Bingo is going to the doctor

[rheashard2]

I took Bingo to this new vet (in Claremont) yesterday.
Long drive for both of us.
I thought it HAD to be better than driving 405.
I was wrong, trip going wasn’t too bad except I took a wrong freeway briefly. The way back never went beyond 25 MPH . Took 3 hours and my back was in misery.

As soon as we got of off the freeway and onto the highway home (in the high desert) Bingo KNEW we were going home and was dancing off/on the rest of way home.

I was not happy with this vet.
No bathroom.
When they took blood they would not do it in front of me.
Tiny waiting room, like 3 chairs.

They offered performing a barium x ray test of his digestive tract.

Having been the subject of such a test myself I can’t put Bingo through that.

I got sent home with the usual Rx , antibiotics and pain meds.

I didn’t really have much hope that I would get to the bottom of Bingo’s problems
My main goal was for an update blood test.

You have my prayers. I don't know if they do this on birds. But is there a way to check for a virus in his sinus and upper airway. Only asking because after weeks of personally decreasing health, all signs of heart, sinus, lung, pulmonary problems but every expensive scan, x-ray, covid, miscellaneous bloodtest was negative and after a variety of ineffective medicine, someone decided to test for other viruses. Yup positive for the common cold virus that set up housekeeping in my sinuses and moved to a better location in my lungs. It was trying and frustrating. Not knowing is the worse part.

 

[texsize]

You have my prayers. I don't know if they do this on birds. But is there a way to check for a virus in his sinus and upper airway. Only asking because after weeks of personally decreasing health, all signs of heart, sinus, lung, pulmonary problems but every expensive scan, x-ray, covid, miscellaneous bloodtest was negative and after a variety of ineffective medicine, someone decided to test for other viruses. Yup positive for the common cold virus that set up housekeeping in my sinuses and moved to a better location in my lungs. It was trying and frustrating. Not knowing is the worse part.

I believe macaw wasting desies is a virus and there is a test for it but it’s prone for false positives .
One of the biggest symptoms is un digested food/seeds in the poop.
Thank God I’ve seen none of that.
I don’t know about test’s for other viruses.

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

Gogs to you. It's difficult being unable to find answers!

 

[bug_n_flock]

Hmm, I know with cats a common supplement thought to help support fighting off viruses is the amino acid L-Lysine. Worth looking into perhaps? I hope he starts to feel better soon

 

[SailBoat]

Sorry to hear that Bingo been ill again.
A question, good friend, does Bingo's eye's common set more flush with the side of his head?

When a new Amazon comes to our home they commonly are not eating. At that point, I break all the rules and will provide whatever they will eat. And, I truly mean whatever they will eat.

I recall that Bingo is eating, but he seems to be targeting 'human' food. Any chance you could add some flacks of baby parrot formula to what he is eating, keep the amount on the tiny side, at first, as keeping Bingo eating is the most important thing.

 

[texsize]

Sorry to hear that Bingo been ill again.
A question, good friend, does Bingo's eye's common set more flush with the side of his head?

When a new Amazon comes to our home they commonly are not eating. At that point, I break all the rules and will provide whatever they will eat. And, I truly mean whatever they will eat.

I recall that Bingo is eating, but he seems to be targeting 'human' food. Any chance you could add some flacks of baby parrot formula to what he is eating, keep the amount on the tiny side, at first, as keeping Bingo eating is the most important thing.

I am giving Bingo just about anything he is willing to eat within reason.
No sunflower seeds and nothing toxic.
And I have Doxycycline and meticam to give him as well.

I just got back from the store and got extra fruit .
The vet recommended in place of barium test to give him something that will show up in his poop to time his digestive tract.
I got blueberry and blackberries.
Should be spectacular .
She said it should take about 8 hours to “make a second appearance “.

I like the idea of adding some baby bird formula to some of his food, should work and I think I have some on hand.

I don’t remember if I said earlier but his blood work came back.
No smoking gun, everything was normal or near normal (for a 40 year old amazon).

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Do you think that Bingo may just be getting old? I imagine that just like humans and other animals the organ systems just don't work as well as they used to. If Bingo's liver and kidney function chem tests are normal that's a pretty good sign that he's not going into organ failure. Has Bingo had an abdominal ultrasound to look for masses inside that may be growing and pressing on things causing discomfort and digestive issues? If not, I would make a plan to take a couple days to make yet another trip into LA to somewhere that performs them. I know how much you dread a trip like that but people who live in the outskirts of cities do it all the time to see specialists and it sounds like youre tired of spinning your wheels. You could book an inexpensive hotel for one night (Van Nuys has a pet friendly place I just stayed at). Drive down early am for a vet appointment/evaluation and spend that night at the hotel with Bingo. Then early the next morning head out to the high desert in the reverse commute direction to miss traffic and you'd be home before 10am.

