Sick Conure

[Lkatherine]

We have 2 green cheek conures and one became ill a few weeks ago. We took him to the vet and gave him a round of antibiotics. Repeat blood work shows no change in initial labs values which included an elevated WBC. He is home but still seems a little unsteady and intermittently puffy. His cage mate remains healthy and active. Feather condition is also slightly ratty, especially tail feathers. Does anyone have any ideas on what it could be?

 

[LaManuka]

Welcome to the forum but I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances.

Has your vet told you anything more about the results of the blood tests, other than the elevated WBC? Have they told you what condition they’re treating with the antibiotics? I’m certainly not an avian health professional but antibiotics are ok for treating a bacterial infection but not much else as far as I understand.

Heavy metal poisoning is also perhaps something you could ask your vet to test for. Hopefully your birds don’t have one of those snuggle hut things that seem to be so popular as birds chewing on them can cause gastrointestinal blockages that can be fatal. Unfortunately the symptoms you’ve described are not an indication of any particular condition so it’s difficult to say what the actual problem might be.

I hope some other members may have some better insight for you and that your birdie makes a full recovery soon, it’s so worrying having a sick little one and not knowing why!

 

[Laurasea]

What Lamanku said.
We need more info. Was this a certified avain vet? What antibiotics were given? If it's psittacosis, only certain antibiotics like doxycycline will work. And both birds would need to be treated, as the other one could be a carrier and reinfecting is common, even if you only had a single bird. It's a disease that is treatable but had a long treatments time, and reinfecting is common, needing second round of treatment. And everything must be cleaned very well and daily to get rid of the bacteria.
http://www.parrotforums.com/general-health-care/84456-psittacosis-what-bird-owners-should-know.html

Now we have no way of knowing is that's what your bird has.