Question on causes of yeast infection in parrots?

[IndySE]

So just got Kermit's results back from the vets for her yearly visit, and they look awesome!... sort of.

Her blood and metabolic panel came back very well. She has no sign of infection, deficiencies, etc. Except from her gram stain, the testing lab found "many" yeast. Kermit had this issue last year, which I addressed with ACV in her water for 3 weeks. I didn't retest. I was surprised to see it was still an ongoing issue, and it appears slightly worse than before. I'll be restarting the ACV for another 3 weeks, cutting all grain from her diet, and retest the gram stain after.

My vet seems to think it's dietary, rather than overall husbandry/cleanliness. But I'm scratching my head on what it can be. She has the occasional cracker, rice, and quinoa, but a majority of her diet is pellets ! I also feed a "chop" several times a week that consists largely of vegetables and some grains (which I'll cut out now) that I prepare and freeze myself. I still feel like I'm missing something, though, since the grain really isn't more than 5% of her diet. Are there other causes? Any other experiences with yeast in the gram stain?

Much thanks.

 

[Laurasea]

Rice can grow yeast , bacteria very fast in the fridge, I only serve it the day I make it.
Ta-dah had a yeast problem, fixed by adding probiotics to get diet. I myself prefer to do this by offering live culture yogurt with no artificial
sweeteners, I give the birds some first then eat the rest, so they always get fresh..
Personally I don't like freezing chop....I feel the quality goes down
I hope your birdie gets better quickly.

 

[IndySE]

Thank you Laura ! On it's own, it's not serious because all her other results are in good shape. It looks like yeast infections are only an issue when their immunity gets weakened. So hopefully I can get to the bottom of this and address it.

all my chop is preserved in the freezer. I agree it's best the day it's made, but it's just not feasible for me to prepare fresh veggies everyday. I do prep all the vegetables myself (don't purchase vegetables prepared and frozen at the store) so I can at least attest to the quality prior to freezing. I generally remove only enough chop to last 2 days at a time to maintain freshness, so I'm hoping the chop isn't the source of it all.

Yogurt is a good idea. Kermit actually loves plain greek yogurt with a bit of chia seed. Is that sufficient for the probiotics? I'll also be adding in the ACV, per vet's directive.

 

[Laurasea]

Causes in an otherwise healthy bird that lowers immunity are low vit A and low vit D. But with pellets and fresh veggies that's doubtful. And if you are keeping the environmental clean, which I'm sure you are.....then I'm stumped. There could be an underlying health issue, but you and vet have checked....is your bird getting ten hours of sleep, without being woken by disturbance? Sleep is very important to health and one of the last things I can think of..m

 

[IndySE]

Laurasea; I'm also doubting vitamin deficiencies. I can't recall all the metrics my vet cited, but I know he ran a metabolic panel of some sort. Liver values, protein values, calcium off the top of my head. Everything else he ran checked out.

I scrub the bars on Kermit's cage about once a week. I guess I could use more disinfectant spray (I use F10), but my vet doesn't think it's related to husbandry. I'll also try washing my hands more before handling her, though my vet didn't think that's what it was either.

She gets about 10-12 hours of sleep. Around 10 now, because it's summer and I'm keeping her on a natural light cycle. Been debating increasing her hours of darkness because her hormone season has been unusually long imo.

I'm equally perplexed, but I'll try making some changes and retesting the gram stain in 3 weeks to see if I got the cause. Peridoxically, when I use the ACV as directed by the vet, Kermit's droppings become more watery? Which also doesn't make any sense whatsoever, based on what I've found.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Probably the pellets hun, how much is being consumed? Have you really looked at the ingredients closely, there is sugar in many. Have you tried switching to TOP's? 100% organic, no nasties and no soy. I feed my three chop which is prepped and frozen and also I cook up some grains seperately (wheatberries, quinoa, millet for example) and give a small amount with the chop.



Try no pellets for a few weeks and see how it goes, ACV should not be necessary on a regular basis IMHO, certainly if the pellets are the culprit it is just trying to keep it at bay. You can feed well without pellets, do you sprout?

 

[Sunnyclover]

Too many surgery foods such as dried fruit or fresh fruit, rice and bread. Ollie had a yeast infection once because he had too many of these items in his diet...once I reduced them he was fine.

 

[IndySE]

In regards to pellets I feed, I go with Roudybush and Goldenfeast mixed together. Neither are known as sugary pellets and seem pretty well-regarded. Roudybush is corn-based, Goldenfeast seems to go the more organic route with base ingredients like peas and quinoa. I'm not going to cut her pellets abruptly because she doesn't eat a lot of her chop, and I certainly don't want to give her seeds as substitute, especially when she's being kind of hormonal. I've been meaning to try sprouting, but it's made me nervous because I know if you're not careful, your sprouts can get infected with molds and things D:

Kermit gets a little bit of fruit in her fresh chop, but I don't feed that everyday. She gets blueberries, mangoes, beets, and sweet potatoe, largely, from it. Sometimes we feed her bananas. She's a bit fussy about eating veggies, so I try to add fruit (with high vitamin content at least) to get her to eat it.

 

[plumsmum2005]

I was nervous about sprouting for some while and then it suddenly clicks into place and you're off, wondering what all the fuss was about. Jason Crean advises to soak in GSE and water and do the final rinse the same, if this helps. Kermit has a sweet beak - all those veggies are the sweet ones. Why not stretch it such as by adding processed raw cauliflower through it? Squash is less sugary than sweet potatoes. If you can reduce her sugar intake then hoping the yeast will disappear with less to feed on.

 

[IndySE]

I'll research into sprouting again, though my lucky with plants is not so great. I'm on of those people that forgets to water plants. Birds are different, because I can't NOT think about my bird everyday haha.

Squash is a good thought, I'll add that to her chop. I agree, what I make is on the sugary side. Kermit is so particular about what fresh produce she eats, I had to make it enticing... and at the very least, I chose sugary veggies/fruits that are high in vitamins. Not sure if the chop alone is to blame, though, because I've actually forgotten to feed it to her for the last few weeks. Nonetheless I'll make a few changes to it.

 

[plumsmum2005]

My staple mix to sprout is brown and green lentils, mung beans, chick peas/garbanzos. Add scoops to a jar, after rinsing, add water with drop GSE if you like. I leave a full 24 hours to soak then rinse with fresh clean water (and drop of GSE if liked) after adding some clean gauze held on with a elastic band. Drain and leave to stand upturned in a dish, I use a small pie dish.