Sick budgerigar (and quarantine issues with new bird)

[Dragonloverjas]

I have a male budgie who is a few years old and having balance issues. My mum called me frantically and said he was flailing his wings in the air. I ran in thinking it might be a stroke, but he climbed back up to the perch and is constantly swaying from side to side. He’s trying to move from side to side on the perch but the swaying is making it hard. He can fly just fine. He’s had 3 clutches of eggs with his mate in his life. I moved him into a new cage yesterday to make room for my new princess parrot. I was keeping him with his youngest babies who are about 6 months old since one of the budgies in the bigger cage was aggressive towards them, but since they’re older now he’s leaving them alone. He seemed fine when I moved him, and only started showing these symptoms a few hours ago. I don’t know if he maybe has some sort of neurological issue, maybe he was hit on the head somehow? I don’t know how this has happened. I don’t know if it could still be a stroke, but that’s one of my ideas. He seems fine other than the balance issues. If there’s nothing I can do for him myself, do you think he’d be okay for another 2 days? I’m taking my eclectus to an avian vet to get her nails trimmed. Would I have to pay extra to take him as well? Vets are closed at this time, so I can’t take him right now. Also, with my new princess parrot, she’s accidentally come in contact with my other birds. I only got her today, but I’ve been seeing her for months. The pet shop I got her from said she’d been vet checked when she came in as they have a vet attached to the shop. It’s a good pet shop, I’ve never seen an unhealthy bird there. They keep the cages clean and give the birds fruit and veg. They said it would be alright not to quarantine her, but I’m still wanting to do that anyways. I don’t have a big house so they are in the same room, but her cage is far from the rest of the birds. But when I took her out, she flew to my other princess parrots cage. She seems healthy, except her flight feathers are clipped a bit too far down but that’s not going to effect the other birds. What should I do? They were pretty close to each other. What if she is sick?

 

[noodles123]

I am going to lay this on the table--- 1. Healthy doesn't mean "healthy" (much like we have seen with the Covid-19 cases in humans, apparently healthy birds can transmit diseases to other birds). Sometimes, the incubation period for certain bird diseases is as little as a week, other times, it can take 10 + years (and they can spread it during that time). Birds can carry deadly illness for their entire lives without ever showing symptoms (asymptomatic carriers). A newly infected bird who will eventually show symptoms may take many years to do so (spreading it in the meantime).

Quarantine and specific blood panels are essential for birds (and even a CBC is not enough for something like PBFD, PDD or psittacosis). Heck, even boarding a bird is very risky.

They hide illness and some never get sick from the deadly illnesses that they transmit to other birds.

Pet shops DO NOT do the necessary testing to ensure the health of the rest of your flock. These tests would cost them hundreds of dollars per bird if they did. "Checked" means that they maybe had a swab and a vet held them for a second/listened to lungs and felt keel/abdomen (if that).

Quarantine also means paying attention to your arms and the clothes you wear---it sounds crazy, but sick birds can spread like crazy depending on what they have (and you can be the vehicle for that spread).