Seizures in my African Grey...

[robertm]

Hello everyone ,

I have had my african grey for 40 years and for the last 2 years he/she has been having seizures . I have taken him to the vet servral tmes in the last few years. My vet says african greys are prone to seisures. Do any of you have this unfortunate issue with your parrots and what advice ca nyou give.

Thanks

 

[Jcas51]

So sorry to hear this . Seizures seem to be one those things where it is often difficult to pin down an exact cause. I know how hard it is to watch a beloved bird suffer with this because my Quaker parrot is epileptic. The seizures don’t happen often enough where I would want to put him on medication ( which is potentially risky anyhow especially since he’s quite old) and he’s always happy and energetic for weeks in between his episodes . What I give him that helps, (and this is strictly my own experience, I am not a vet!) is bird specific hemp oil. While it’s not a cure, the hemp absolutely has helped in my birds’ case. He recovers faster from seizures, they seem less intense and a little less frequent. I tried it initially because I have read some interesting research on hemp being used to treat seizures in humans. Obviously this is just my own experience but it has been a huge relief to find something that helps my Quaker without totally medicating him.

One other bit of advice is that I keep most of my birds’ perches low and have a towel
underneath the paper at the bottom of his cage. That way if he has a seizure and falls off one of his perches, he doesn’t fall too far and the towel gives some padding to help keep him from hurting himself. I also make sure there is nothing on the floor of the cage that he can get hurt on or tangled in ( toys, water bowl etc) and I keep things very calm and quiet while he’s recovering from a seizure. Best wishes to you and your bird

 

[osklvste55]

I used to belong and lost a CAG specific forum. This was a  long time ago. I was a new parrot owner of a CAG. This was a subject I was particularly interested in. I had seizures. As they age CAG's are prone to them. The main things discussed as causes low calcium, low Vit D and low UVB there were the other things that all bird owners should avoid like metals etc. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the site and it was over 3 decades ago. I don't remember any specific things to help other than lower perch soft bottom and with padded sides. I am sorry that is all I can remember. Did your vet run any tests to at least rule out any thing?