Macaw vomiting and lung infection

[Martin93]

Hm i'd love to eat with her, but i'm allergic to almost any food you can name haha.
I can eat potato, beans, peas, onion, garlic, tomato, milk products, and little bits of wheat.
I need to think really hard about what else i can eat haha
Oh yea and meats, except pork, i dont eat pork.

 

[LordTriggs]

some peas and mashed potato should be pretty nice for her to try out with you, easy to eat soft foods

 

[LordTriggs]

I just saw the pictures! She got her big bird feathers!

She's so precious, I'd love to have a friendly B&G (along with every other bird) but i just know I'm not suited to them. They are amazing creatures

 

[Scott]

Hm i'd love to eat with her, but i'm allergic to almost any food you can name haha.
I can eat potato, beans, peas, onion, garlic, tomato, milk products, and little bits of wheat.
I need to think really hard about what else i can eat haha
Oh yea and meats, except pork, i dont eat pork.

Your bowl of food need not be identical. White potato is not harmful to birds but lacks nutrition. If you can't eat yams or sweet potato, try some white potato in your bowl. Green peas and various beans such as garbanzo, pinto, kidney are generally well liked by parrots. Wheat cereals without sugar are great for treats. Mine love the small squares; some brands have small amounts of sugar. Pasta is also well liked by birds; many whole wheat or mixtures with spinach, kale, etc are available.

 

[Martin93]

Okay thanks for the info!

I've tried eating with her and also had my eclectus with me who eats pretty well on his own.
But she will sometimes bite food but then shakes her head to get rid of it.
Formula is pretty well accepted but i do need to put it in the back of her throat or she will push it out with her tounge.
I'll keep trying.
But considering that it may take some macaws up to 6 months to wean i dont think its all that bad now at 16 weeks.
But the thing that bothers me about this is that at about 10 weeks she was eating little bits on her own and i'm afraid that that was the perfect time to start weaning and now i'm to late.
i've read that you can get all kinds of trouble if you're weaning to late.
But she does not strike me as a bird that should be weaned yet, still very much baby behavior, compared to other macaws i've seen on youtube.
0 focus, just random walking around and climbing anything that is near, each time i stretch my hand or finger at her she'll try and climb it. Very hard feeding her like this.
Oh well, let me know what you guys think about this.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Patience, if you have kids they don't all do the same thing at the same time/age.

Jacky will when she is ready. She is probably very busy exploring everything as she has been unwell for a while and wants to experience everything, it's all shiny and new to her, too busy to eat. It will come, enjoy your baby, she is so adorable.

 

[LordTriggs]

don't bother wit ha set time frame. Just keep offering that formula until she decides the other foods are more interesting and she doesn't want it anymore. Even without her tough time I'd say to do that. You just gotta be patient and let her deecide

 

[Martin93]

pff she just keeps vomiting still...
The vet also doesnt understand what is going on, they just keep telling me to feed less, so now i'm at 20ml feedings.

I'm really at a loss now, dont know what to do...
Right now the plan is to see how she responds to the 20ml feeding in a few days, but i dont have high hopes...
She is still not really looking like a sick bird and also she doesnt act like one. still very active and playfull.

So as i said the vet doesnt really know what to do next becouse they already had a look at her and tested about everything.
Maybe someone here has an idea of what to do or what might cause this?

The way she is vomiting did change by the way.
Normaly she would stretch her neck back and forth to push out the food but now its just really sudden and random, you dont see it coming. she's just playing and suddenly the food just comes out and she just shakes her head in confusion.

 

[LordTriggs]

oh my god again?

tell us big feather baby, why you be sick?

A crazy thought but do you know why her mother died? Don't know if checked that side of things but maybe the mum could be the key to it, could have passed something onto Jacky

 

[itzjbean]

Ugh, what a nightmare....poor baby.

LordTriggs could be onto something, you said her mother died shortly after laying her, possibly something genetic was passed on and she is just not a well bird. Bad genetics leads to bad quality of life. So sorry you have to go through this. I would suggest taking her back to the breeder, just to see if the breeder may have any suggestions or know a better way of feeding her so she doesn't keep living like this... it is getting to the point of desperation here. I feel so bad for baby Jacky (and she has my name, too!)

 

[Martin93]

I called the breeder and he told me the mother was just old.
I think now is just to see if she gets over this since nobody has a clue about this.
Maybe we're lucky maybe not.

