Juliette is home! (Lineolated Parakeet)

[rheashard2]

Are you using a nano dropper? Double check and ask vet. It's technically for eyes and reduces size of drops. This could help reduce fear of overdose. Each vet have different techniques they advise owners to use with pets for medication delivery. I had 2 different avian vets in different states have me towel my CAG to give medicine. One was oral for pneumonia, the other topical. They showed me how to do it. #2 had me demonstrate to ensure proper technique. Is there a video out there on giving nose drops to birds? It'd probably be with poultry. Gentamicin is a strong drug. It has been around since late 1960's, early 1970's. It's good and bad have been well researched. My only hesitation with it's use is verifying by culture that it's correct. That's my policy on all antibiotics. Good luck. I'm cheering for you both. Giving medicine to a bird is scary for most owners. (It's definitely is for me!) We don't do it enough to develop the technique and skill for it to be automatic.

 

[GivemeSeedsorgivemeFlesh]

They just gave me the bottle, and the drops seem awfully big. But they are very well known avian vets...I like the idea of a nanodropper though. I'll look and see if I can find some videos on technique.

 

[GivemeSeedsorgivemeFlesh]

There don't seem to be any videos on technique, which is a bit strange, but tomorrow I'll employ a helper. We'll be experts after day 7.

 

[GivemeSeedsorgivemeFlesh]

I am extremely concerned about six more days of nose drops. Juliette is very distressed about it. Yesterday she had her wings out and was panting after the trauma of being caught and dosed. She also exhibited this amount of stress at the vet after having her nails clipped. We are supposed to do this twice a day. I'm honestly afraid the stress is going to give her a heart attack. The next dose is supposed to be in an hour.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Are you using a nano dropper? Double check and ask vet. It's technically for eyes and reduces size of drops. This could help reduce fear of overdose. Each vet have different techniques they advise owners to use with pets for medication delivery. I had 2 different avian vets in different states have me towel my CAG to give medicine. One was oral for pneumonia, the other topical. They showed me how to do it. #2 had me demonstrate to ensure proper technique. Is there a video out there on giving nose drops to birds? It'd probably be with poultry. Gentamicin is a strong drug. It has been around since late 1960's, early 1970's. It's good and bad have been well researched. My only hesitation with it's use is verifying by culture that it's correct. That's my policy on all antibiotics. Good luck. I'm cheering for you both. Giving medicine to a bird is scary for most owners. (It's definitely is for me!) We don't do it enough to develop the technique and skill for it to be automatic.

The problem with relying on culture conformation is that the nostrils are not sterile. They are colonized by normal flora bacteria just like the rest of the upper respiratory system. If you swab the nostrils and swab a culture plate, a lot of harmless bacteria will grow, and if a true pathogen is present it is usually difficult to isolate it from the normal flora. Normal flora grows on the plate quickly and crowds out the growth of any pathogens present. Pathogens are very often more difficult to grow on a culture plate and some will not grow at all unless given special media to grow on. Because of this, a doctor or vet will make an educated guess (based on education, training and experience) about what organism is causing the infection and give a broad spectrum antibiotic that will cover the usual suspects. Apparently, your vet is either concerned that a bacteria that may be causing the infection is resistant to the antibiotics typically given for avian sinusitis or they were successful in isolating a causative bacteria and this bug needed gentamicin to eradicate it. At this point I wouldn't second guess it. The fact that this vet has gone above and beyond Baytril for Juliette's illness tells me that it's being taken seriously. How many times have we walked out of a vet's office with Baytril and Metacam without any real understanding of what's wrong with our birds?

I love the idea of a nano dropper. Regular droppers produce such huge drops. I searched Amazon and sure enough they sell a nanodropper adapter you can screw onto a dropper bottle! I must say that despite all the bad press and politics, etc involving Jeff Bezos, I really don't know what I would do without Amazon.

 

[GivemeSeedsorgivemeFlesh]

We just did the morning's dose and it went much better. She didn't hyperventilate this time. The head vet of this office is world renown in avian medicine, and even lectures nationally, so she couldn't be in better hands as far as that goes. I am really lucky to be located so close to them.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

You ARE very lucky. So many people with birds dont have any avian vets within a days driving distance and many people from other countries have no access at all (or at least they don't believe they do). I'm surprised and extremely lucky that I have excellent avian vets less than 20 miles from me here in Maine where birds are not popular pets.

I think it's great that you want to understand the science behind the care that Juliette receives.