Daisy is sick with "uncertain" diagnosis

[Farnoosh]

Hi everyone. Please excuse this long message but I am highly stressed and overwhelmed about what is happening to Daisy. Several months ago she was passing undigested food in her droppings. The doctor did the grams test and found bacterial overgrowth which was treated by antibiotics. I posted some months ago about this because they broke her wing in the process of doing an x-ray. After her wing healed (she is able to fly again by the way) and came back from the hospital, she was better with her digestive issues and her droppings looked very good. Then again two weeks later the same problem returned. I took her back to her doctor and they did more tests and gave her a second round of antibiotics, which made the problem better but not perfect. The doctor told me she used to come for regular x-rays of her intestines to make sure the walls haven't thickened. We did two tests for avian borna virus, and they both came back negative. Her energy was great and her vitality was back to normal, but then she started having lots of diarrhea again and passing droppings that did not look normal. Last week, I noticed she was more sleepy than usual. Then suddenly one afternoon, she began to look really sick and I immediately took her to the hospital. They did blood tests and found that her white blood cell count was high and her red blood cell count was low (she is weak and basically shows inflammation in her blood). The droppings showed not ENOUGH bacteria in the gut and the x-ray showed that indeed the intestinal walls have thickened and she has lots of gas stuck in the intestines. There was no yeast in the crop test, but she is also being treated with antifungal medication because the doctor believes there may be some fungus somewhere that we cannot see. Now she is on antibiotics again, and I'm not sure exactly why because there were no pathogens in the droppings and not enough bacteria usually means antibiotics are being taken too much of. She is on probiotics because the doctor believes she still needs to go on antibiotics. Also I spoke with the doctor and we have to do another test for Borna virus once she is stronger. I'm really scared and afraid she is continuously sleepy and lethargic. She is eating and hasn't dropped weight yet, but she is not herself. I'm writing this because I just need some support or anybody who has any knowledge of a sick bird dealing with digestive issues and malabsorption would be really helpful. So far I am only allowed to feed her a very strict diet which consists of cooked grains only and very little fruit if any and no vegetables. This is very very hard. I really hope we can make it and I hope if it is the deadly virus, that it is not going to affect her heart or brain. I have noticed that she is becoming a little bit bad at balancing, but it is hardly noticeable only I notice it because I am watching her like a hawk. I am so sad and worried thank you for reading and for your support. I love this forum so much please pray for my little baby to recover soon.

 

[mboundy]

Praying for your baby! Good luck.

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[saxguy64]

I'm so sorry Daisy is struggling! Prayers and healing vibes are heading your way. I worry about the balance issue. There's so many things that can cause that, and really a job for the vet to diagnose. How is she drinking? Dehydration is a real problem and can cause a variety of symptoms. I hope your vet can find the root of the illness and treat accordingly, and that Daisy makes a rapid and full recovery.

 

[Kitekeeper]

I am really sorry about what you and Daisy are going through.

It seems you are well assisted and Daisy is probably receiving the best possible treatment. The problem does not seems to be an easy diagnosis case.

There are several things that can produce diarrhea in a bird, but two of those you did not mentioned and although it might seem naive I feel obliged to bring them.

Birds need to have sand grains or rock fragments in their crawl to help them digest their food. It would work like our teeth, breaking up hard food. Have you asked your vet if the lack of it could worsen Daisy recovery after so many days under antibiotics?

The second thing is a protozoa Eimeria that can be treated by antibiotics, BUT you should be sure that the antibiotics used by Daisy could control Eimeria. The disease caused by this protozoa make birds sleepy, but so does dehydratation....

I am sending my best energies to Daisy for a quick recovery.

 

[Scott]

Very sorry to know Daisy has uncertain diagnosis and onset of balance issues. I have not dealt with chronic digestive issues but know anti-fungal treatments are long duration. If fungi are culprit may not show much improvement for weeks. Don't recall your veterinary situation, might a second opinion be worthy?

 

[Farnoosh]

Praying for your baby! Good luck.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

thank you so much!!!

 

[Farnoosh]

I'm so sorry Daisy is struggling! Prayers and healing vibes are heading your way. I worry about the balance issue. There's so many things that can cause that, and really a job for the vet to diagnose. How is she drinking? Dehydration is a real problem and can cause a variety of symptoms. I hope your vet can find the root of the illness and treat accordingly, and that Daisy makes a rapid and full recovery.

Thank you, I really appreciate your kind words. Yes dehydration is a problem, and especially because she has such bad diarrhea. She doesn't drink water much unfortunately, she loves fruit though but I think fruit gives her diarrhea. She came back home from the hospital for a few days and had bad constipation, then I asked the doctor if I could give her some fruit, and I gave her apples and blueberries, then she got terrible diarrhea for the whole day and for the next day, then back at the hospital today because she got so weak again…

 

[Farnoosh]

I am really sorry about what you and Daisy are going through.

It seems you are well assisted and Daisy is probably receiving the best possible treatment. The problem does not seems to be an easy diagnosis case.

There are several things that can produce diarrhea in a bird, but two of those you did not mentioned and although it might seem naive I feel obliged to bring them.

Birds need to have sand grains or rock fragments in their crawl to help them digest their food. It would work like our teeth, breaking up hard food. Have you asked your vet if the lack of it could worsen Daisy recovery after so many days under antibiotics?

The second thing is a protozoa Eimeria that can be treated by antibiotics, BUT you should be sure that the antibiotics used by Daisy could control Eimeria. The disease caused by this protozoa make birds sleepy, but so does dehydratation....

I am sending my best energies to Daisy for a quick recovery.

Thank you so much for all this information and for your well wishes! I am going to talk to her doctor about all of this that you mention. I really hope that it is something curable, and not that vicious virus. The doctor has started her now on antioxidants (she went back to the hospital yesterday because her diarrhea got worse and she was very very sleepy) and also anti-inflammatories (which I hope she doesn't have any reactions to). Thank you so much and I will update soon!

 

[Farnoosh]

Very sorry to know Daisy has uncertain diagnosis and onset of balance issues. I have not dealt with chronic digestive issues but know anti-fungal treatments are long duration. If fungi are culprit may not show much improvement for weeks. Don't recall your veterinary situation, might a second opinion be worthy?

Thank you so much for your comment, and yes her avian doctor is one of the best over here where I live. It's good to know that sometimes it might take weeks to show improvement, it gives me some hope. She is back at the hospital because yesterday I felt she was going downhill again, and I think it's because her diarrhea came back and she was more weak because the day before that she was doing better. We are doing another test for theABV again, I don't know how many tests it takes for it to actually show up if it is positive… So tricky this whole thing. Thank you again.