Old Man Munch

[Ira]

I emailed them yesterday morning, criswell. Hopefully one of them will reply soon. I sent it to the general exotics email because they've both seen him, but maybe I should have emailed one of them specifically.

Munchy looked a bit tired and droopy after I gave him his medicine yesterday morning, so I've popped him back in the Hagen Vision so that he doesn't have to compete for food, but I've put Indie in with him so that he isn't alone. Yesterday evening they were sat snuggled together with Indie preening Munchy. ❤

[criswell]

I'm sure they will reply. If you could give them a call. Tariq has been happy to talk to me on the phone when I've had treatment concerns. It's sweet that Indie is looking after Munchy. And you are doing a wonderful job taking care of him too.

[Ira]

Elisabetta replied. Apparently I can try probiotics on his food and/or a drug to help crop motility. I started giving him probiotics today anyway now that the antibiotics are finished.
Like she said, that doesn't solve the underlying issue, but I really don't know if I want to risk the investigations. :/


Nope, no more specific ideas without results from investigations.

[ffiscool]

hopefully that will help.

just another question do you give them tap water?

[Ira]

I do, ffiscool. Never considered not doing so. Started boiling it now though.

[ffiscool]

I only asked because when I was looking up certain things like when I gave Max S76 - it said not to give bottled water (which I had), when adding these medicines/whatever as sometimes the stuff in the bottled weakened the effect of the whatever

so Max only has tap water with his ACV now

[criswell]

Do you think you might try the drug option? Is it metoclopromide/ emeprid?

Before deciding on further investigations it would be good to know what they thought it might be and what they could do about it. Is it likely to be somethings that would need surgical treatment? That seems more likely as if there was a medical treatment they could try that anyway.

[Ira]

Nov 24, 2021 14:13:20 GMT criswell said:

Do you think you might try the drug option? Is it metoclopromide/ emeprid?

Before deciding on further investigations it would be good to know what they thought it might be and what they could do about it. Is it likely to be somethings that would need surgical treatment? That seems more likely as if there was a medical treatment they could try that anyway.

I'd be fine with that, though I'd feel a bit bad if it meant catching Munchy regularly. No idea what the drug is.

I asked what might be possible to do depending on the findings, but was just told that the investigations would need to be done before anything more specific could be said. 🙄

[criswell]

I guess they don't want to say any more in case you hold it against them later.

I understand about not wanting to keep catching Munchy. Randolph Carter really hated it meaning we had to cut some courses of medication short with the vets approval. It's so hard to know what to do for the best.

It was so much easier giving medicine to rodents and rabbits.

[Ira]

Maybe.
But it would be useful to know possible reasons for his problems and what the solution to each would be, to see if it would be worth hassling him so much.

He's mostly just a drama llama about it, making a racket when I'm holding him and then stopping as soon as he's released. I just don't really want to be catching any of them more than I have to when it's already so tricky convincing them that I'm not a meanie monster just because I look like a predator. And Munchy knows that but he's gotten a lot more bird lately, which is nice but also sad.

Aaaand now Indie has lost all his longest tail feathers and I have no idea why because I wasn't here.
I think he was moulting anyway, so either he just got unlucky and dropped them all at once, dropped them all at once out of stress from being away from Yuki and Pippin, pulled them out because of being away from Yuki and Pippin (although mutilating the flight feathers seems extra detrimental) or somehow caught them in something and dropped them to free himself, which seems unlikely. It was just strange if he moulted them naturally because they were all in a single pile.






Slightly at my wit's end right now. It seems impossible to do right by everyone.
Munchy seemed super happy cuddled up with Indie last night, but if Indie isn't happy... Though previously Munchy seemed happy having his own place to eat and sleep, just wanted to be outside when the others were. Maybe I should just rotate who's sharing with him on different work days. I can swap them in the evening so there's no catching.
On a cute note, Pippin preened Indie when they were all out together this evening.
So now Indie is back in with Yuki and Pippin, and weirdly enough Gwen is in with Munchy. It's a weird combination but seems relatively civil thus far.

[ffiscool]

It is all stressy when things happen that seemingly make little to no sense.

I’m not sure what to say about Munchy, given it seems so vague.

Indie, very strange. Would any of them moved them? As in a pile? Do any look like they’ve been twiddled in their beaks or would they have not bothered with them?

If pulled out when not ready to moult, would there be any blood? Or difference in sheaths to help determine?

[blueelephant]

Ira several of my buds have lost both tail feathers at the same time. Never had any idea why! It's potentially just coincidence rather than stress though.

How is Gwen doing with the boys?

[tweetiepiesmom]

ffiscool once I had to grab Buddy to put him in the small cage for a vet visit. I didn't have a good hold on him and he wiggled up out of my hand but left most of his tail feathers in my hand. Yes, I felt awful but they didn't bleed. It also didn't seem to affect his flight although when he flew, he squealed until they grew out.

[ffiscool]

Horrible isn’t it, trying to grab them. I’ve not had to do it much, thankfully.

[Ira]

I think there must be something more going on with Munchy's crop than just infections, and that the problem is probably what's causing the infection. He seemed fairly flat chested when I uncovered them this morning, but 10 minutes after two sips of apple juice (recommended to me by a breeder) he seemed a little puffy. And this is him after the juice, a sip of water with ACV, and however many pellets with probiotic sprinkled on that he decided to eat.






It looks a tiny bit better now. None of the others get such pronounced bumps. I shall see how long it takes to go down. Going to remove the food for now.


Also, his left wing feathers seem to fold wrong about 50% of the time, like they've folded in the wrong order. The next flap and they'll be lying normally again.






Sorry for the rubbish photos. He kept moving.