Baby Budgie Started Having Seizures!

[IcyWolf]

I'm going to try and write this as well as possible but it has been a very stressful night so please bare with me.

As most of you know, I currently have two 8.5 week old bubgies that I've been raising. Everything has gone well since I pulled them at 14 days, they've been off the formula and eating on their own for almost a week now and they were supposed to be going to their new home tonight. Then, out of the blue, Sadie had a seizure tonight. We had her out playing with her and in midflight she fell to the floor(less than a foot down) and started having a seizure. I immediately scooped her up and held her still but not tight. It only lasted a few seconds and she came out of it. For about 2 minutes afterward she acted really tired and couldn't quite grip right with her one foot, then she went back to acting normal. Since then, she's had about 4 of these seizures, it's like her right wing and leg get completely stiff, she falls to that side and then yells. But like I said, it only lasts for a few seconds. Right now she is in her food dish eating like nothing is wrong.

By the time all of this happened my vet was only open for another half an hour, I called them and the avian vet was already gone for the day but we got an appointment for 4 tomorrow. I've been speaking with some other breeders and trying to find anything I can about this but I still don't really know what to do.

Worse of all, I had to explain to their new daddy that all of this is happening, ugh, I just feel so bad!

There is nothing in their cage that could have hurt them, the only metal in there is the cage itself and there is no chipped paint, rust or any damage to the bars. The only thing I thought of that may be the culprit is that I wear rings and the budgies have had a habit of chewing on them. I stop them as soon as they start doing it but I never really thought that it could hurt them. Now I'm wondering if maybe she got some kind of metal poisoning from one of my rings?

We are taking both of them to the vet tomorrow(Nico is acting fine but I'm going to take him along anyway), I'm hoping there is something that can be done, it's just so sad because in between these seizures she is acting completely fine, playing and everything. Does anyone have any insight? I just feel absolutely horrible right now

 

[cdog]

I'm sorry I cant be of help, but I'm terribly sorry to hear about this. I hope everything goes well tonight and tomorrow until you get to the vet.

 

[BillsBirds]

I don't know, Icy, it could be various things. See what the vet says. We're here for you.

 

[IcyWolf]

Thanks guys, just wanted to update, when she started having them she was having one again within thirty minutes of the last one, she has now gone over three hours without a seizure and has been acting just fine. I will let you guys know what I hear from the vet.

 

[Mayden]

So sorry, things don't seem to be going too well for you with these two . Hope everything turns out okay. x

 

[IcyWolf]

I really haven't had any problems with these guys, everything has been going pretty well. I've even gotten both of them trained to the point they will fly to you, back and forth between your hands, step up and down, walk across a string "tight rope" and run through a hoop And they're only 8 weeks old. These seizures came completely out of the blue. I haven't seen her have another one since about 7pm last night. When I turned the lights out for bed time she started jumping and flapping all over the cage just kind of freaking out. I have no idea why(it wasn't another seizure), she's never done it before and after gently talking to her she calmed down and went to sleep. She has been acting fine all morning, eating, drinking, playing, the only thing out of the ordinary is that she will occasionally bob her head like she is trying to regurgitate. The vet appointment is in 3 hours so hopefully they can help. I'm just afraid I'm going to take her in and she is going to act completely fine during the visit and then come home and have another seizure. I wish I would have recorded it happening last night but I was just so concerned about her that I didn't even think to record it happening.

 

[IcyWolf]

I've been racking my brain trying to think of anything that could have caused these seizures, I know metal toxicity can be a big factor so I started thinking and it could either be from my rings or the feeding spoon. They started out on a syringe but once they got older I switched them to a spoon since it helps them learn to drink more naturally. I'm wondering if maybe the spoon is of poor quality and maybe has some iffy metals in it? I think I'm going to take it to the vet with me and even if that's not it, I'm switching to plastic disposable spoons from now on. This whole thing is giving me a fear of metal!

 

[MikeyTN]

Seizures in Birds: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Bring this info with you to the vet. Hope everything goes well!!!

