Help, lipoma in Budgie belly

[PacMan]

his usual weight is around 36g-39g, from the past week to now he has been gaining weight, right now he's 45g-46g, diet is pretty much chop (carrots, zucchini, beet, quinoa, and a bit of low fat seeds) sometimes bell peppers, cucumber broccolli, and leaf greens. + high quality pellets

One problem with him is that since i adopted him (around 6 years ago, he was not being treated well by the previous owner) he was already an adult and never managed to fly, maybe that made him overweight? His chest always seemed bigger than the other budgies, but i guess thats just something genetic.

Right now he's looking worse, with feathers fluffed up, looks tired, but is eating a lot, unfortunately i will be only able to go to the vet in 3 days, i contacted an online vet but he's taking too long to answer and im having a hard time trying to find another one who does online appointments.

Im trying to find milk thistle since i've heard its good, anyone has experience with it?

 

[DonnaBudgie]

It sounds like you're doing the best you can for your little guy, a great diet, opportunities to exercise, etc.. These lipomas are very common in budgies (I've had budgies with them) and they do tend to go together with fatty liver disease which they can live with for a long time but it eventally proves fatal unless you manage to reverse it. I think not being able to fly, or as with many budgies, owners who never let their budgies fly, leads to them being overweight and out of shape (sounds familiar, doesn't it), which leads to obesity related health problems like fatty liver disease. Milk thistle may help but as you know when little birds like budgies appear visibly unwell their illness is usually pretty far advanced. These lipomas can get pretty big and can crowd the abdominal organs even causing obstructions. How are his poops? Put a piece of white paper towel at the bottom of his cage and try to collect some new poops you can photograph for the vet to look at. His sudden weight gain is concerning. It's possible he's retaining fluid which isn't good because that may mean his kidneys aren't working well enough to get rid of excess water. The appearance of his poops may help the vet evaluate his kidney function, too. I had a budgie live with kidney failure for a few years before he succumbed at 13. That's another thing- you don't really know how old your boy is. You've had him 6 years and unless he was a baby when you adopted him it's impossible to tell. Regardless, you have given him a good life so you shouldn't have any regrets. I know you've been through a lot this year. Recall you lost all those female budgies several months ago to a mysterious infection. My thoughts are with you as you get through this latest crisis.

 

[MrJackpotz]

My Blu is having similar issues. He is at a high weight right now, and has been extremely lethargic for the past month while he fought off two different infections. I'm afraid he is having liver disease, I've done my best to put him on a diet but im not pushing too much exercise right now. I hope all turns out well for your budgie, I know how scary this can be

 

[linnielove]

Can you post a picture of his poop?

 

[PacMan]

It sounds like you're doing the best you can for your little guy, a great diet, opportunities to exercise, etc.. These lipomas are very common in budgies (I've had budgies with them) and they do tend to go together with fatty liver disease which they can live with for a long time but it eventally proves fatal unless you manage to reverse it. I think not being able to fly, or as with many budgies, owners who never let their budgies fly, leads to them being overweight and out of shape (sounds familiar, doesn't it), which leads to obesity related health problems like fatty liver disease. Milk thistle may help but as you know when little birds like budgies appear visibly unwell their illness is usually pretty far advanced. These lipomas can get pretty big and can crowd the abdominal organs even causing obstructions. How are his poops? Put a piece of white paper towel at the bottom of his cage and try to collect some new poops you can photograph for the vet to look at. His sudden weight gain is concerning. It's possible he's retaining fluid which isn't good because that may mean his kidneys aren't working well enough to get rid of excess water. The appearance of his poops may help the vet evaluate his kidney function, too. I had a budgie live with kidney failure for a few years before he succumbed at 13. That's another thing- you don't really know how old your boy is. You've had him 6 years and unless he was a baby when you adopted him it's impossible to tell. Regardless, you have given him a good life so you shouldn't have any regrets. I know you've been through a lot this year. Recall you lost all those female budgies several months ago to a mysterious infection. My thoughts are with you as you get through this latest crisis.

