Weird Situation with Junior, ataxia or something like that, feeling better in 1 hour

aussie_wings

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Jun 24, 2022
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🌴☀️Florida, USA☀️🌴
Parrots
🌟 𝓢𝓽𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽〘F Lutino Budgie〙🌟
✈️ 𝙅𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙧〘M Cinn-Turq-Pied-Spang Kakariki〙✈️
So, this weird thing has been happening with Junior. We don't know what is going on, but it terrifies us each time.
It seems like randomly, he will fall off of his perch and get really sick for like an hour, then make a full recovery. This has happened a couple of times. The first time we THINK he ate fertilizer, but aren't completely sure. We removed all live plants from the house. Second time, we don't know, and the time or two after that, we don't know. As far as we know, there's nothing toxic for him to have gotten into (except that time with the fertilizer).
Today, he was sitting atop Starlight's cage, when out of nowhere, he just fluttered down to the floor, and I noticed he looked funny when he landed and walked over immediately to see what was wrong. We helped him off the floor and he was then just sitting next to her cage and leaning over onto his face. He would try to pick himself back up, but then would slowly lean back down. He was fluffed up and his wings were dropped a little bit. He was like this for about 30 minutes before perking back up and looking completely normal again. Before this, absolutely no signs or symptoms of an issue. I know parrots hide them well, but I mean, literally none. We've got to get him to an avian vet, obviously, but it's Sunday. It's soooo difficult to get an appt soon, but we may be able to get an urgent slot if we let them know exactly what's going on.
I'm wondering if this may be fungal, bacterial, viral, etc.
I've been ultra worried because we've had a rat problem in the house, but we've been doing what we can to keep the floor clean (rats like to go after the bird seed) and clean up in the morning (clean floors, clean cages, disinfect).
We keep him away from everything toxic. Starlight seems to be fine, despite her lack of feathers, still, although I see new ones sprouting. She doesn't seem to pluck as far as I can tell.
I don't know if anyone might know anything about this or have an recommendations. I've thought he may have a genetic condition or something like that, but I guess a vet could figure that out with tests.
This just happened, and I'm watching him now, it's been about 30 mins - 1 hour and he seems better but still lethargic. Sitting, fluffed on his perch. My partner said his feet felt sort of cold, which happens sometimes, he said. Sometimes they feel warm.
Any info is appreciated.
Thanks all.
 

Terry57

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That must be so hard to watch, I'm so sorry he's going through this. I hope you can get him into an urgent slot to see a vet so they can hopefully figure it out.
I wonder if it could be some sort of epilepsy?
Sending prayers to you and Starlight, I hope he will be okay.
 
OP
aussie_wings

aussie_wings

Active member
Jun 24, 2022
94
250
🌴☀️Florida, USA☀️🌴
Parrots
🌟 𝓢𝓽𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽〘F Lutino Budgie〙🌟
✈️ 𝙅𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙧〘M Cinn-Turq-Pied-Spang Kakariki〙✈️
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Yeah, we just went to take a nap for a bit and woke up and he seems 100% fine. Acting completely normal. Idk, it's so weird. Yeah, we're going to have to get him into a vet. Oh, one thing too, is that he's been making this weird noise sometimes, where he kind of honks. He did it while he was preening himself, and it reminded me of the sound they make when they have a boo boo on their wing or the feathers are coming in, but he also does it just randomly now. It has kind of a slight jarring sound, definitely a contrast to his usual cute noises. Like... "beep-beep-chirp-HONK... beepbeep" Kinda strange.
 

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