Topical pain meds for macaw

[Kentuckienne]

I'm posting outside of Gus's usual thread, in case this info helps another parront. Our parrot has a big kink in his spine, called kyphosis, caused by poor nutrition when he was young. It seems to be painful, just by the way he moves - very gingerly at times, and sometimes he seems to lock up.

We've been giving him a smear of a topical cream containing NSAIDs and topical anesthetics. There is a bit of bare skin on the sides of the spinal kink. It seemed to work - he is more active, climbs around more. He used to just sit on top of his cage all day and stare. Now he climbs inside the cage to an upper perch and sits and sometimes chews and yanks on toys there. He has been ringing his bell a lot more on top of the cage also. So that's good.

But he's also gotten more grouchy. He doesn't like to be held as much any more and seems cranky. So... maybe the meds are helping the pain, but causing some other problem, like stomach upset or anxiety? Or maybe he just doesn't like having the stuff smeared on him?

So he's getting a couple days break from the cream to see what happens. It's not a slam dunk, sadly. If he goes back to the old ways, maybe we can start again with less cream? I'll put all updates here in hopes some future parrot will find help.

 

[bill_e]

My CAV specializes in pain management in animals. You can read his bio here, Dr. Michael Dutton. Perhaps a email to him to arrange a consultation??

 

[SailBoat]

Closely watch the time periods to see if they indicate whether the topical is fading with time or causing additional distress as the medication begins to peak.

Log and chart, it may provide insight!

Underlying Pain or Illness that was over shadowed by the spine pain?

I so wish I had answers!

 

[Kentuckienne]

My CAV specializes in pain management in animals. You can read his bio here, Dr. Michael Dutton. Perhaps a email to him to arrange a consultation??

I will do that! Thank you!

 

[Kentuckienne]

Closely watch the time periods to see if they indicate whether the topical is fading with time or causing additional distress as the medication begins to peak.

Log and chart, it may provide insight!

Underlying Pain or Illness that was over shadowed by the spine pain?

I so wish I had answers!

We took a break just to be safe. J says the skin around the spine is starting to look almost bruised. So maybe something in that particular cream has a bad effect on the blood vessels near the surface, or maybe he is having a bad reaction to something? Maybe putting it on twice a day was too much, or too much was applied? We are giving him time to let things return to "normal" and maybe then start again. Keeping a log/journal is a great idea, will do that! And will use the time until then to research the individual ingredients to see if a culprit can be identified, and if something jumps out ask the pharmacy to reformulate a cream without that component.