 

[evesta]

I'm so sorry. My old Westie dog use to have seizures and it is awful to watch. His was from liver/pancrease disease. About an hour after he would eat he would seize and then it started to increase. He would have good days and bad days. Basically food was poisoning him because he couldn't break it down. One day he got a hold of a peanut butter sandwich and it put him into seizures that never stopped.

I know your bird is just a baby so it probably isn't liver disease but I wonder if birds can be born with defects of the liver? I don't know, but I hope everything works out and the vet has some answers.

 

[IcyWolf]

As I mentioned, Sadie had gone all night and all day without any problems, in fact, she was acting completely normal. When I went to put her in the carrier I only got about three step with her sitting on my hand and she took another seizure I got her calmed down and in the carrier and thought everything was okay but she ended up having very violent seizures in the carrier to the point that I had to take her out and hold her in the car. When we got to the vet she had yet another seizure, I explained what was going on and the vet took her back and gave her a valium injection to help stop the seizure.

At that point they were going to put her in an incubator and wait for the valium to kick in and then give her an xray but the valium worked fast enough that she just took her back and did an xray to look for any possibly ingested metal. I told her that there really hasn't been anything metal that she could have gotten ahold of but had her go ahead and do the xray anyway, which came up clean.

I really wanted her to do a blood panel but she said that with her only weighing 26 grams(she's at a low weight because she just started weaning at the end of last week) that even the most blood she could safely take might not be enough to run the test and she didn't want to put her through any more stress.

After discussing diet she said that she really doubts that it's hypocalcemia, she said that it may be hypoglycemia though she doubts it. She gave me a syringe of Karo syrup and said that next time she has a seizure to put a little bit on her tongue, she said that if it is hypoglycemic seizures that the karo syrup should slow or even stop the seizure.

She said that it's her best guess that she has idiopathic epilepsy and we are going to start her on phenobarbitol on saturday(thats the soonest they can get it in.). She said that for the phenobarb she needs to check if they even make a small enough dosage for her, if not they will have to dilute it at their office.

She sent me home with 12 premeasured syringes of valium, she said that if she has another seizure and it lasts more than 30 seconds to give her an injection, she said that it's safe for her to have it once every 4 hours but we are going to try and give her as little as possible. She also said to put her in an incubator at 85-88 degrees so that's where she is now. She's still really groggy from the valium earlier but as of now she hasn't had a seizure since she's been home.

So, I'm hoping we can get her on a phenobarb regime that can help control her seizures on a long term basis and she will be staying here with us permanently since she is going to require ongoing medical care. Also, at this point she is still fully flighted but I'm starting to think that it's just not feasible to keep her flighted with the seizure risk, it especially scares me since she took her first seizure in mid flight, we were just lucky that she was already low to the ground when it happened. Any advice on this one would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MikeyTN]

All I can say is wow....two babies in a row you've had problems with. I hope things gets better for you.....

 

[IcyWolf]

I know, Murphy's law at work. It's so discouraging but I know I'm not doing anything wrong so I'm hoping this string of bad luck gets off my back soon. I don't know if I can take much more of this!

 

[luvmytooo]

OMG , I'm sorry Icy , how terrible ! I cannot help you , I have never experienced or heard of a budgie having a seizure. Im glad the vet has given you something to help in case of another one though . Hopefully your vet will get to the bottom of this soon.
I'm so sorry honey.

 

[IcyWolf]

On the bright side, I took Nico to the vet as well and they said that he looks great and she even gave him the okay to go to his new home so he will be leaving this weekend. I just feel bad that he isn't going to be able to stay with sadie as we originally planned. Also, since they have been on the exact same diet since they have hatched she pretty much said that the odds that it is dietary related are really slim she also said that she didn't think it could be any kind of infection or bacteria since they are usually contagious and her and Nico have shared the same space since they have hatched.

 

[BillsBirds]

I didn't want to mention this until you saw the vet, but, I knew a Macaw that had epilepsy. Her owners gave her meds for it, and it was usually under control. But, the poor bird only lived a few years. And hurt herself a time or two during her seizures. It was a very sad situation, and I did not want to alarm you unnecessarily.

