Alex 38 days old, suffering from FLU

[EllenD]

Okay, you need to slow down a minute....Why did you think that he had "the flu" in the first place? There must have been a reason why you originally thought he was sick, like signs/symptoms of illness, so what were they?

***Just because some Vet that is obviously not an Avian Vet told you "he is fine" without running a single test, not even a Fecal-culture, does not at all mean that your baby Alex is not sick...There is a reason you thought that your little, 38 day-old, unweaned baby Alex was sick with "the flu", and just because some Vet tells you he's fine just by looking at him and not running any tests does not mean that he's not sick, especially if he's been acting sick or having symptoms of being sick.

****This is a 38 day-old, unweaned baby Alex that does not even have all of his outer-feathers grown-in yet. That means that his immune-system is not even close to developed yet, and more importantly and extremely common is that you are hand-feeding him something, correct? He's not weaned so he's not even close to eating solid-food yet (Alexandrines don't fully Abundance-Wean until 12-14 weeks old), and you're hand-feeding him and have been hand-feeding him some type of "formula", hopefully a commercially-bought, baby-bird hand-feeding formula that is made specifically for baby birds...So what that means is that he probably has the exact same problem that EVERYONE in your position with an unweaned, baby Alex that they have been hand-feeding has. We get this at least once or twice a month here, where someone living in your area of the world, or India, etc. has an extremely young, baby Alex that they have been hand-feeding some kind of "formula", and their babies become sick. And they ALWAYS have the same problem...And they often die...Very often they die...So you need to take this very, very seriously and listen to what we're telling you...

********99% of the time when someone in your EXACT SITUATION with an unweaned, very young, baby Alexandrine who they've been hand-feeding formula to and that doesn't yet have all of their outer-feathers grown-in yet, THE BABIES HAVE DEVELOPED A FUNGAL/YEAST INFECTION (and sometimes ALSO a Bacterial Infection on top of the Yeast Infection) INSIDE OF THEIR CROP AND THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THEIR GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT.

Please read this carefully and if it applies to the way you've been hand-feeding and the way you've been keeping/housing him, then you'll know that you have a serious problem and he's not going to get better without actual medical testing/treatment by an Avian Vet that does Fecal-testing on a fresh sample of his droppings; if you've not been doing the following and this applies to you, then your baby is likely not going to survive without proper treatment: The reason that all of these baby Alexandrines get sick and die is because their owners are not using a cooking or candy Thermometer with a metal-probe on it to measure the temperature of the formula they have been feeding them, and ALSO because they are not keeping these babies inside of some type of Brooder with a controlled air-temperature and a Thermometer inside of it to ensure that they are being kept 24/7 in the correct ambient/air temperature while they are still without all of their outer-feathers, because without all of their outer-feathers grown-in fully, these babies cannot at all regulate their own body temperatures....And the 3rd issue that also often occurs and is extremely common in your part of the world and in India is that most people do not buy a commercially-sold hand-feeding formula that is specially made for hand-feeding baby birds, such as Kaytee Exact, Roudybush, etc... (though this issue is not at all as common or the reason why these baby Alex's die so quickly and so young like the air/ambient temperature being too low and the formula-temperature being too low is; however it will still kill them eventually, and if it doesn't actually kill them and somehow they survive until they are fully-weaned, they are usually extremely small and never fully-developed physically, and are extremely malnourished and deficient in pretty much every vitamin, mineral, amino-acid, protein, etc., and they have problems for the rest of their lives, in-addition to being very, very small in size for the rest of their lives.)...