 

[LordTriggs]

yes agreed I can't imagine what's going through her poor little head. It's really not fair on either of you having to fight this in what should be a really happy time with her.

definitely get in contact with who gave her to you, see if they did a necropsy if you haven't asked already, hopefully that will give you the key to helping her. The only thing worrying me slightly with feeding less (I do hope that works though) is she hasn't eaten nearly as much as other macaws her age as she keeps bringing it back up.

the fact the manner in which she now vomits is definitely intriguing. If it was the same you could say the meds did nothing but clearly they have done something resulting in a minor change. I'm gonna keep spitballing ideas around in my head to see if there's anything.

Has she eaten any solid foods? If so does she keep those down or is it the same story?

 

[plumsmum2005]

Just a thought is she physically 'normal'? For example is her crop the correct size or is it short for her age/weight etc? Might be worth a conversation at least? Humans have differing health problems related to genetic make up, is this possible with our birds also?

Hoping that the smaller feeds help to alleviate her sickness.

 

[Martin93]

Well physically she seems a little smaller and weighs less than other macaws should of her age, her weight is 854gr this morning, normally a macaw should weigh about 1000 / 1200 for what i understand.

 

[LordTriggs]

I called the breeder and he told me the mother was just old.
I think now is just to see if she gets over this since nobody has a clue about this.
Maybe we're lucky maybe not.

just old age? Between laying and hatching? Sounds very odd to me just to suffix this I have about 0 knowledge on breeding apart from I stay away from it. Do macaws get to an age where they stop breeding?

not sure how well you know the breeder. I assume you know them more than not at all for them to give you an egg to care for

 

[Scott]

So i took him to another vet (certified one) for a second opinion.
They found pretty much the same thing as that scpecialist did i went to but they added a little information, his stomach is all red and irritated but there are very very small amounts of food leaking into his gut.
So they gave me something to protect his stomach, something to reduce stomach acid and a very expensive antibiotic that does not make him nauseas.

Sorry to hear Jacky's symptoms are recurring.

I can't help but believe the "stomach" redness and irritation is a huge clue. Is there some form of disease process with the lining or perhaps an irritation? Food allergy? Did the vet performing the endoscopy mention the specific area, ie crop, proventriculus, or gizzard? (Not sure if the scope the gizard)

 

[Martin93]

I dont know the breeder that well at all. I'll contact him again to check what happend to the mother.
But i just spoke to the vet again and they told me this:
Handfeeding a bird is a unatural thing and sometimes for unknown reasons when a bird is having problems these problems might disapear when they fully eat on their own.

Really hoping for that to happen!

 

[Martin93]

So i took him to another vet (certified one) for a second opinion.
They found pretty much the same thing as that scpecialist did i went to but they added a little information, his stomach is all red and irritated but there are very very small amounts of food leaking into his gut.
So they gave me something to protect his stomach, something to reduce stomach acid and a very expensive antibiotic that does not make him nauseas.

Sorry to hear Jacky's symptoms are recurring.

I can't help but believe the "stomach" redness and irritation is a huge clue. Is there some form of disease process with the lining or perhaps an irritation? Food allergy? Did the vet performing the endoscopy mention the specific area, ie crop, proventriculus, or gizzard? (Not sure if the scope the gizard)

I dont know the english word for it what the vet called it, in dutch its "kliermaag", its not his crop but what comes after that.
Google translate gave me this: glandular stomach
Not sure if its right.

 

[LordTriggs]

okay so she's a little bit lighter, which considering she seemed to start growing a bit late we can factor that in along with her mystery illness. We know she's definitely growing and she has energy even after being sick and despite this lasting for just under a month now she's still acting like a bird. The big thing to me is that when they did the endoscopy she had sores on her stomach

Now call me crazy again, please do I have a note from the doctor informing me! Could it even be that the concoction of medicines and stuff pumped into her could have actually sorted the problem? But now because of the mix is making her sick?

Or could being sick be a learned behavior even? If all she knows is she eats then a few minutes later brings it up could she think that's what happens with food? Far less likely I know but not impossible right? Someone? Please confirm one way or another?

 

[plumsmum2005]

Jacky's weight is on the light side but then she has been quite poorly for a while now so no clear conclusions there. Ask the vet to look at the organ sizes related to eating/digestion on any x-rays/scans that they must have taken?

This is your paragraph that is making me wonder?

"The way she is vomiting did change by the way.
Normaly she would stretch her neck back and forth to push out the food but now its just really sudden and random, you dont see it coming. she's just playing and suddenly the food just comes out and she just shakes her head in confusion"

If little and often works then go with it, a pain for you but if it gets her through this? It will be interesting when she does eat on her own how that works, does she graze or eat full meals?