Hi, everyone. I'm sorry if this is the wrong section, since the bird in question has already passed!
This will be a long post; I'm sorry for that as well! I'm just curious if anyone has seen similar symptoms in a bird; I'm especially curious if anyone else has experienced pulmonary edema in a bird, and if so, what caused it?
TL;DR: Budgie declined over 13 months with odd symptoms; pulmonary edema but heart didn't look bad, (what seemed to be) mixed general/liver/kidney symptoms, but imagings (X-rays and CT) plus labs didn't look bad. Physicals all looked fantastic.
The full story:
I had a budgie (since passed) that developed "coughing" that, at first, occured just once or twice a month in the mornings. But then, it worsened quickly, and he developed exercise intolerance, dyspnea, trouble swallowing, etc. as well. X-ray showed a heart on the larger side of normal, but still normal, and what was believed to be fluid in the lungs. He was put on Furosemide and Enalapril, and referred for a CT.
CT showed clear lungs, heart still on the larger side of normal. All other organs looking great! Avian vet + small animal cardiologist looked at his scans, performed a physical, and told me that "true heart disease was highly unlikely". His heart looked normal besides being marginally on the larger side. He didn't show the imaging changes or the symptoms they commonly see in birds in heart failure. They told me to stop both meds, and that if he had true heart failure, he should decline again rather quickly. He didn't.
All symptoms went away with the Furosemide, apart from the coughing, which continued for another two months before spontaneously resolving. He was fine for another two months, then developed recurring beak bruising! Did bloodwork that was beautiful apart from his bile acids being barely over normal-high normal was 65 umL, he had 68 umL. Vet said they normally wouldn't even treat for a one-time elevation like that, but since he had the bruised beak, started him on milk thistle in case he had something like fatty liver. He didn't improve on this.
A month later, he became lethargic. Took him back to the vet. Did some more tests, nothing really outside of normal. They said he had a small amount of gram negative bacteria on his stain, but not enough they'd classify it as an infection. Still, because of his symptoms, he was put on an antibacterial. Thus began two months of back-and-forth bacterial and yeast infections that felt impossible to beat (possible immune compromise?) but we eventually quashed them. But the lethargy didn't go away. He was also fluffing, developed extreme polyuria, food begging, etc.
We then had his bile acid recheck. This time, his blood was suddenly VERY lipemic, and he had markedly elevated uric acid. The other values were unreadable due to the lipemia, or normal. The vet didn't give me much guidance on what to do here, so I assumed I just needed to keep up with the milk thistle, and that these ups-and-downs sometimes happened with liver disease.
Less than a month later, he passed-he wasn't eating well the day before, but still flying, singing, playing. I found him sitting on his food bowl the next morning mostly unresponsive; he would occasionally stick his neck out far. At first I thought it seemed like dry heaving; looking back, he was probably lacking oxygen. I didn't pursue a necropsy (some past trauma from another bird I lost to cancer-vet sends them to a lab that doesn't return the body so I didn't get all of him back). Which I now regret, because his combo of symptoms is so weird to me and I can't piece together what he could have possibly had!
I know pulmonary edema is usually due to heart failure, but multiple experts didn't seem concerned about his heart, and his respiratory symptoms never returned past that one episode. He then had what seemed like possible liver compromise, but the labs didn't fully support that, and he didn't respond to treatment. Then he had what seemed like acute kidney failure, possibly, with the acutely elevated lipids and uric acid.
He was housed with three other birds, and all are still with me and totally fine, so I'm fairly confident this wasn't anything infectious or toxin-related, but beyond that, it's hard to narrow possible causes down.
I know there's no way to get a proper diagnosis now! I've just been searching for anyone that may have seen something similar/have any insight beyond what I've been able to find myself by researching, because this has been bothering me greatly.
This will be a long post; I'm sorry for that as well! I'm just curious if anyone has seen similar symptoms in a bird; I'm especially curious if anyone else has experienced pulmonary edema in a bird, and if so, what caused it?
TL;DR: Budgie declined over 13 months with odd symptoms; pulmonary edema but heart didn't look bad, (what seemed to be) mixed general/liver/kidney symptoms, but imagings (X-rays and CT) plus labs didn't look bad. Physicals all looked fantastic.
The full story:
I had a budgie (since passed) that developed "coughing" that, at first, occured just once or twice a month in the mornings. But then, it worsened quickly, and he developed exercise intolerance, dyspnea, trouble swallowing, etc. as well. X-ray showed a heart on the larger side of normal, but still normal, and what was believed to be fluid in the lungs. He was put on Furosemide and Enalapril, and referred for a CT.
CT showed clear lungs, heart still on the larger side of normal. All other organs looking great! Avian vet + small animal cardiologist looked at his scans, performed a physical, and told me that "true heart disease was highly unlikely". His heart looked normal besides being marginally on the larger side. He didn't show the imaging changes or the symptoms they commonly see in birds in heart failure. They told me to stop both meds, and that if he had true heart failure, he should decline again rather quickly. He didn't.
All symptoms went away with the Furosemide, apart from the coughing, which continued for another two months before spontaneously resolving. He was fine for another two months, then developed recurring beak bruising! Did bloodwork that was beautiful apart from his bile acids being barely over normal-high normal was 65 umL, he had 68 umL. Vet said they normally wouldn't even treat for a one-time elevation like that, but since he had the bruised beak, started him on milk thistle in case he had something like fatty liver. He didn't improve on this.
A month later, he became lethargic. Took him back to the vet. Did some more tests, nothing really outside of normal. They said he had a small amount of gram negative bacteria on his stain, but not enough they'd classify it as an infection. Still, because of his symptoms, he was put on an antibacterial. Thus began two months of back-and-forth bacterial and yeast infections that felt impossible to beat (possible immune compromise?) but we eventually quashed them. But the lethargy didn't go away. He was also fluffing, developed extreme polyuria, food begging, etc.
We then had his bile acid recheck. This time, his blood was suddenly VERY lipemic, and he had markedly elevated uric acid. The other values were unreadable due to the lipemia, or normal. The vet didn't give me much guidance on what to do here, so I assumed I just needed to keep up with the milk thistle, and that these ups-and-downs sometimes happened with liver disease.
Less than a month later, he passed-he wasn't eating well the day before, but still flying, singing, playing. I found him sitting on his food bowl the next morning mostly unresponsive; he would occasionally stick his neck out far. At first I thought it seemed like dry heaving; looking back, he was probably lacking oxygen. I didn't pursue a necropsy (some past trauma from another bird I lost to cancer-vet sends them to a lab that doesn't return the body so I didn't get all of him back). Which I now regret, because his combo of symptoms is so weird to me and I can't piece together what he could have possibly had!
I know pulmonary edema is usually due to heart failure, but multiple experts didn't seem concerned about his heart, and his respiratory symptoms never returned past that one episode. He then had what seemed like possible liver compromise, but the labs didn't fully support that, and he didn't respond to treatment. Then he had what seemed like acute kidney failure, possibly, with the acutely elevated lipids and uric acid.
He was housed with three other birds, and all are still with me and totally fine, so I'm fairly confident this wasn't anything infectious or toxin-related, but beyond that, it's hard to narrow possible causes down.
I know there's no way to get a proper diagnosis now! I've just been searching for anyone that may have seen something similar/have any insight beyond what I've been able to find myself by researching, because this has been bothering me greatly.