***You absolutely MUST use a candy/cooking Thermometer in your baby's formula every single time you feed him, and you must keep it inside of the formula throughout the entire feeding to ensure that the formula you are feeding him is ALWAYS between 104 degrees F (40 degrees C), NO LOWER/COOLER, and 110 degrees F (43.3 degrees C), NO HIGHER/HOTTER....Even 1 degree lower than 104 degrees F (40 degrees C) will result in your baby developing a progressive Fungal/Yeast infection inside of his Crop that will continue to keep getting worse and spreading throughout his GI Tract all the way down through his Intestines. THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL! Eventually he will develop Crop-Stasis, where formula no-longer empties from his Crop because it's nothing but Yeast, he'll become lethargic, often they vomit, they sleep all the time, they stop eating because they can't eat, the formula has no where to go and cannot get into their stomach, they start losing lots of weight, become malnourished, and die....And if the formula you feed him is even 1 degree above 110 degrees F (43.3 degrees C), it will cause a Thermal-Burn inside of his Crop, which will eventually become infected, and cause a hole to develop through his Crop. The formula being way too cold is the most-common reason these baby Alex's die by-far, and it's so common that we go through this process with people many times each month...

****If you are not keeping your baby Alex inside of some kind of homemade Brooder all day long, every day, except for when you are feeding him, that has an ambient/air temperature of 85 degrees F (29.4 degrees C) before ALL of his outer-feathers have grown-in completely, the exact same thing is going to happen as if the formula you're feeding him is not at least 40 degrees C, this too will cause him to develop a progressive Fungal/Yeast infection inside of his Crop, and the result with be the same as written above. You cannot keep an unweaned, baby bird in any lower of an ambient/air temperature until ALL of his outer-feathers have grown-in fully. If the baby still has Down-Feathers and Pin-Feathers all over him, as your Alex does in the photo you posted, he MUST be kept in a Brooder that is kept right around a constant 29.4 degrees C (85 degrees F) for most of the day, every day, except to remove him to feed him every 2-3 hours at his age, and then for a bit of handling once or twice a day for 30 minutes tops...THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL EITHER.

*****The problem now is that once they develop a Fungal/Yeast infection in their Crop, there is no way at all to cure it except for with a prescription Anti-Fungal medication, such as Nystatin, administered either orally every day, or by injection every day. ANTIBIOTICS WILL NOT DO ANYTHING AT ALL FOR A FUNGAL/YEAST INFECTION EXCEPT MAKE THEM MUCH WORSE, BECAUSE ANTIBIOTICS WILL KILL-OFF ANY REMAINING BENEFICIAL-BACTERIA HE MAY STILL HAVE THROUGHOUT HIS GI TRACT WHICH KEEPS YEAST/FUNGI FROM GROWING. I'm only telling you this because some people go out and buy some type of Antibiotic, such as Baytril or Penicillin etc. and then it makes their birds worse and worse...just a tip...

***It's obvious that the Vet you saw, regardless of whether he's a "world-famous Vet" or not, IS NOT AN AVIAN VET!!! If he was an Avian Vet he would have taken one look at a 38 day-old baby Alex who is not weaned and who is eating formula the owner is feeding him, and seen that he doesn't have all of his outer-feathers grown-in yet, and they would have known immediately what was most-likely wrong with him, and they would have immediately asked you if you were keeping him in a Brooder at the proper temperature, and also asked you if you were using a Thermometer to keep his formula within the correct temperature-range, and if/when you said "No" to one or both of these questions he would have immediately taken a Fecal sample/culture and looked at it under his microscope, seen all the Yeast, and prescribed him the proper Anti-Fungal (and possibly the proper Antibiotic as well if he also saw harmful-bacteria in the Fecal-sample)...But this Vet didn't ask you those two questions, and he didn't even run a simple Fecal-test on an unweaned, baby Alex...So this is very, very bad for your baby...

Once again, you didn't say WHY you thought he was sick, but there was obviously a reason why you thought he was sick (by the way, birds/parrots do not get "the flu"), so this Vet telling you that your baby is "fine" did not stop the signs/symptoms that he was having that first made you think he was sick, correct???? We can try to help you with this, but you need to fill us in on what exactly is wrong with your bird and why you thought he was sick, and then also WHAT FORMULA you have been feeding him, and whether or not you are making sure that it is within the correct temperature-range, and then the same for his ambient/air temperature where he is being kept...

