My canary winged parakeet was recently put on antibiotics + steroids combo - is this normal?

[pickleisasillybird]

Hello, apologies if I'm in the wrong place, this is my first time using these forums, I purely want to make sure my baby is alright.

About a week ago, my bebe (pickle) suddenly started changing her vocalizations and became increasingly more raspy as the days progressed, sometimes not even being able to make her normal noises. Avian vet availability in my area is scarce and the earliest appointment I could get was yesterday/Tuesday as any animal hospital told us to leave unless she was in critical condition because she was acting completely fine outside of her voice changing. Fast forward to yesterday, vet does a mouth scan and sees that her glottis is being pushed to the right and is not in the middle where it should be. Also signs of inflammation. Vet didn't do any swabs or tests, only said it could possibly be an infection (or at worst a tumor), and is having us give her antibiotics and steroids to assist with the inflammation, for 30 days--If she gets worse we come back immediately.

Kind of concerned I didn't get a straight answer, but I can't go anywhere else.

The next day (today) Pickle seemed for the most part okay, as of right now she's on my hand while I type this out. But a large part of the day she's been getting really sleepy and closing her eyes pretty often while standing around, she ate a lot of fruit in the morning but now just doesn't really want to touch her pellets or other food. Her poops are also pretty watery with not too much fecal matter, mostly just urate and liquid. Is this normal for parrots on antibiotics and steroids? Avian vet is closed right now.

Thanks for any assistance!

 

[wrench13]

As a former BeeBee owner, welcome! We loved our little Max so much.

Antibiotics can affect the poops like how you are seeing them. Its imprtant to take the full course of them, and not stop in the middle. Same as with people, stopping early lets the really strong individuals of the bacteria survive and makes the reinfection worse.

 

[pickleisasillybird]

As a former BeeBee owner, welcome! We loved our little Max so much.

Antibiotics can affect the poops like how you are seeing them. Its imprtant to take the full course of them, and not stop in the middle. Same as with people, stopping early lets the really strong individuals of the bacteria survive and makes the reinfection worse.

Beebee owners are so rare to see, from my experience! Hello! Those birds are just the cutest.

Thank you! The vet said that it was probably her sickness, since the poops are kind of cloudy and mostly liquid at this point. She just started, so her second dosage is tonight. Really hoping whatever is wrong with her gets resolved through the treatment :') Vet did say that I wouldn't see side effects until a few days in, from your experience would you say that's correct? Just as a second opinion.

here's what the poop looks like by the way, in case this is something i need to address with the vet further

 

[Owlet]

You said she ate a lot of fruit which general have a high water content so that could be affecting her poops too. It could help to get a probiotic to give her. Most antibiotics that get prescribed are generalized and just kill everything so it would be beneficial to have a probiotic to help her maintain healtyh bacteria. I used benebac+ with my bird at one point.

Edit: I used the gel benebac as Lincoln would readily eat it right from the syringe. However I just looked them up and they provide a powder form too that you could put into chop or something similar.