Help for Skipper

[chiprockskip]

Sorry that i haven't been on for awhile but no excuses the long and the short of it is now i'm single. Anyway i didn't expect that and i didn't expect to be posting a plea for Skipper either but hear go's.
   Last week i noticed he'd been sick as i uncoverd his cage one morning i took him to the vet  not an avian one but she had a look at him and says he's okay and he's probably got some tummy problems along with everything else (see "Skipper's tail" and "The end of Skipper's tail") Anyway he'd been eating millit like crazy so i cut back on it a little  the only other thing that might have some bearing on this is i've been having some work done on the house and i had to kill some mould on some brick work and as a result there's a slight smell of bleach around the house not strong at all other than that everything else is as normal.
   So the day before yesterday, yesterday, and today Skipper's been sick over night i see it down his tummy in the morning in fact the bleach smell only startde yesterday so  after he gets going and eats he seems fine  this morning he'd been sick but as usual just got on with it. At lunch time i gave him a bath, he used to love bath time with Rocky the older and normal bird but just recently Skippers been off baths Rocky love em and i have to spray him so i gave Skipper a squrt thay were both wet and i left them to dry out. I went back about 2hr later Rocky's fine but Skipper looks aufull he's been sick all down himself again and is just sitting there looking poorly, he's not eating and that's not him. As i poped up to write this he was tryig to have a go at the millit but i can see he's not strong hr nerly fell off the pearch. I'm off back down to sit with them now but i'll pop back and have a look later, but dose anyone have any idea's or suggestions i reccomend you have a quick look at the other posts about Skipper it'll give you some back ground on what the vet said. I'd like to get him to an avian vet but i'm reg blind and dont drive so its difficult to get around but the vet i use has got two vets that are experinced with bird (or so thay tell me) however it wasn't one of them who saw him last week. Thanks for reading this and even bigger thanks form Skipper if you can be of any asstence.
       It's a few hours later now and a quick update, when i went back down to them i'd heard Rocky shouting at somthing well i looked and no sign of Skipper i thought oh no whats happend, i could hear somthing tho then i looked again and he's upside down hanging on the cage roof munching some slice's of carott that i'd put on top for Rocky earler. He seems right as rain now going at the millit and normal seed too. The vet did say maybe he's being sick co's he just eats and eats i dont know i just worrie about the little fella...poor Skipper

[Hezz]

Are you able to move him/them until the work is finished or the smell has gone? Odd that only he is affected, but maybe that is due to his so-so health, and noticing it more than Rocky. Otherwise I would be taking him back to the vet, making sure you see a bird-savvy one this time, and explaining what has been going on. Megabacteria can be a cause of a budgie seemingly eating all the time, but staying thin or getting thinner ...... can you feel Skipper's keel-bone? In the meantime, are you able to give him some Guardian Angel to keep his energy levels up?

[chiprockskip]

Thanks for that Hezz yeah the smell of the bleach has gone now but these symtoms started before that. I'm giving him well and Rocky Johnson's cage bird tonic every day this is on the vets advice and also a pinch of Protexin again this is from the vet and yes i can feel his keel but then again i always have poor Skipper's never been able to develop muscle there at all his little wings are to small and he's never flown well only downhill and then it's more of a planed fall along with plenty of flapping. However today he seems grate again well for him you know i may be wrong but i think it might have been the bath i forced erm promted him to have co's i've noticed that Rocky's feathers repell water for a time but he love's it and runs at the spray i use he only sticks his head in the bath then thinks that the rest of him is wet. But Skipper's plumage isnt as good by a long way and i'm wondering if the water got strait on to his skin and he got cold, thats Skipper on the photo but i'll try to put a better one of him next to Rocky and you'll see. Oh and i forgot to sat since i've been giving them the additives Skipper seems to have a lot more energy. and the worst of the works done now but when i start painting there going to my ex's for a few days  

[chiprockskip]

Ta-dar The avatar photo's now them meet Rocky and Skipper, Skipper's the little one but you'd guess that  there was a couple of things i wanteed to ask first the brown feathers above his cree it's somthing to do with blood feathers yes ? Only i dont know if it's realy bad or just somthing thay get Rocky and Chippy never had em is it just Skippers poor health ? And millitt Skipper can't get enough of it i heard that it's easy for them to digest but can thay have too mutch ?  Thanks again from us and sorry to be an ill informed owner 

[Hezz]

Yes, they can eat too much millet ....... it is not that millet itself is bad, as it isn't - half of the seed mixes are usually made up of different types of millet, and that is what is needed. They need to eat a variety of foods, the same as we do, otherwise they are not getting a variety of vitamins and minerals. The avatar photos are too small for diagnostics, but I am guessing that if Skipper is constantly losing feathers, then he is constantly replacing them as well. So yes, the brown feathers over his cere could well be blood feathers. Moulting and producing new feathers is quite taxing on their energy levels as well, so some extra protein in the form of hard-boiled egg, or commercial eggfood can be really good for them. I find that mine will ignore it for most but come moulting time or cooler weather they go looking for it. For Skipper I don't think it would hurt for him to always have it available so he can self-administer. It may help him put a little extra weight on, as well. But good that the vet's advice is helping him through this, also.

[chiprockskip]

Thanks for the help Hezz Yes thay do get other stuff as well as millet along with regular seed mix thay have carrot (Rockys favorite) and oops i've forgot what it's called that green stuff that looks like little trees anyway there not so keen on that but thay'll have a bit i've stopped giving them grape's on the vets advice as well as bread Skipper go's mad for bread it must be like chocolate to them co's Skipper will jump climb and shout for bread but i'll only let him have the tinyest bit now. Rocky also likes flowers any kind of daisy he dosnt get chance now i'm single but when i used to buy flowers for my girlfriend he'd be in there like a shot. Oh i've rememberd now the green stuff is broccily. But as for any egg i've tryed em with egg itself the yoke mushed up with a little water, egg cakes, and egg sticks thay wont go near it. But i'll keep putting some in and see. Skipper's seems quite good today for him anyway his poo's good not watery so i thing he'll probably go no scareing me for awhile yet

[Hezz]

My budgies have only occasionally been bothered with hard boiled egg, but if I leave a dish of commercial eggfood/egg-and-biscuit out, they help themselves on and off. It might be worth getting a packet for Skipper. It is a dry crumble sort of thing that can be dished up as is, or moistened into a paste. Some buds like it one way, some the other, some don't seem to like it - they may be the ones who prefer a proper egg - but if you do moisten it, it will need to be thrown away after a few hours.

For extra variety, being as you are in summer now, if you are able to access a field with seeding grasses, or grow some for yourself and harvest the seed heads, or even set up a pot and throw in a handful of their bird seed to sprout, most can't help themselves when it come to freshly grown and picked grass and heads.