20yo hen - food related seizures

[kirstinkey]

My littlest bird, Quacker, is a 20yo hen who I've had since she was 14 weeks of age. I don't feed a processed diet, they get fresh cooked daily. The base of the diet is mixed grained pastas (all the alternative gluten-free pastas with wheat based hidden veggie pastas as well), grains, fresh greens, veggies, grilled white meats and seafoods, eggwhites, and fresh fruits. It changes every few days, with whatever is fresh. I occasionally will top dress with harrison's fine or zupreen natural. She doesn't do well with artificial colours and flavours. She cannot have sugar of any kind, not even fructose (a bite is fine, six bites will cause a seizure).

The first few were processed white sugar related (candy, marshmallows in sweet potatoes, etc). Then I narrowed her diet even more, and she was fine for a few years, then that sixth bite of an apple caused another one last month. She was fine, then a small bite of a flavoured (not sweetened) potato chip caused one last night.

The vets can't tell me anything, other than elevated enzymes which show seizure activity. Her blood panels came back fine... I had everything done, including heavy metal tox screening. She advised maybe having 5-10g off, QP now weighs in at 124g and has held steady for that last few years.

I'm at my wits end as far as what to feed her. I feel horrible that there's so much she can't have, even though it's probably best for her health to not have the "crap" food. Anybody else with a sensitive little one such as this? I would appreciate any advise, suggestions and guidance.

I do give prime, and a tiny scratch off a manu block every few days. I think I'm going to add in a UV light soon, it can't hurt, right? None of my other birds (gsc, bw pi, tiel and the severe) have any problems. Last bird into the flock was the severe 10 years ago. :-/

 

[SailBoat]

My littlest bird, Quacker, is a 20yo hen who I've had since she was 14 weeks of age. I don't feed a processed diet, they get fresh cooked daily. The base of the diet is mixed grained pastas (all the alternative gluten-free pastas with wheat based hidden veggie pastas as well), grains, fresh greens, veggies, grilled white meats and seafoods, eggwhites, and fresh fruits. It changes every few days, with whatever is fresh. I occasionally will top dress with harrison's fine or zupreen natural. She doesn't do well with artificial colours and flavours. She cannot have sugar of any kind, not even fructose (a bite is fine, six bites will cause a seizure).

The first few were processed white sugar related (candy, marshmallows in sweet potatoes, etc). Then I narrowed her diet even more, and she was fine for a few years, then that sixth bite of an apple caused another one last month. She was fine, then a small bite of a flavoured (not sweetened) potato chip caused one last night.

The vets can't tell me anything, other than elevated enzymes which show seizure activity. Her blood panels came back fine... I had everything done, including heavy metal tox screening. She advised maybe having 5-10g off, QP now weighs in at 124g and has held steady for that last few years.

I'm at my wits end as far as what to feed her. I feel horrible that there's so much she can't have, even though it's probably best for her health to not have the "crap" food. Anybody else with a sensitive little one such as this? I would appreciate any advise, suggestions and guidance.

I do give prime, and a tiny scratch off a manu block every few days. I think I'm going to add in a UV light soon, it can't hurt, right? None of my other birds (gsc, bw pi, tiel and the severe) have any problems. Last bird into the flock was the severe 10 years ago. :-/

First of all, Thank-You for your observational skills and willingness to work back to the source. Food Related Sensitivities is very difficult to detect and treat in Humans and is still very early in its application to the Avian World.

In all honestly, far more of our Parrots would be healthier if their Owners followed your offered diet. Other than working out the items that are bring on the food related seizures, there is near nothing available.

Sounds like you have a very good Vet that is providing you sound information.

FYI: UV lighting, it will not hurt unless you place the bulb to close to your Parrot and it blinds your Bird(s). Save the money by buying LED Day Light Bulbs that are dimable (standard style bulb). Place it or them in your normal room fixtures and add a dimmer in place of a standard switch. If you place one close to your Parrot, Do This First: Determine the distance between your Parrot and the bulb. Now place yourself where your Parrot would be and turn on the light and look at it for quick moment and turn it off. If you get a blind spot! It is too close to your Parrot.

I recommend using a LED Day Light (UV) bulb to provide general light for the room. Down Side to Using UV style day light lighting is that your Parrot will not adjust to Sun-up and Sun-down natural light and as a result 'may' develop sleep disorders. Very early in the Studies, Very little data at this point!

The reason for the dimmer is to allow you to adjust the amount of lighting to take that 'possibility' into consideration. Same Story with Humans!

 

[kirstinkey]

Thanks Sail. When I took her to an avian vet after her first seizure, they couldn't tell me anything other than "enzymes that show she's had a seizure." I took her home, and I'd stopped off to get dinner on the way, and we snuggled in bed while watching TV and having dinner. She had a seizure within 3-4 minutes. She'd been tucking into sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and I had had an epiphany. Her first seizure was a focal, right after a tiny bite of a red/white candy. It happened again after something sugary a month later. I don't remember what she'd eaten that morning when I took her into the vet, but it was a full blown grand mal seizure. She's only had 3-4 of them that I know of, the first being about six years ago. I finally put two and two together, called the vet back, and honestly was told they'd have to do some research. Cornell wasn't even of much help - food related seizures in birds was relatively unheard of in the research arena.

