more money at another vet - I’d seriously consider finding a vet in your area that IS certified and seeing them.

Again; it’s entirely possible the doxycycline is for a different issue your bird is having! If in doubt about a medication I’d call the vet and ask for clarification.

As for the bird having fatty liver in spite of a healthy diet - unfortunately just like in people, some birds are more prone to health issues. Because birds’ bodies are built for flight (and for long flights at that), they rarely get the same level of exercise in a home environment. There is hope; fatty liver can usually be reversed! My orange-winged amazon came to us covered in lipomas & with fatty liver and was on silymarin for almost two and a half years before graduating off of it and getting the all clear from his vet.

 

[Littleredbeak]

I use lafaber senior nutriberries to help my lovebird with FLD. He does well on sprouted seeds, Tops pellets and fresh foods (including walnuts). In stead of peanut butter I used organic sprouted sunflower butter.