A little worried... Need some thoughts!

[YUMgrinder]

So we got Chessie our unknown aged adult pearl like... Maybe a year ago... She was a fantastic flyer. I noticed a couple weeks ago that she would crash or miss her landing sometimes. Now she can't fly from the floor up to her cage. She tries, but fails.

Everything else seems fine. Her temperament, eating, drinking, personality. It's all the same.

I was thinking maybe she's just not as strong as when they found her outside living and now she prefers her cage so she's just lost some muscle tone? I'm a little worried.

 

[EllenD]

That's definitely not good Yumgrinder...Do her feathers appear to be normal? Has she been molting a lot or any plucking that you've noticed?

Even though she was found outside and flying a lot more than a captive/pet bird does, and a lot more than she has been since you took her in, that should have no-bearing at all on her ability to fly...Yes, I'm sure her muscle-tone is less than it was when she was living outside in the wild, but her muscle-tone wouldn't be any different than any other pet bird, you know what I mean?

I hate to say this, but a lot of the time when a bird loses the ability to control their flying/landing, or loses the ability to fly at all as you're describing (like she cannot gain any altitude at all now, which slowly happened over-time, starting with a loss of control while flying to now not being able to fly at all), if it's not related to an issue with their flight feathers (say they are plucking their flight-feathers or another bird is doing it to them, or for whatever the cause they have lost a lot of their flight feathers), it's actually caused by a Neurological issue, such as one caused by an Avian Viral Disease...

I'd be getting her to your CAV ASAP, and getting full blood-work done, including the blood-tests for PBFD, ABV, and PDD...You well-know that you cannot ever be too careful when they are displaying any signs/symptoms of Neurological issues/disease...

I'm so sorry you're dealing with this...It's good that she's still eating/drinking and acting normally, but it sounds like this has been slowly progressing over-time, and you need to figure out what is going on ASAP...

 

[reeisconfused]

Oh no! I hope things are turn out OK. Are you sure she didn’t hurt herself in her last crash?
How long has she been unable to fly?

Personally, I don’t think she lost muscle tone. I have a wild caught rescue, Max, who flies just fine at home and he came from the wild. (He, however, has coordination problems and crashes into things as well. We’ve since come a long way and the sudden crashes have stopped, for most of the part).

An appointment with the CAV would be the way to go! We’re rooting for you, Chessie! Please keep us updated

 

[EllenD]

YumGrinder, something else that I've seen cause birds to suddenly lose control while flying is a bad inner-ear infection. It severely throws-off their balance, and when it's bad enough they just can't get airborne at all. I just thought of a Pionus we had at the Rescue a few years ago that suddenly started crashing, and she had a bleeding wing due to a crash, and the CAV assumed that the reason she could no longer control her flying was due to the injured wing. So he put her on Metacam and we assumed it would heal and she'd be fine, but instead it got worse to the point that she could no longer gain any altitude, and eventually she stopped trying to fly...At the same time she stopped flying completely, she also fell off a perch, and that was enough for me to take her right to our CAV's office for an x-ray, and it showed that the inner-ear infection had gotten so bad that it had cause a slight remodeling of the bones in her ear canal...So if this started a few weeks ago with your Cockatiel and has gotten progressively worse, it could very well be a bad inner-ear infection, and in that case you need to get her to your CAV for him to look in her ears and probably should do a regular x-ray to make sure...A culture and the proper Antibiotic or Anti-Fungal is obviously the treatment for that, and that would be one of the better causes and easier ones to treat...

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

I think that Yumgrinder had a bird die from PDD (I could be wrong)... a Nanday named Cheddar? Didn’t he die from PDD that he got from the pet store? I really hope that it didn’t spread to Chessie as well. I hope she gets better. I would take her to the avian vet immediately to get her tested.

 

[EllenD]

I think that Yumgrinder had a bird die from PDD (I could be wrong)... a Nanday named Cheddar? Didn’t he die from PDD that he got from the pet store? I really hope that it didn’t spread to Chessie as well. I hope she gets better. I would take her to the avian vet immediately to get her tested.

Yes, he did...I was thinking the same thing, though the odds of that happening are very low, you never know...Hoping it's just something like an inner-ear infection or a sinus infection, or possibly even an injury to a wing...

 

[Laurasea]

These are serious symptoms Birds only stop eating when very very ill they will still pretend to eat, or eat less. Remember just recently we had an egg bound female sun conure with a huge egg, she was still eating.. I hope you can get her to the vets, and that it is treatable. I would take all of your birds in for a check up and blood work and fecal exam. My thoughts with you.

 

[EllenD]

These are serious sympathy. Birds only stop eating when very very I'll, or they will still pretend to eat, or eat less. Remember just recently we had an egg bound female dun conure with a huge egg, she was still eating.. I hope you can get her to the vets, and that it is treatable. I would take all of your birds in for a check up and blood work and fecal exam. My thoughts with you.

That's a great idea at this point, since there is a possibility of ABV/PDD being spread around. I doubt that is what is going on, but at this point you can't be too careful...

 

[LaManuka]

Yes unfortunately I would be heading to the vet about this one. Cockatiels are innately such strong flyers so if Chessie is having trouble getting airborne I would suspect she does have a problem. I sincerely hope you have a good outcome with her.

