Cockatiel with polyuria, enlarged liver and spleen, regurgitation behavior - dry heaving - need advice please

[Shellistuart]

Dolly is my 15 month old pearl cockatiel. Since April 24, she has had these symptoms: Polyuria / excess urine, regurgitation behavior at times / dry heaving / doesn’t actually throw up. She’s gained weight even though her diet is Harrison’s pellets and fresh boiled vegetables twice a day. Her blood work comes back totally normal. Her x rays showed a slightly enlarged liver and an enlarged spleen. She tested negative for lead, zinc, and copper.

She has been to her avian vet – multiple visits. It is a well known and respected college teaching hospital with avian specialists. I even took her to a different avian vet for a second opinion. Both vets say the same things. They do not know what is wrong.

The only thing I can think of is this: last winter she got ahold of a fake plant with gold glitter encrusted on it. She stripped about an inch of the glitter off before I saw this and stopped her. I have asked the vet if we should do chelation drugs because of the multiple heavy metals that can be in gold glitter. They don’t want to do that without knowing if she has a heavy metal in her blood. The vet keeps saying they are happy with how she’s doing because she is perfect on exam and because she exhibits no symptoms of illness.

She has never acted sick this whole entire time. She eats, drinks, flies, plays, is happy, is just the best bird ever. Yet I am seeing the polyuria get worse the last few days. The solid urates are pretty much nonexistent now. Sometimes she just squirts pee out. There are puddles of pee around her droppings every day.

I can’t do more x rays, because she had a horrible reaction to the anesthesia – screaming over and over and over – couldn’t walk, couldn’t perch, couldn’t fly without hitting walls, was attacking me. It was horrible. She wasn’t okay until the next day. I can’t put her though more x rays. I hesitate to put her through more blood work when the blood work tells us nothing. Even doing the x rays didn’t actually tell us what’s wrong.

Has anyone experienced these things? If so, what was it?? What would you do if this were your bird? Dolly is my whole world, and I need to be able to help her, and so far, all I can do is worry and obsess over it, and nobody has been able to help her. The vet put her on antibiotics as a precaution and milk thistle for the liver. That has not made her better.

I am going to get new blood work soon just to at least test kidney function since the polyuria is getting worse. I’m thinking of at least testing for aluminum if there is such a test, because aluminum is likely to be in gold glitter. Besides that, I am at a loss. If anybody has any advice or ideas, I am all ears. Thank you so much!

 

[osklvste43]

A suggestion only. This is from working with humans. Have you asked if there is a possibility of time passage causing the actual metal clearing the body. This is the results of it? So testing will be negative. Some metal exposure do that in humans, I've seen it in primarily in children. Depending upon the metal they can clear the body very fast. If whatever she chewed upon is available maybe having it tested can help identify the problem.

 

[Shellistuart]

Thank you for the advice! Unfortunately I threw away the fake glitter plant. I think if any metal entered the bloodstream, it would still be there and she would test positive.

 

[Jcas41]

This might be an unpopular opinion and I am not bashing anyone/ any brand BUT I believe Harrison’s pellets are too high in protein for small grain eating birds like cockatiels and budgies. These birds eat seeds in the wild which are high in fat but not as high in protein as things like soy, lentils etc. There is some evidence that a high pellet diet for budgies and cockatiels SPECIFICALLY can be hard on their kidneys because it dehydrates them ( water being necessary to rehydrate the pellets to digest them). Between high protein and dehydrated food, it’s possible that her kidneys are a little bit in overdrive. I am not a vet. But it might be worth asking your vet about these things and see if switching to a lower protein pellet could help? Just a thought. Hope you figure out what is going on with your bird and I’m glad she at least seems to be feeling happy in all of this

 

[Shellistuart]

Thank you for the advice! I'll check into this. Do you have a pellet brand to suggest? Thanks again.

 

[Jcas41]

Do you know if you feed the Harrison’s lifetime blend or the high potency blend? I think they lowered the protein on the lifetime recently to make a more average protein content. A few other options are roudybush, lafebers, Zupreem true natural. None of those have the high lentil and pea content but none are organic, sadly. It can be hard to switch a bird from one pellet to another, so maybe check into pellets with your vet and do your own research as well. Wishing you and your bird the best

 

[Shellistuart]

The one I use says organic, and it is adult lifetime. Thank you so much!