 

[EllenD]

By the way, I did not mention your Religion at all in my above post, and this is because my concern is for the welfare of your bird and to make sure that you and your family do not suffer a sudden loss of your baby like we see with baby Alex's all the time here for the same reason...I totally respect your Religion and your beliefs, but I'm pretty sure that we all know what is wrong with your Alex, if it's the same thing that is wrong with most of them, and I'd much rather get right to the point and explain to you in-detail WHY he's sick, WHAT you need to do to stop it from getting worse, and WHAT you need to do to treat him so he doesn't keep getting worse or die like they normallly do...

Something I forgot, I don't know what you are feeding him as a formula, but if it is anything other than a commercially-sold, baby-bird formula, then that can also cause serious health issues and can kill him...

A lot of people in your area of the world unfortunately use human-baby formula/cereals to feed to their unweaned baby birds, something like Similac or Cerelac...And this can easily kill your baby Alex over-time, because they are both LOADED with Iron...Birds/Parrots cannot handle much Iron at all, and their bodies don't need much Iron. If they eat too much Iron they develop a medical-condition called "Iron Storage Syndrome", which is fatal without treatment...Human-baby formulas and Cereals, such as Ceralac and the rest, are all fortified with tons and tons of extra Iron because Human-babies need tons of Iron...But if you use human-baby formula/cereal to feed your baby Alex, it will make him extremely sick and kill him...

Also, if you're making a homemade-formula out of pulses such as grains, legumes, rice, etc. that you are boiling and then mashing, this also commonly makes baby birds extremely sick because it does not provide them with any of the nutrition in-general that they need, they become malnourished, underdeveloped, deficient in all vitamins/minerals, and they eventually die. They need all the correct amounts of protein (no protein at all in pulses), vitamins, minerals, amino-acids, fat, carbs, etc. And the only thing that will provide that to your baby is a commercially-sold hand-feeding formula such as Kaytee Exact (usually available in your part of the world)...

 

[bug_n_flock]

He said in another thread thaat the bird's voice had changed or something like that

 

[Intisar]

Yes, i went to the famous pets care clinic , the doctor examined the Heero very carefully, and said he is fine, he just removed some thing which was stick on one of his nose whole,
after that since now , almost 18 hours gone, Heero is all right, the strange voice , which made me conscious is gone.
i asked him many times , is Heero ok, and why i felt he is sick, doctor told me that Heero was upset due to one nose hole closed, otherwise he is all right , no need of any test, when ever a test is required we tell clearly , but we dont do tests just to make extra money,
and i asked him about DNA , he said DNA facility is available in Lahore only , not in Islamabad, so i dropped the idea of a DNA

 

[bug_n_flock]

Did the vet say what the thing was on his nose?

 

[EllenD]

Okay, well what type of formula are you feeding him? Are you using a Thermometer to ensure the formula is within the correct temperature range? And are you keeping him in a Brooder or a homemade Brooder that is keeping him at 85 degrees F (29.4 degrees C) all the time? Because if you're not making sure his formula and his ambient temperatures are at exactly the correct range, he will develop a Fungal/Yeast infection...And since the Vet did not do even a Fecal test, which boggles my mind with a 38 day-old chick with a "clogged-nostril" why they wouldn't even do a Fecal Test for Yeast and Bacteria, just looking at it under the microscope, then you need to watch him carefully...Because a "clogged-nostril" is a common sign/symptom of a Yeast/Fungal infection, as it typically spreads rapidly from their Crop into their mouth/beak, and right into their Sinuses. That's why I don't understand an "Avian Vet" not looking at his Fecal-sample under a microscope to rule-out a yeast or bacterial infection in his Crop/GI Tract, especially if you're feeding him formula that is not within the correct temperature range. And again, I don't know what formula you've been feeding him, but I'm asking only because using Cerelac or another human-baby formula or cereal (Cerelac and Similac are the two most-commonly used) to hand-feed baby birds/parrots is extremely common, and it's also extremely dangerous and often fatal over-time if it's not stopped and replaced with a hand-feeding formula that is specifically made for baby-birds and their nutritional needs...