 

[IcyWolf]

I didn't want to mention this until you saw the vet, but, I knew a Macaw that had epilepsy. Her owners gave her meds for it, and it was usually under control. But, the poor bird only lived a few years. And hurt herself a time or two during her seizures. It was a very sad situation, and I did not want to alarm you unnecessarily.

I don't think I could be more alarmed than I already am and I am prepared for the worst but that doesn't mean we can't try. I'm really hoping the phenobarbital will help but I know it's not a sure thing. Do you know what kind of medication the macaw was on and how long ago this was?

I know birds and dogs are very different but my uncle has a dog with epilepsy and she has been on phenobarb for years now. She came from a guy who bred hunting dogs and she had these seizures from the time she was just a tiny puppy. The guy knew he would never be able to sell her so he was going to drown her! Luckily my uncle got wind of this before the guy did anything and he went and got her. She's now 8 years old and with the medication has been seizure free for at least 2 years. Like I said, I don't expect the same results, it's just a bit comforting to know that other animals have benefited from this medicine.

We are lucky to have a really good avian vet too and she is doing everything she can to help. She really wasn't looking too hot when we took her in and I was so afraid she was going to recommend euthanasia since she's "just a budgie" but she never even brought it up. She went straight into possible treatments and generally seemed really concerned about her. I'm dreading tomorrow, I really don't want to have to give her anymore of this valium but I am prepared to do so if need be. For the moment she is sleeping in her incubator and I gave her some formula about an hour and a half ago. The only reason I gave her the formula is because the valium has her so woozy everytime she tries to make it to her bowl to eat she gets tipsy and falls over and then gets tired and goes back to her perch. I also want to get her weight up so we can possibly draw blood for tests in the near future.

 

[BillsBirds]

I'm sorry, Icy, I don't remember what the medication was. It was about ten years ago. Though, I do know of other animals (dogs & cats) that were on phenobarb for epilepsy, and did fine with it. Your vet sounds like a good vet. Any vet who would say, "just a budgie", would get more than they bargained for from me. Though, I know that they are probably out there.

 

[jewels04]

So sorry Icy. I hope you get some answers soon. Our old dog started having grand mal seizures and we could tell he was getting ready to seize because his right side would go lame right before. It gave us just enough time to get him to a safe spot.

I hope this little baby starts pulling through.

 

[IcyWolf]

So sorry Icy. I hope you get some answers soon. Our old dog started having grand mal seizures and we could tell he was getting ready to seize because his right side would go lame right before. It gave us just enough time to get him to a safe spot.

I hope this little baby starts pulling through.

That's exactly what happens with sadie too although much quicker. She will be standing there, perched fine and then all of a sudden her whole right side stiffens up to the point that she falls over. Then when she is on her side she will yell and sometimes flap her wings and kick her left foot, it's very hard to watch, everytime it happens I hold onto her and talk as gently as I can but I usually end up crying. It's just so sad. But then when it's over, she goes back to acting like a normal happy little budgie.


@Bill, I agree, I was just worried because everything I found online regarding budgies and seizures always seemed like the bird died but it wasn't because of the seizures so much as everyone acted like they couldn't be treated for it. But then I would read these elaborate articles on african greys with epilepsy and there are all kinds of tests and treatments available. I'm just glad my vet is willing to do all of this for such a tiny, often overlooked, bird. I'm hoping that they have made some advances in the past ten years, just think, ten years ago we were supposed to feed our birds nothing but seeds and keep them in a round cage where they could barely spread their wings.

It seems like the valium is wearing off now because she is becoming more alert and active. I really hope she doesn't have any more seizures tonight, I'd like to keep her off the valium if possible. I dont' want to have to give my poor baby shots, poor thing's gonna hate me!

 

[Enjru]

Thank you for doing everything you can for this bird. Feeding her the formula is a great idea when she is so sick that she cannot look after herself.