I just hope you can get some answers. Unfortunately many avian vets don't have access to the technology and expertise found in some major cities. My vet does his own imaging including ultrasounds but If I had to get my birds truly expert care like a surgery I would have to go to Angell Memorial in Boston. Not likely to do it for a budgie because they are so small that surgery isn't feasible but I would for a much larger, longer lived bird like Bingo.

 

[texsize]

Do you think that Bingo may just be getting old? I imagine that just like humans and other animals the organ systems just don't work as well as they used to. If Bingo's liver and kidney function chem tests are normal that's a pretty good sign that he's not going into organ failure. Has Bingo had an abdominal ultrasound to look for masses inside that may be growing and pressing on things causing discomfort and digestive issues? If not, I would make a plan to take a couple days to make yet another trip into LA to somewhere that performs them. I know how much you dread a trip like that but people who live in the outskirts of cities do it all the time to see specialists and it sounds like youre tired of spinning your wheels. You could book an inexpensive hotel for one night (Van Nuys has a pet friendly place I just stayed at). Drive down early am for a vet appointment/evaluation and spend that night at the hotel with Bingo. Then early the next morning head out to the high desert in the reverse commute direction to miss traffic and you'd be home before 10am.

I just hope you can get some answers. Unfortunately many avian vets don't have access to the technology and expertise found in some major cities. My vet does his own imaging including ultrasounds but If I had to get my birds truly expert care like a surgery I would have to go to Angell Memorial in Boston. Not likely to do it for a budgie because they are so small that surgery isn't feasible but I would for a much larger, longer lived bird like Bingo.

My regular CAV recommended an ultrasound.
After much looking I found a place that said they would/could do ultrasound (Culver City I think)
Made appointment.
Bingo’s Records were forwarded.
1 or two days before appointment. They called me up and said it needed to be a CT scan not ultrasound.
Quoted me a cost of $6,000.
I said no thanks.
This was two years ago….. I don’t remember exactly how long but it’s a sure thing it wouldn’t be cheaper now.

I’ll go along way for Bingo.
If that was the cost for a treatment with better than 50% chance of good outcome Iwould probably go for it.
But this is diagnostic only with no guarantee of finding the issue.
And .
No guarantee if they do find something it can be fixed.
Or how much it would cost to fix.

Lots of veterinary clinics say they do ultrasound but I haven’t found an any others that do birds.
The closest one my CAV knows of is in SF bay area.
Would be a 6 hour drive one way for me.

 

[SailBoat]

I am surprised that ultrasound are not available as the feathered body should provide an easy to move over surface. Hmmm, maybe the ultrasound would see only feathers?

The cost of a CT scan kind of makes sense because they would have to apply gas to keep him still while they conduct the scan, but wow, that's a lot of money.

Let me know if he eats the formula.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I can't believe they quoted that for a CT on a parrot! Who could afford that? A human CT is less than that.
I think an ultrasound looks for masses by bouncing sound waves off it. It can detect solid or fluid filled masses and eggs in transit. My vet charges about $250 for an ultrasound and the same for an xray. He's detected masses in my budgies. I've had them done when egg binding was a possibility. They saw via imaging that one of my female English budgies (Rockys bio-mom) wasn't egg bound but her pelvic bones were spreading during laying and weren't bouncing back into position properly after passing an egg causing partial paralysis for her legs. After about a week of being unable to walk she slowly got her legs back but I had to make sure she never tried to breed again.

 

[bug_n_flock]

There's home ultrasound machines for sale online, is that anything that might work or is it completely different? I know you wouldn't then have a vet to interpret results, but maybe that's the start of some kind of a plan that the rest of the details just need to be figured out?

 

[texsize]

Internet down, using cell phone.
Missed exact timing of blackberry passage but was less than 8 hours.
Between 5 and 6 hours.

Has eaten a bit of baby formula with pasta. Didn't eat applesauce he liked yesterday . Will keep trying with other favorite foods.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

That transit time sounds good, right? At least his plumbing is working. Did he enjoy his berries?