Waiting to see the vet in an hour

[charmedbyekkie]

His throat swab didn't come back with anything.

He's going in for x-ray now.

Results will be told to us this evening.

 

[LaManuka]

I have everything crossed that it’s possible to cross and some that were never meant to cross!! Stay strong Cairo & parronts!

 

[ChristaNL]

What she said.... still sending positive vibes etc..

 

[Laurasea]

I hope the x Ray's provide answers!!!! You and Cario are in my supportive, and compassionate thoughts! Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

 

[Allee]

I just read this entire thread start to finish for the first time. This story is heart wrenching and inspiring at the same time. Cairo is very fortunate to have an amazing family and vet care team. I am waiting with all the others for the best possible news, I hope you have answers and solutions before this day is over. Hugs, hope and best wishes.

 

[Scott]

Hoping for a diagnostic breakthrough with the X-Ray. Sending you and Cairo feathered hugs.

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Cairo got sent home this evening. They crop-fed him until he reached to his normal 400g. The last time he vomited was yesterday morning (5ml then, and it’s nighttime now), so about 36 hours of not vomiting (minor success!). They did an x-ray, but all that showed up in terms of metal was his microchip. It did also show that his GI (stomach? in particular) was slightly inflamed - the vet said you could tell from the blurriness that his white (I might be misunderstanding this here) blood cells were activated in the area. I’m really bad at biology, so I probably don’t remember what she said correctly. But the gist is that the x-ray results didn’t show anything unexpected, it just showed that he had been vomiting (chicken-egg situation?). No extra fluids or gases or masses in his body.

They’ve given us a disk with the x-rays on it, so I’ll see if I can get them from my partner to upload here for your guys’ input.

The vet said she wants him to start eating by himself. He got really pissed off at the team that he even spat out his favourite treat - an almond - when they offered it to him. So they want him to go home and feel safe/happy enough to start eating by himself again. He’s still on his anti-vomiting meds for another two weeks, and they said to just feed him his favourite fruits and veggies to get him eating normally again.

Cairo was quite upset with my partner while at the clinic. I think after the visit yesterday, Cairo thought my partner was going to leave him there again. So Cairo didn’t want to come out of the vet’s carrier at all and bit him several times. They ultimately had to towel him to get him out and into his Birdie GoGo.

Now that he’s home, Cairo is acting a lot healthier. When the two of them got back, my partner turned on Skype, so I could keep an eye on Cairo while he cleaned Cairo’s cage. Cairo is getting a lot of preening in, with stretches and tail waggles. He’s shuffling along my partner’s chair (one of his favourite hangout places) and is acting genuinely interested in things going on around him, responding to sudden sounds. It’s so great to see him active again, he’s even wanting to fly and flying short distances from his perch to the chair. He’s pooping on the reg now - they were feeding him 100g a day, and now he’s going every 10-20 minutes, which I am ecstatic about (but my poor partner is just his scullery maid, cleaning up Cairo’s droppings on his computer chair - he swears it’s revenge).

We did discuss with the vet what this could be, what could have caused it. She said she’s noticed that Cairo does have a sensitive system. She was saying that it could be a problem that he’s had start since before he came to us, that likely no one noticed his poops looking bad before. Said it’s either a disease that flares up every once in a while or something like the human IBS or just a poisoning that happened that we can’t trace with our current tools available. Since he’s getting better, she said just keep an eye - if it comes back, then we do more testing (apparently testing for things like PBFD and other diseases means that we have to ship his blood to either US or Europe). If it stays away, then that’s good for now.

Am quite tired after a long day of fieldwork, and I've got another early morning flight tomorrow. Just wanted to update while I had internet access.

 

[Inger]

Frustrating that you don't know exactly what happened, but it's good that he seems to be on the mend. I'll continue to have fingers, toes, etc. crossed for you and yours.

 

[Laurasea]

Yippie so glad he feels better! Thankful that the vomiting seems over! You must be exhausted for sure just with the amount of stress alone, besides working away and sleeping in a new bed without your man!! I you've spent a ton of cash on your bird, but spend a little more and spoil yourself with something, something that makes you feel pampered!

 

[LaManuka]

Cairo will no doubt be happier and more comfortable in his familiar home environment. He is very blessed indeed to have such amazingly dedicated parronts who are prepared to make every effort for his wellbeing, hats off to you!

#teamCairo

 

[Anansi]

I'm so relieved that Cairo is back up to 400g! That's great news. I worry that the cause has not yet been determined, though. But at least some of the possibilities have been ruled out.

I just want to say that you and your partner have been phenomenal through all of this. You were both worried, of course, but you remained calm and did all you could to make sure that Cairo received the best care possible.

Thank you for keeping us all in the loop. I think you can tell by now that we've all grown rather fond of your little guy.

 

[Scott]

So pleased to see notable progress! That Cairo is aware of his environment and acts assertively bodes well. Hopefully this is an illness never repeated, but at least you have a terrific vet and accomplished some baseline testing.

You are amazing for having an ability to compartmentalize and continue work while your dear baby is unwell!

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Am waiting in the airport for my flight home.

My partner messaged me that Cairo isn't doing well. He's not vomiting, but he's also not eating. He's just been sleeping all day. My partner tried to hand feed him a banana (his favourite fruit that he'll fly after you for), but got attacked/bitten a few times.

I had my partner put Cairo's cage outside in the sun (we live in a tropical country) to at least see if the sunlight or the warmth might stimulate him to wake up and eat. Cairo was awake for a bit, then he's back to sleep.

