Quarantining Parrots

[DonnaBudgie]

They're all held together with sealant from the insides. How else would the glass stay together and not leak water? I see the sealant going up the side panels. It's silicone sealant so I doubt it's harmful. Silicone is generally inert.
A taller plastic bin would avoid this potential issue but I would just watch her.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

She looks good.

 

[kme3388]

It was suggested that I show Kiwi her mate to see if she perks up. She sure did. However my male sun conure upon seeing Kiwi started puking as you can see in front of him. This was immediately too. Bonded pairs of birds are so strange!

 

[kme3388]

Kiwi wasn’t dealing well with quarantine. She was dumping her water dish, destroying the paper towels, putting the paper towels in her water dish, putting her wood toys in her water dish, and kept trying to escape.

I had to put her back in her cage. She was being a pest in her quarantine setup . I was cleaning it 10+ times a day. I did put in the divider between her, and her mate.

We have an appointment with an Avian vet on Monday, and have to cancel tomorrow or we get charged. We are not sure what to do. We don’t want to bring her out in the cold (it’s only going to be 50 degrees). Is it worth it to stress her out, drag her in the car for an hour, and remove her from her environment? She doesn’t look like she’s lethargic anymore. On the other hand what if she goes down hill the next available appointments are booked out into November.

 

[LaManuka]

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Kiwi wasn’t dealing well with quarantine. She was dumping her water dish, destroying the paper towels, putting the paper towels in her water dish, putting her wood toys in her water dish, and kept trying to escape.

I had to put her back in her cage. She was being a pest in her quarantine setup . I was cleaning it 10+ times a day. I did put in the divider between her, and her mate.

We have an appointment with an Avian vet on Monday, and have to cancel tomorrow or we get charged. We are not sure what to do. We don’t want to bring her out in the cold (it’s only going to be 50 degrees). Is it worth it to stress her out, drag her in the car for an hour, and remove her from her environment? She doesn’t look like she’s lethargic anymore. On the other hand what if she goes down hill the next available appointments are booked out into November.

Oh I'm glad she's perked up a bit, but it's SO hard to know what to do for the best in situations like these! Hopefully she'll be less stressed now that she's out of quarantine and can see her mate I wish her and you all the very best!!

 

[kme3388]

Kiwi is up to 110 grams. Which is way better than the 95 grams she was down to. She still isn’t herself. I can see her flight feathers fanned when she’s perched (they look droopy). I’m no longer concerned she’s going to fall off her perch. Shes eating/drinking good. She did start to regurgitate her meds. I did have to contact the vet that she was referred to for that. I was advised to stop giving them, and monitor her to make sure she doesn’t regress. She did have an X-ray. Nothing was found aside from her possibly being gassy, or maybe a partial egg (she was NOT egg bound). The next step would be a very expensive CT if she regresses. I am crossing my fingers that she keeps recovering. So far nothing has been confirmed as to why she got sick, and looked like the grand reaper was following her around.

 

[LaManuka]

Your love and dedication to Kiwi is such a strength to her, and will go a long way to help her beat this thing!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I glad to hear Kiwis doing better. Personally, I would keep the vet appointment. Temps around 50 aren't too bad. It's just going to get colder. Warm the car up and cover her carrier with a blanket while moving the carrier into the car.

What is a "partial egg"? That sounds concerning because once the shell starts forming her body can't reabsorb an infertile egg. I wouldn't get a CT unless there was a good reason. I'd ask what they are looking for and what the plan would be if they found it. If there's no viable plan it just an expensive academic excercise.

As for her perhaps being unstable on her perches, you can put a second perch next to the one she likes to sit on so she has something to rest herself on if she feels weak.

 

[kme3388]

Unfortunately Kiwi started having issues again. Her poop has a bunch of seed pieces that aren’t digested. She’s regurgitating again. Once we got her back in her incubator she’s all fluffed up again. I had asked my husband how she was doing this morning. He told me great because she was eating, and moving. So I cancelled her vet appointment for tomorrow as the vet recommended if she was doing better. I wish I would have looked myself. We’ve already spent $2500 at the vet offices, and have found out nothing as to why she is sick. Luckily she has gained some weight back. I feel like that’s a good sign.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I wish you had insurance for her. That's a lot of money to not know what's really wrong with her.

 

[LaManuka]

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Unfortunately Kiwi started having issues again. Her poop has a bunch of seed pieces that aren’t digested. She’s regurgitating again. Once we got her back in her incubator she’s all fluffed up again. I had asked my husband how she was doing this morning. He told me great because she was eating, and moving. So I cancelled her vet appointment for tomorrow as the vet recommended if she was doing better. I wish I would have looked myself. We’ve already spent $2500 at the vet offices, and have found out nothing as to why she is sick. Luckily she has gained some weight back. I feel like that’s a good sign.

