Help with sick parrot please

jenfox

New member
May 31, 2009
2
0
Australia
Parrots
white corella
:) Hi There, my name is Jenny and I live in the North West of Australia in a remote area. About 10 days ago a white corella (bare faced Australian native) flew into my yard looking very much the worse for wear and after observing the bird for a while and seeing it wanted to eat but couldn't I decided the best course of action was to catch it and help it. My daughter has one of these as a pet so know a little of this breed.

After initially wrapping it and physically inspecting it I mixed up some fluids got a few mls of electrolites into it and then tried it on some roudybush formula. It gratefully took this via syringe much to my surprise. I then put the bird in a quiet place and decide what to do next. It's hard to gauge the birds age due to it's emanciated state. For the first few days I was only offering it roudy bush rolled into soft pellets which it quite happily took from my hand then it started eating seed again although painfully slow. We have flocks of these wild parrots come in to forage also and wasn't sure if this one was a wild one too ill or an escaped pet not doing so well in the wild. The latter is the case as we have heard it say 'Hello' quite clearly of late. Anyway we had a very heavy fog and a rather cold day last Friday and the bird has since has developed what we think is an upper respiritory infection due to it's comprimised state. I first noticed wet feathers around the cormers of it's mouth like it had been dribbling (I'm told parrots don't have saliva glands) and the sticky like saliva was affecting it eating seed and making the roudybush go gooey. It was the same that evening and again the following day. I made a few phone calls and was asked to check the birds crop for fluid and see if the saliva smelt. The crop was empty and the saliva smells really bad. The bird then developed a bit of a wheeze and although interested in food it will only take the roudybush in small quantities and gone off the seed again. We don't have a vet nearby, especially one that knows about birds so from internet research and talking to people who know a little I have started the bird on 4 drops of baytril 25 oral suspension twice a day. The birds droppings are fine and I have been putting pentavite (multivitamins) in his roudybush so his poop is going from green and white to yellow and white. As baytril is an antibiotic should I give the bird some probotics after or during the course of his treatment? The bird isn't sneezing or has nasal discharge just the smelly wet mouth.

Were sure the symptoms are secondary to his malnutrition and one person advised to crop feed him to keep the food intake up but am reluctant as I have only seen it in pictures and would rather someone who knows what their doing. He is taking small amounts of roudybush often and hope that if the baytril works his appetite will increase. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
 
Other than find a vet one way or another there's not a lot I can recommend.

You could try to get a sample of the 'saliva' and do some home tests to narrow down what type of infection it is as Baytril, while being a wide spectrum antibiotic it is not effective against many anaerobic pathogens, nor is it effective against any viruses or fungal infections. But of course when I say 'home tests' it somewhat depends on your home - I'm just the kind of geek who actually does have a microscope and some culture media laying around. If your like a normal person though the tests could be done at nearly any college or university with a biology classroom/lab (particularly a microbiology lab.)

How did you arrive at the dosing for the baytril? Sounds about right, or maybe a little high depending upon how big your 'drops' are.

Lastly, and hopefully obviously, keep the sick one far far away from your daughter's pet. Wash everything after interacting with the sick one.
 
It sounds like a yeast infection in the mouth....You need the right anti-biotic and I don't know what that is but the description of sticky stinky mouth is signs of a yeast infection.
 
If that's the case than baytril probably will not help, in fact it could make it worse as baytril will kill off the normal bacterial flora which would compete with the yeast.

This is one (of many) reasons why home treatment can be dangerous unless you know just what you are treating for.
 
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #5
Thank you all, I am taking a drive to the vet tomorrow with the old feller. My daughter doesn't live at home so her bird is not in contact with this one. I got advice from our wildlife carers association as they get all sorts of birds come into care and the dose for Baytril was based on a large parrot. The 'bird lady' agreed today that Baytrill probably wasn't strong enough as after much research we would probably be better off with linco spectin. We crop fed him today and with roudybush, vitamins and probotics and got 15ml into him. Will let you all know what happens tomorrow after the vet. I'm hoping it will not be too late by then.
 

Most Reactions

Back
Top