This is not good new at all. I hope for the best, but at least you know what to expect and look out? Your vet could help, but as far as a cure, there isn't one and complete recoveries or a long-term is rare. Usually you still get a few good years more successful prolonging the bird’s life and try your best to give them a decent life.
The problem is this virus is not restricted to the nervous system, it commonly spreads to all the major organs, including heart, liver, adrenals, and the kidneys.
If it PDD the first signs may notice is a lack of activity in their parrot, disinterest in its environment and a sleepy attitude. I think of them as having a generalized bedraggled look. When handled, it is usually quite apparent that they have lost weight in their breast area, which one of your gain weight? These parrots usually continue to eat — but as the disease progresses, often notice that their stools have changed. What was once a homogeneous greenish stool is now gritty with undigested food particles and seeds. These parrots often begin to regurgitate (vomit). In some, their crops become visibly enlarged.
They may temporarily improve when given antibiotics. They have their good and their bad days or weeks but their long-term health remains in general decline.
Neurological Signs
Bornavirus not only has the potential to attack the nerves in your parrot’s digestive system, it is quite likely to destroy nerves in other areas, particularly the bird’s brain and spinal cord. Signs of that destruction can appear suddenly or as a gradual decline. Parrots with his form of PDD may just appear weak, or they may loose their ability to stay on the perch, walk, or just appear clumsy. Also loose ability to fly. One leg or wing or both might be equally affected. Head tremors and shaking might occur and, occasionally, these birds suffer from personality changes or seizures. EllenD mention this before and started to touch on it.
Exactly why this occurs is not yet known. Some virus cause disease by actually destroying cells. But there are a few that cause the release of body chemicals that cause the pet’s own immune system to rush to the area causing a chronic inflammation that eventually destroys the body’s own tissue. The most common virus of that type that veterinarians struggle with is the coronavirus of cats responsible for feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). Avian bornavirus may well be another.
In the digestive tract form of avian bornavirus infection, the local nerve centers (myenteric plexuses) in the walls of your parrots digestive system that are responsible for normal motility (peristalsis) are slowly destroyed by a mixture of the parrot’s own immune cells (lymphocytes and plasma cells).
Without that normal wave action in the bird’s digestive tract, food backs up and is not properly digested or absorbed. The most common place for that to first occur is in the bird’s fore-stomach or proventriculus. Without the ability to properly digest food, food ingredients pass through the bird without much change in their composition. The blockages that occur also make the parrot susceptible to bacterial and fungal infections and overgrowth. Birds in this condition must fall back to living on their fat and muscle stores which is why their breast muscles shrink so profoundly. The parrot’s crop also relies on peristalsis to move food along. So crop impactions (blockages) are common as well.
When it is the birds central nervous system (CNS) where the majority of the inflammation is occurring, owners will see a wide variety of neurological (nerve-related) symptoms as the bird looses control of its body.
Bornavirus can also affect the nerves that keep the heart beating (Purkinje Fibers) leading to sudden death. Portions of its adrenal glands are modified nerve cells too. (ref) Their destruction can occasionally cause a parrot with ABV to die without prior warning.
The bornavirus dissemeinates throughout the body of birds. It is even possible that we might learn that some cases of kidney disease (avian gout) were related to its presence.
The bottom line is that the disease is characterized by a specific inflammatory pattern found around nerves that causes the target organ to fail. If the affected nerves supply the proventiculus (stomach), food passes undigested and the bird wastes away and starves to death. If nerves in the brain are affected, the bird may suffer from seizures and strange neurological abnormalities. If the nerves to the eyes are affected, the bird can become blind. Wherever nerves can be found, they can be affected by this disease. An affected bird may show only gastrointestinal or neurologic signs in addition to a combination of both.
Can PDS Be Treated Successfully ?
Is There A Cure ?
There is no known cure for avian bornavirus infection. But some veterinarians claim successful treatments or, at the least, successful prolonging the bird’s life. The most promising treatment has been to suppress the parrot’s own inflammatory response. The most effective drug for that has been an NSAID called celecoxib (Celebrex).
Many veterinarians and aviculturists believe that birds under stress are more likely to develop PDD/ABV symptoms than those that are not. That is the case in many diseases. So you veterinarian will advise you on the best ways to provide a low-stress lifestyle, a highly nutritious and easily digestible diet and perhaps supplemental vitamins for your pet.
There may be times when the parrot will need supplemental fluids (parenteral fluids) and medications to control vomiting and aid in intestinal transit and digestion (metaclopramide, cisapride, apple pectins, etc)
There may also be times when antibiotics or anti-fungal drugs are required.
Complete recoveries or a long-term, restabilized condition are rare — but they do occasionally occur.
That said, no vet or owner gives up lightly on a beloved parrot. So just about every medication is being tried (interferons, various anti-viral medications, amantadine, ribavirin, gabapentin etc.). The variability of how individual cases of PDD/ABV progress make it very difficult to determine if any of these treatments actually help