It's one thing to spend all that money and have a diagnosis and treatment plan, but totally another to still not know what's wrong, it's so dispiriting. You and Kiwi can have all my positive energies and healing wishes for free though, and I hope they do at least a little something to help!

 

[kme3388]

It is disheartening to spend a lot of money, and know nothing more than I did to start. It’s been challenging to stay positive. I’ve done my best to be polite. I’m not sure if this has to do with birds in general not being understood. They are unique creatures that are literally living dinosaurs.

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

Oh dear... c'mon, Kiwi. Feel better, hun

 

[kme3388]

I’ve been wondering if this is entirely a diet issue. We had Kiwi on the zupreem nut blend pellets for years. A vet mentioned that Harrison’s is a better quality pellet, and I was already feeding another one of my parrots Harrison’s pellets. It was an easy transfer for me.

Kiwi crunched up the Harrison pellets, and turned it into nesting material. I figured she’d ate some of them as there were always ones missing. I cannot prove it though because that could have been her mate eating them as they shared a cage. Once a day I let her out of her cage, and offered seed. She’d come out for that for roughly 30 minutes. Then she’d want to hang out with my sun conure. Kiwi also gets offered chop but I’ve never seen her actually eat it EVER.

I’m wondering if her losing weight, and getting sick has to do with her not eating. We’ve been trying to put weight back on her so we’ve offered her seed, or whatever she’ll eat. Now because I have her separated from her mate I can see that she isn’t eating Harrison pellets at all.

I feel completely awful

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Don't feel awful! You're trying so hard to do the right thing for your birds. I would feed her whatever she will eat. Not all birds will eat Harrisons or Tops pellets. Does she any other Zupreem pellets? Maybe even try Kaytee. I raised baby budgies on Kaytee Exact formula and they grew well and are very healthy adults now so their pellets must be okay, too.

I dont feed my budgies any pellets. They eat a seed mix but they also eat chop and greens. Some of them waste so much seed I couldn't afford to have them waste that much pellet food.

I wonder about Kiwi having undigested seed in her poop like you posted recently.

 

[kme3388]

Don't feel awful! You're trying so hard to do the right thing for your birds. I would feed her whatever she will eat. Not all birds will eat Harrisons or Tops pellets. Does she any other Zupreem pellets? Maybe even try Kaytee. I raised baby budgies on Kaytee Exact formula and they grew well and are very healthy adults now so their pellets must be okay, too.

I dont feed my budgies any pellets. They eat a seed mix but they also eat chop and greens. Some of them waste so much seed I couldn't afford to have them waste that much pellet food.

I wonder about Kiwi having undigested seed in her poop like you posted recently.

I have Kiwi back in her homemade incubator. Her poop issues have subsided. There’s still minimal urine in there but there’s no more undigested food since yesterday.

All Kiwi eats are zupreem nut blend pellets, and sun flower seeds. Even in a seed mix that’s all she eats. I do offer other things but she refuses. Her mate does regurgitate her food, and he sucks the juice out of the fresh food in his chop. They haven’t been caged together for a few weeks now.

 

[kme3388]

Kiwi is still living. Her vets think she has bornavirus. She is on celecoxib. Her current weight is 105 grams. We started weighing her on a different scale. We think our one scale just isn’t capable of weighing something so small. Her weight was between 85 grams to 110 grams, and it would vary hourly. Her weight is still significantly lower than her average.

We were informed that when parrots decline this much that supportive care is all that can be offered, and that euthanasia is an option, and that if she continues to decline (often the case with bornavirus when it gets to this stage) that it would be a humane option.

 

[nkrbkr]

I’ve been wondering about you and Kiwi. Has she been able to eat much? I know that Jen from the Green Bird Brigade has a macaw with AG from the disease. Her bird was very ill and losing weight, and she was able to nurse her back to health & regain weight through a combination of anti inflammatories and feeding her formula. The formula was easier to digest, so her bird was able to actually absorb nutrients. Once she was well enough, she now feeds her Harrison’s fortified pellets, as they’re easier to digest. Her macaw hasn’t had a flare up since, but she prevents triggers and stressors the best she can.

 

[LaManuka]

Oh @kme3388, I'm so sorry to hear this. But I love @nkrbkr's suggestions, they're certainly worth a try!

 

[kme3388]

I’ve been wondering about you and Kiwi. Has she been able to eat much? I know that Jen from the Green Bird Brigade has a macaw with AG from the disease. Her bird was very ill and losing weight, and she was able to nurse her back to health & regain weight through a combination of anti inflammatories and feeding her formula. The formula was easier to digest, so her bird was able to actually absorb nutrients. Once she was well enough, she now feeds her Harrison’s fortified pellets, as they’re easier to digest. Her macaw hasn’t had a flare up since, but she prevents triggers and stressors the best she can.

I’ve never used formula before, and have no clue how to do that. Kiwi is still eating on her own. Some days are better than others. There is a huge difference between her intake of food, and my sun conure Charlie.

There hasn’t been undigested food in her poop for days now.