Conure squinting eyes

[Rioluv]

Hello everyone!

My conure Rio recently seems tired and under the weather. He was eating and drinking water, although he had some diarrhea. But he has this habit of narrowing his eyes as if he's falling asleep. We gave him baytril, and he's feeling much better now! He's flying around playing and his poops are fine, and his mood is fantastic! However, he still has drowsy eyes, though not as terrible as before. I'm curious as to why this occurs. His eyes arnt red or anything. (If his symptoms did become worse I would have taken him to the vet asap but I have baytril just in case because the vet is 2 1/2 hours away)

Last year we had the same thing happen but it was way worse. He was super uncoordinated and couldn’t perch. He has his mouth open and gasping for air and the drowsy eyes. And we took him to the emergency vet at 12 pm and they gave him oxygen and antibiotics and diagnosed him with having toxicity. We later found out it was from his cage and the bottom grate had rust. So we got him a whole other one and he’s been fine since then.

I’m just super paranoid but I decided to put him on baytril since his symptoms weren’t bad just the tiredness. Does anyone know why they close there eyes?

 

[hiriki]

Hi there! You might not want to hear this, I get that it's pretty far away, but... vet time!

The squinting can be from discomfort. Is he puffed up? The squinting, and the diarrhea, and the fact that you describe him as "seeming tired and under the weather," all together, equals vet visit.

Putting him on baytril yourself isn't an awful idea to do, antibiotics are a fairly common first step to take. But, that being said, when did you get that baytril? The suspensions that they make at vet offices don't last forever. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I kind of assumed from your story that you're just reusing the antibiotics from the time he was sick last year. Those antibiotics could be very expired by now... in fact I would go as far as to say, if they're the same antibiotics, they're DEFINITELY expired, and could have almost no effectiveness left. The expiration should be listed on the bottle. How much are you giving him? Are you confident his weight hasn't changed since you were given dosage instructions last year?

What I think you should do, at this point, is call the vet. If your baytril is expired, I genuinely don't know if it's safe to continue giving him, and a vet can answer that. But it's also NOT a good idea to stop antibiotics once you've started them. So, call the vet, make an appointment, and ask them whether you should continue giving your bird the baytril you've been giving him until the appointment.

 

[Rioluv]

Hi there! You might not want to hear this, I get that it's pretty far away, but... vet time!

The squinting can be from discomfort. Is he puffed up? The squinting, and the diarrhea, and the fact that you describe him as "seeming tired and under the weather," all together, equals vet visit.

Putting him on baytril yourself isn't an awful idea to do, antibiotics are a fairly common first step to take. But, that being said, when did you get that baytril? The suspensions that they make at vet offices don't last forever. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I kind of assumed from your story that you're just reusing the antibiotics from the time he was sick last year. Those antibiotics could be very expired by now... in fact I would go as far as to say, if they're the same antibiotics, they're DEFINITELY expired, and could have almost no effectiveness left. The expiration should be listed on the bottle. How much are you giving him? Are you confident his weight hasn't changed since you were given dosage instructions last year?

What I think you should do, at this point, is call the vet. If your baytril is expired, I genuinely don't know if it's safe to continue giving him, and a vet can answer that. But it's also NOT a good idea to stop antibiotics once you've started them. So, call the vet, make an appointment, and ask them whether you should continue giving your bird the baytril you've been giving him until the appointment.

Hello,
Thank you for responding! I made an appointment already To go see the vet this upcoming week. The baytril I bought online recently and it is actually has correct dosages and not expired. I have a scale and everything to make sure I’m dosing right. (Only use as back up) I want to put out there this is just in case. It was Saturday night and the vet was closed until Monday and I was desperate and I bought this for an emergency as I’m tramatized from my last experience.

 

[hiriki]

Oh, I see--well, assuming what you're giving him is the same suspension you would get at the vet, it should be (at the very least) safe. I would still call the vet office you made an appointment with and confirm with them that you should keep dosing him in the meantime. Antibiotics are generally safe if you don't stop the course before it's done (10-14 days generally), buuuuut vets will know more about that than me, and I do know that antibiotics can cause some digestion discomfort. Plus, the vet will probably want to know where you got it, how you mixed the suspension, and how you're determining dose, and they'll be able to check your work better than I can.

I am curious where you got it. Did you buy cat/dog baytril and crush it to create a suspension in water? I've seen that suggested on rat forums, since some rats are very susceptible to URIs and it gets expensive to bring your rat to the vet every time he gets a lil cold. I would be nervous that I didn't mix the suspension correctly. That's why I've never done that.