Nov 21, 2015 11:34:21 GMT
mrvica5
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 9
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Post by mrvica5 on Nov 21, 2015 11:55:52 GMT
My 3-year old budgie has been vomiting for more than a month and has lost a lot of weight (she's now 27 grams). Her head is covered in vomit and she keeps rubbing her head on the perch to try to clean it. She vomits as soon as she eats and even vomits 3 to 4 times during the night. Her faeces keep changing: they range from normal to green-watery ones to dry ones with undigested seeds. I am keeping her warm using an infra-red lamp and making sure she has plenty food and water and she has a UVA/UVB lamp on during the day. I clean her cage every 2 days.
I have been to the vet 4 times and we have tried various antibiotics and medications including doxycycline, nystan (for candida), metoclopramide (for stomach motility), synulox (clavulanic acid and amoxicillin) but nothing has worked so far. Her stool sample was negative for avian gastric yeast (megabac), her crop sample was negative for candida and her blood showed increased monocytes and toxic heterophils which would suggest an infection that has been going on for a while.
We are now trying metronidazole (for trichomoniasis) which is an oral suspension that she is supposed to take 2 times a day for 4 days. The problem is that she vomits as soon as I administer the metronidazole so she's not really getting any of it in her system. Has anyone else experienced the problem of their budgie throwing up metronidazole. I am looking for tips on how I can get her to keep metronidazole down long enough for it to work. Is it possible to administer metronidazole intravenously?
I would be grateful for any advice you can give me.
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Post by jellybean on Nov 21, 2015 15:15:53 GMT
Hi mrvica5, I'm so sorry your little budgie is unwell. Afraid I don't have enough knowledge to help. I hope some of our members will be on soon to help and give you a bit more advice. Lots of love to the little one, please let us know how she is.
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Post by Hezz on Nov 22, 2015 0:53:24 GMT
Your best bet there would be to have it given to your budgie through a crop feed; they can give her food and meds together this way, but she would probably be best kept in hospital for the duration.
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Nov 21, 2015 11:34:21 GMT
mrvica5
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 9
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Post by mrvica5 on Nov 25, 2015 0:06:55 GMT
Thanks for the support and advice - It is much appreciated. I am really getting desperate. I will ask the vet if a crop feed would work for her. She's now gone down to 25 grams. The vet gave her intramuscular injections of metoclopramide and that stopped her vomiting for a day but she became a bit restless and started acting strange - instead of eating her food she just chucked all of her seeds out of her food bowl and also kept jumping out of her cage and hiding behind the sofa which she has never done before. Unfortunately as soon as we switched her back to oral metoclopramide she started vomiting again.
I am going to take her to the vet in the morning. Fingers crossed we find a solution.
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Post by Hezz on Nov 25, 2015 0:56:59 GMT
Fingers crossed. Until the vomiting settles and she can eat again on her own, I would see about having her given two crop feeds (with meds) a day at least for a couple of days, so you know the meds have time to start working and the food is kept on board long enough to actually do her some good.
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Post by jellybean on Nov 25, 2015 9:06:42 GMT
Good luck at the vet this morning.
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Post by Marianne Marlow on Nov 25, 2015 9:36:29 GMT
Good luck with the vet.
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Post by Hezz on Nov 26, 2015 2:00:22 GMT
How did the vet visit go?
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Post by JennyB on Nov 26, 2015 18:39:28 GMT
That must be very distressing for you both. Did the vet agree to Hezz's suggestion of food and meds by crop feeding?
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Nov 21, 2015 11:34:21 GMT
mrvica5
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 9
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Post by mrvica5 on Nov 26, 2015 20:35:28 GMT
Thank you everyone for the advice. The vet continued the intramuscular metroclopromide injections. The intramuscular administration of metoclopramide gives her around 5 vomit-free hours after the administration so at least she has managed to get some food and keep it down (although this is a short term solution). I suggested crop feeding but the vet said that we will try that if her weight starts to decrease again. For now she is maintaining 25 grams.
One thing I forgot to mention is that in May, her cere turned from brown to blue so the vet wants to X-ray her to see if it is possibly ovarian cancer that is causing the vomiting. I will let you know what the results of the X-ray are.
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Post by Marianne Marlow on Nov 26, 2015 21:34:29 GMT
Poor little budgie. Fingers crossed that she can put some weight on and stop vomiting. What is her name?
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Post by Hezz on Nov 27, 2015 0:24:55 GMT
I would have thought getting some weight on her would be just as important, but I suppose as long as she is eating while the injection is working. Five hours is not very long, though, for a budgie, as they do tend to graze all day. Is the vet going to do an XRay while she is so poorly? 25gms is a very low weight, poor little mite.
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Nov 21, 2015 11:34:21 GMT
mrvica5
Brand New Budgie
Posts: 9
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Post by mrvica5 on Nov 27, 2015 14:52:04 GMT
Her name is Pixie.
Today the vet administered Barium in order to X-ray the GI tract but it didn't move from the crop so they couldn't get a high resolution image. What they could see is that her ventriculus (gizzard) is really enlarged so they can't see the rest of the stomach. The enlargement could be caused by compaction or an obstuction. Normally they would wait for the barium to work its way into the stomach and repeat the X-ray but with the weekend coming up that is not possible so she has to go for another X-ray again to see what is causing her gizzard to become enlarged.
I am feeding her Emeraid (liquid food) to keep her weight up.
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Post by Marianne Marlow on Nov 27, 2015 15:08:32 GMT
Poor little Pixie, she really is going through it. Best wishes to her and you. xx
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Post by Hezz on Nov 28, 2015 0:18:56 GMT
All the best from me and mine, as well. I hope Pixie's problems can be sorted once and for all.
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