Thank you so much for your comments as always! His poops looks normal, just a bit more wet, and he struggles a bit to poop, i sent a pic of it to the vet and he prescribed an antibiotic

I sent the pic of the lipomas to the vet clinic, and they said they cant confirm if they will be able to perform a surgery or not, as it has a lot of risk, so together with the remote vet we decided that the trip (its 3h away) may do more harm than good

Yes this year has been rough! 2024 was a great year but all the bad things decided to appear in these last 7 months, before these things happened i was already trying to prepare for it as all my Budgies are already a bit old and entering the later stages of their life, but its always very painful still, especially with the Budgie who is currently sick (his name is Oliver) since he's the sweetest bird i've seen, he's like an angel as you can even see by just looking at his face, he still looks like a baby, has been very hard to see him struggle.

And again thanks

 

[PacMan]

My Blu is having similar issues. He is at a high weight right now, and has been extremely lethargic for the past month while he fought off two different infections. I'm afraid he is having liver disease, I've done my best to put him on a diet but im not pushing too much exercise right now. I hope all turns out well for your budgie, I know how scary this can be

Thanks! All the best for you and your Budgie too

 

[PacMan]

Can you post a picture of his poop?

Here, its almost normal just a bit wet, and he struggles to poop due to the lipoma

 

[PacMan]

Also, recently he has been losing weight again, is that bad or good? His normal is 38, when i posted this he was around 46.7, now he's around 43.5

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Oliver really is a cutie!
Budgie poop can be very wet and still be normal if they eat a wet diet or drink a lot. As long as the feces part is formed not liquid it isn't abnormal. You should be concerned if the feces part is liquid. The poop in the picture looks completely normal to me, but it's best to let them poop on white paper towel because you can't determine the color of liquid part on brown paper very well. The liquid shouldn't be pink, red or yellow in a healthy bird.

Dramatic weight loss or gain isn't normal, and for a 40 gram bird anything more than 3 or 4 grams is pretty dramatic. One large poop can weigh 1 or 2 grams so you need to take that into consideration.
The lipoma is probably starting to press on his vent area making pooping more of an effort.

There isn't much you can do other than enjoy him as much as you can. They can't safely perform surgery on a budgie to reduce the size of a lipoma. It would be too risky and would just cause him a lot of pain and suffering if they did.

 

[PacMan]

Oliver really is a cutie!
Budgie poop can be very wet and still be normal if they eat a wet diet or drink a lot. As long as the feces part is formed not liquid it isn't abnormal. You should be concerned if the feces part is liquid. The poop in the picture looks completely normal to me, but it's best to let them poop on white paper towel because you can't determine the color of liquid part on brown paper very well. The liquid shouldn't be pink, red or yellow in a healthy bird.

Dramatic weight loss or gain isn't normal, and for a 40 gram bird anything more than 3 or 4 grams is pretty dramatic. One large poop can weigh 1 or 2 grams so you need to take that into consideration.
The lipoma is probably starting to press on his vent area making pooping more of an effort.

There isn't much you can do other than enjoy him as much as you can. They can't safely perform surgery on a budgie to reduce the size of a lipoma. It would be too risky and would just cause him a lot of pain and suffering if they did.

Yea its really unfortunate, im talking with my vet if i should give Oliver meds for pain, since he's fluffed up and sleeping most of the time when not eating/preening, but the med he prescribed is a steroid (predinisolone) so im looking in alternatives like meloxicam

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Why do you have an issue with a corticosteroid? They're the most effective anti-inflammatory drugs available and might give him significant pain relief. Meloxicam is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory but isn't as effective as prednisolone which I've taken many times.

 

[PacMan]

Why do you have an issue with a corticosteroid? They're the most effective anti-inflammatory drugs available and might give him significant pain relief. Meloxicam is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory but isn't as effective as prednisolone which I've taken many times.

Its because of a past problem i had with a bird, maybe she was just sensible to the med? I will give a a bit less than the dose the vet said to see how it affects him first then

 

[DonnaBudgie]

How did your other bird react? These drugs don't have a lot of troublesome side effects.

 

[PacMan]

How did your other bird react? These drugs don't have a lot of troublesome side effects.

She had a seizure and got overall worse after taking the med, i dont remember exactly which med it was but it was a steroid

 

[DonnaBudgie]

That's awful! I highly doubt it could happen again but if it makes you very nervous, talk to your vet and get reassurances or a different medication.