 

[SailBoat]

Truly excellent advice provided above!

The weight to flight surface area of a tiel is so low that a good sneeze will get them airborne.
A flight active Amazon that is a much heavier weight to flight surface area can actively fly with 33% of the Primary Flight Surface area removed.

I hope that you are already at your CAV's Clinic my friend.

 

[YUMgrinder]

Her feathers seem to be jagged and she's lost a couple big feathers recently. Jazz is molting Chessie might be too but she's got enough flight feathers I would think? I wonder if this is the start of my flock getting sick since cheddar died... And had PDD or whatever. Pics attached.

 

[YUMgrinder]

ok so I work nights so I wasn't able to see all your responses till now. and yes, my nanday died recently from if I remember right was PDD, I keep getting the acronyms confused... I will make an appt asap. I'm torn whether to use the local avian vet which is barely a bird vet in my opinion or try and get an appt at the Colorado university in fort Collins. It's like an hour from me. The reason I consider the local ones is they still send their blood to good blood labs so I think maybe either way I would be good, I'm just unsure cause the local vet is the one that took blood from cheddar and she died from it. Maybe I can make them do it in the room so I can watch. I'm just worried about losing another bird to a damn blood test. I tried to get her to take off before their bedtime and fly to her perch but she lost altitude right away and just fluttered to the ground. She def has enough flight feathers to fly. A couple weeks ago I watched her miss her landing and fall behind the tv stand. I ran to the table and could hear her hissing from behind the table. She was ok though just scared herself I think. But it's happened a few times recently when she's always been our best flyer, and had very good precision. I hope maybe it's something as simple as an ear infection and not the disease cheddar died from. She has been extra cuddly lately, but that could be because I've been spending a lot of time with her lately and so I thought she's more cuddly cause we are bonding more. Maybe she doesn't feel so well though. I should say though that she has successfully flown from her perch then back to her perch in the last week, it just seems like today was a really bad day and it was definitely something I noticed. This morning she could gain a couple feet of altitude on her own then fall, and tonight no longer was even gaining any altitude.

I've got to say, I'm very scared.... very, I'm worried and holding back tears. I get off work at 8am (in like 10 hours) and I am deathly afraid that I am going to go home and she's gonna be gone. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

[LaManuka]

I’m so sorry you are going through this, there’s nothing worse than worrying if your baby is sick. But you’re doing everything you can for Chessie, I’m sending all the positive vibes I can muster your way!

 

[Scott]

Hoping for the very best for Chessie. Definitely a decision whether to see a local vet vs uni at Ft. Collins. Blood work an important first step, but a qualified vet may be able to make treatment choices based on a careful exam.

We'll all be thinking of you and Chessie overnight.

 

[YUMgrinder]

Thanks everyone. I think I'll call the university in the morning and see if they can see her before the weekend....

 

[YUMgrinder]

Oh and also, I hadn't noticed any bad preening behaviors like plucking or anything. Shes still her sweet old self.

 

[EllenD]

Yumgrinder, I'm trying to be as gentle here as I can...Chedder didn't die from the Vet taking blood, Cheddar was extremely sick with a horrible Avian Virus, and the stress of the entire situation was too much for her, as it is for many already sick birds...

I would honestly see if you can get right in to the university, but if not, I would get Chessie to the local vet ASAP if at all possible, simply so they can get the blood testing done. And then if Chessie does have something going on like an Avian Viral Disease, then you could take her to the university...Unless they can get her in right away, then by all means take her there...but I honestly wouldn't blame that vet for Cheddar dying, stress kills a lot of birds who are already sick or injured...

Her feathers look fine in the photos, if she is actually "molting" it certainly wouldn't cause her to not be able to fly. She's got something going on that is progressing, and I just don't want you to wait too long and it get to the point where she suddenly can't walk or something, because it sounds like it might progressively be going that way.

i'm so sorry you're having to keep dealing with this, and I'm hoping that it's just something simply like an injury or more than likely an inner-ear infection...And that's the other reason she needs to get checked quickly, if it is an inner-ear infection that is getting worse and worse, you don't want her to become septic or anything worse than it is...Keep us updated, we're thinking about you...

 

[YUMgrinder]

Thanks everyone. Yeah I suppose I conceed it wasn't the vets fault but it's hard for me I guess still. I just got home from work, and checked on Chessie, and the rest of the flock of course. She is alert and happy to be on my shoulder. I called the vet and she said the doc is in surgery so I'm gonna call back in a bit. I think I will do local blood work then decide from there if we need to use CSUs exotic department. I've attached a photo of her this morning. Her cuddling up to my face is relatively a new behavior for her, I think she loves me and I'm happy to be loved. She's a sweetie and I hope everything comes back normal and she is maybe just being lazy with the flying. I don't believe in superstition or god, but my fingers will be crossed along with my toes when they take blood lol. Thanks again it's nice to have support from people who love birds like I do!

 

[YUMgrinder]

What?! Now my picture is upside-down. Da ***?! Do you guys see an upside down picture????

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

The picture is upside down for me. Such a sweetie!! Ducky nuzzles a lot as well. I hope everything turns out okay and that she doesn’t have PDD.