I land at midnight.

I don't know if crop feeding made him lose his appetite, but he can't shut down like this. He's clearly not well. Yes, eating will help him stay awake. And yes, if he's active he'll get hungry. But this is not normal. He likes running and flying around, he likes playing games, he likes eating bananas. And this isn't ok.

My partner thought at first the crop feeding killed his appetite, and now we're facing the effects of that - reduced appetite which means he gets sleepy from starving himself.

Now we're not sure. It's just not like Cairo.

Has anyone had experience with the aftermath of crop feeding? Is this normal?

I'm not ok with this going on another day. I'll be the bad guy to him and take him to the vet if he doesn't eat tomorrow morning. I might try to convince him to eat when I land tonight.

I don't know what else we can do. The only other option I'm aware of is sending a blood sample overseas to test for the variety of diseases.

 

[HEEDLESS]

Oh Dear.

Could your partner call the vet and see what might that be before you are home?

I hope it just a simple matter... He has been through tough time..


POOR BABY!!!
​

 

[Anansi]

No, I don't think this is normal at all. I understand that Cairo's vet is trying her level best, but she is going to need a consultation with an avian vet to help with the next step. Perhaps if notes might be shared with the vet Ellen talked to? A consultation between professionals when dealing with a situation outside of one's area of expertise is not uncommon, and a fresh set of eyes... especially if those eyes belong to a CAV... is what is needed here.

Praying for Cairo. I'm proud of him for fighting so hard.

 

[Laurasea]

I think he is still unwell from whatever caused all the vomiting. In my opinion it's not from crop feed. I'm so sad to hear this and glad you are on your way home. You can send the radiographs to an avian vet in the states or a vet school for a second opinion consultion for a fee. One of the things that might have happened are a perforation of the GI from a sharp object.....that's just one idea , as well as a toxin I'm just so worried with you. Please get better cairo

 

[EllenD]

Yeah, I didn't want to say anything before when he left your Vet because he seemed better and things were much more upbeat, but I had a horrible feeling that he was still very sick and the only reason he was doing so much better was because he was so dehydrated and his blood sugar was so low, and they got fluids and food into him, which perked him up, along with antiemetic medication to stop the vomiting, which he's still taking at home, right? Whatever the underlying cause of his illness is, it was not identified nor treated, and it's still a problem...I know we tend to think about ourselves and the short-term viruses we get, like the "24-hour bugs" and what not, but birds don't work that way, they would never show any signs of sickness for only 24 hours, nor do they contract simple viruses like we do...He's most-likely still sick...

I worry about what you said about his x-ray and what they saw in his stomach. Something about "irritation" and the Vet saying something about "white blood cells in his stomach", which makes no sense to me at all, but i think they were trying to say something else...There's a reason that his stomach lining shows changes/swelling and whatever else is off in the x-ray, and it probably will not just "resolve itself"...Maybe, but not likely...

And simply crop or tube feeding a bird should have no effect on their appetite unless we're talking about an unweaned baby bird that has never eaten solid food and has a breeder who is tube/crop feeding it from day 1 and they know nothing else. Then they don't ever learn what "taste" is, and have no concept of eating food. That's the only time that crop-feeding will cause an issue. Birds are tube-fed/crop-fed in animal hospitals and vet offices every day, all across the world, without any issues with them eating normally once they are well again...So no, this isn't okay...

I'm sorry this is still going on, but I'm glad you're home now finally and not having to deal with this from afar, and I'm sure Cairo is happy you're home too...Honestly just having you home might help Cairo quite a bit too...

It's a great idea about seeing if your vet is willing to do a consult with a Certified Avian Vet over the phone/skype and by sending the lab results and the x-ray through email, Exotics Vets do this all the time...I have no issue with contacting my CAV, he'd be thrilled to help, or if your Vet has a CAV that she knows elsewhere, whomever it is, as long as they are a CAV with lots of experience, it's a great idea at this point...You've gotten lucky as birds don't usually hang-on like Cairo has, so if he is still sick, it's kind of like it "Go-Time" now for this...

 

[charmedbyekkie]

My partner just got 40-50g of food into him, said he "spoon-fed" Cairo.

I'll PM Ellen just to see if we can arrange something with our 13 hour time difference. If Cairo's eating again, maybe I should just give him some time..? I took Monday off from work, but I don't think my boss will give me much more because he's sending me overseas again 25 November for 9 days....

I really hope today was just a bad day and tomorrow he'll be back to his normal self.

I'm just trying to keep it together. We can't afford to lose my job - I'd be kicked out of the country, we'd lose our source of income (my partner's freelancing isn't steady).

And if Cairo keeps up like this, what are his chances? Is it a matter of time? I'm just trying to take it step by step, day by day, and not think about the future like that.

 

[Scott]

I'm sure Cairo will be thrilled to see you on arrival! May give him a small boost of enthusiasm.

Completely agree greater intervention is needed to determine, if possible, a definitive diagnosis leading to effective treatment. At a minimum, deeper blood studies and offshore consultation is needed.

 

[Terry57]

I'm so glad your partner was able to get some food into Cairo! I so hope this means he is on the mend, and will continue to eat. It may make a huge difference once you are home with him, too. You two have been amazing throughout this, and I know no one could have given better care for your baby.
I am so sorry you have to go out of town again, and hope Cairo is past all of this by then.
Still sending positive thoughts and prayers.