This is my baby. She's seen me through so much in my life, and I've had her in my life longer than most marriages last. I will do whatever I can for her, without question. I really just want to make sure she's comfortable, and find these triggers so we can prevent them from happening.

Thanks for the notes about the lighting. I will take this into consideration, and I'm sure it would be a benefit to all of my fids.

Thank you for your responses.

 

[GaleriaGila]

This is a comlete shot in the dark, but I'm guessing you'd like to hear even a wild guess.

Insofar as allergies MIGHT be related to hormones, and hormones are certainly related to light...

I noticed a great improvement in Rb's overall health and temperament when I put him on a natural light schedule some 25 years ago. Sunrise to sundown. He has his own room (the windows of which let him get a few hours of sun daily) so thats's easy to do. Just an idea...
Good luck!


P.S.
Rb eats Harrison's plus fresh stuff daily. His diet isn't much more exciting than your darling's. Never anything off the standard menu. So don't feel TOO bad about the limitations.

 

[EllenD]

Hello, welcome to the forum! I'm very sorry your bird has suffered from seizures for so long, I can absolutely relate to not only the frustration of not knowing what is causing the seizures but also having to watch your baby go through the seizures. They are quite traumatic to watch in any creature, let alone in a family member. I'm sorry, I reread your post trying to discern what type of bird Quacker is, lol. I got that she is a female and is 14 years old, but I'm not seeing a species.

I have an Australian Cattle Dog named Lola, she is 3 years, 4 months old, and I've had her since she was 8 weeks old. She is my second Australian Cattle Dog, my first, Cleo, passed away in 2012 at the age of 14. Cleo was born with a congenital heart murmur that was very small and went undetected for years. It didn't start effecting her quality of life until she was around 11 years old, when she started having petit mal seizures when she would stand up quickly after having been laying down for a length of time. Her seizures were very small and would only last for 10 seconds or less, basically she would stand up, walk forward for a couple of seconds, and then just tip over sideways, fall on her side, and have the seizure. Her back leg would subtly kick, her eyes would roll back, and she would urinate. It was actually quite hard to tell what was happening at first. It only happened once in a while, I knew what was causing it, and she lived quite uneffected by the seizures until I had to have her put to sleep at 14 because her heart was too weak to properly pump and she would completely fill up with fluid.

I got Lola in 2013 as a very small puppy, and she is my special little girl. Cattle Dogs are very much one-person dogs, so Lola is no doubt my dog, and never goes further away from me than 5 feet at any time. I brought her home at 8 weeks old and she might have been with me for 2-3 months when she suddenly fell off my bed one Sunday morning while I was watching TV and reading the newspaper. I called for her and saw nothing, she just went limp and fell off the foot of the bed. I got up and to my horror Lola was on the floor having a grand Mal seizure that was terrifying. I'd never seen a seizure like this in person, and it seemed to go on forever, though it probably only lasted for a minute or two. When she came out of it she was so scared, but I think I was even more frightened than her. I thought "oh no, not again", and this was so much worse than the small seizures Cleo had always had. It was awful.

Lola went to the vet the following morning, they found nothing. And 3 months went by without her having another seizure (that I knew of). I was worried, frustrated, confused by all of the tests the vet had run (she ran everything) which were all normal. She was perfectly healthy except for that one massive seizure she had 3 months earlier. Then one night I got home from work and took Lola and my male pug, Jaeger, for a walk. It was summer and Jaeger had horrible allergies, so a walk made him chew on his feet. So it was around 9:00 at night and he was on my bed with Lola, and he's chewing his feet like crazy. Then I see Lola scratching at herself. I wanted to go to sleep soon...About an hour later Lola falls off my bed again in an even longer, more violent seizure...But I was actually thrilled because I knew what had caused them both! Both times she had a seizure I had given her a Benadryl! Jaeger had taken one Benadryl a day for years and years due to horrible skin allergies. My ex-boyfriend had a Rottweiler that took Benedryl for the same reason, all advised by vets. So both times I had given Lola a Benadryl because she was scratching herself from the pollen outside...She's horribly allergic to Benadryl. She is now over 3 years old and hasn't had a seizure since.

So it absolutely could be an allergy that is causing your bird's seizures. The fact that you've narrowed it down to sugar in his diet is interesting, I would think that because most veggies and all fruits have some natural forms of sugar in them yet she doesn't always have a seizure after eating these foods that contain natural forms of sugar, that her seizures, if related to sugar intake, are dependent on not only the type of sugar (you say fructose, but there is fructose occuring naturally in many fruits and vegetables) but also the quantity she eats...

Your vet obviously did blood work if he tested enzyme levels (yes, there are enzyme level increases that can indicate a seizure has occurred). Was the rest of her blood work normal? What all did he test for? Did he do a fasting glucose level?

Putting this all together (and depending on what age she had her first seizure), I would request she be tested for diabetes. I've read a few different journal articles and did a study in grad school on diabetic birds, both birds that were born with diabetes and birds that suddenly showed symptoms of diabetes. One symptom common to most birds that are diabetic is the occurance of seizures. African Grays quite commonly have grand Mal seizures as their only symptom of diabetes, and this is actually related to hypocalcemia and proper UV light. I'll look for the journal article that explains this study and the outcome for you.




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