First budgie was tragic.. afraid to try again...

[elysianblight]

I have been interested in getting a bird for most of my life.. and after losing my dog in December (first time with no pets at all in the house) decided to take the plunge. 
I opted for a budgie since it was my first bird and I was a little nervous, but I read up for *weeks* on forums, books, etc. 

I wanted to start with one, and get another in a few weeks. I decided on a hand fed baby from a local breeder who I believe is very good - she gets them very used to people and lets them learn to fly completely before clipping them for safety and handing them off.
I picked the budgie up on Saturday and she was immediately a VERY sweet bird. 
I thought she would want to stay in her cage and settle in at first, but she insisted on sitting on my chest/hand/shoulder all day. I kept checking for the classic signs of stress I read about - she was not puffed up, panting, squinting, or anything. She was a bit quiet but she did do a couple of calls. She napped a fair amount, but she was a baby.  Her feathers were flat, she was beak grinding, she closed her eyes when I rubbed the back of her head... 
I set up a baby camera and I made sure she slept all night without frights. I fed her pellets and seeds, the same type the breeder had her on, and while I'm not certain she ate any pellets she did spend a lot of time picking through her food bowl and *seemed* to be eating every day. 
I couldn't find any reason to think she wasn't doing perfectly fine. 

She was not really interested in any veggies, fruits, or sunflower seeds for treats.. but she got very excited about her seed mix. 
Everything was fine like this until Monday, when I had to go to work. I talked to her a bit through the baby camera and she chirped back.. she played a lot... but when I got home she seemed to have a hurt leg. She was walking funny on one foot and I thought she got caught on one of her toys. 

I moved all of her toys/perches low and took her to the vet asap tuesday morning and they found no broken bones but some swelling on her joint, so they bandaged her up and gave me metacam. I also put a non-teflon space heater aimed toward one side of the cage so she could have extra warmth (and the ability to move to a cooler side if it was too warm). I covered the cage to encourage rest but for the most part she continued to be quite lively and eat well throughout tuesday. Even with the bandage she flew up and slept at the top of her boing on tuesday night. 

Everything changed wednesday morning. I noticed on the camera that around 5 am she moved from the top of her boing, down to the cage floor to finish the night. But she woke up at 7:30 am like usual and went to her food bowl. I didn't think she ate much, but she had appeared to eat *alot* the day before so I hoped she was just full. She also took a drink from her water after I changed it. 
She fluttered around and happily came out of her cage to see me/sit with me. 

After a while out of her cage she started biting me, so I thought she might be hungry and put her back in. She did go to her food bowl, but she fell asleep in it. 
I kept checking on her and she kept trying to get on my hand when I reached into the cage, but when I left her alone she just stayed in one spot. I worried, so I called the vet. I wasn't able to pinpoint anything other than her being "off".. somewhat still and quiet. She seemed to have normal poops, cause she left one on my hand that morning. 
They said to watch her and come in later in the afternoon if she did not seem better. 

Instead, she declined rapidly. She moved less and less, and then stopped responding to my voice. I rushed her to the vet, but they were unable to save her. She weakened rapidly just on the 5 minute car trip. They said her sugar was low but they could not get her to swallow any glucose, and she died. This was a different vet (same practice) from the day before, and this very told me she was very very thin. He said the techs stated she was thin the day before as well, but no one had mentioned it to me. 

I asked if he could determine why she died and he said he could do an autopsy but it would not be worth it because they likely would not be able to identify anything specific. 
I've done even more research now and I wish I had though to ask him to test her for bacteria/aspergillus .. 
Since everything that happened was rather emergent, he was unfortunately not a board certified avian vet, but the closest vet we had who treated birds  

Long story somewhat shorter.. I have no idea what happened, and I am REALLY worried about the idea of ever bringing another bird into my house until I am more confident that my house didn't kill her. I loved her so much. 


Before she ever came home I made sure the house was clear of fumes, teflon, perfumes, etc.. but some things are worrying me now that I had not originally considered: 

1. My boyfriend does some worm farming/worm composting in our unfinished basement. The worms and their compost are in a closed bin, but the bin is opened when the worms are fed and sometimes the compost has to be churned. Also, the basement does get damp sometimes (it rained two days before she died). None of us have noticed any ill effects - and I did not see my bird panting or rasping or tail bobbing - but could traces of mold from the basement have come up through the heating system and killed her like that??  
Would I have seen respiratory symptoms or not??

2. Did I make a huge mistake with the heater? I kept reading that injured birds need to be warmer so they can put their energy into healing. We keep the house around 69-70 but what I read recommended 85 for a sick/injured bird. I set the heater to 80 and directed the hot air toward her cage, but only one part of it. I made sure it was a brand that was not made with teflon. The vet doesn't think the heater was a problem, but now I'm worried I dehydrated her to death or something?? She did have clean water at all times though.. .

3. The fact that she seemed to be eating well, but then the vet said she was very thin, is confusing. I read about mega bacteria but I did not see any diarrhea or vomiting from her. Her poops seemed normal to me.. but again, I only had her four days.. I was keeping her bowl full of a ratio of 2tbsp pellets and 1 tbsp seed mix. Maybe she was only eating the seed and throwing out all the pellets?? Did I starve her to death?!  But she also had a spring of millet in her cage at all times and she wasn't from that her last two days.. 


I'm just so confused because she did not seem to have any symptoms except the sudden lethargy and lack of appetite.. but I don't know how she got so thin..  but if she wasn't eating as well as I thought, I assume she definitely could have lost   a lot of weight in the span of 96 hours with me. 

I miss her ALOT even though I only knew her four days.. but how in the world am I supposed to risk trying again? 

[elysianblight]

Also the vet said if we get another bird (after I'm done mourning and the cage is thoroughly clean/aired out) not to re-use the food bowls?
I was bit upset so I didn't think to ask, and I don't think he specified. Why wouldn't thoroughly washing them be enough?

[bud9]

So sorry for your loss i have lost a few and know how you feel. Not sure i can help in any other way.

[elysianblight]

I guess I'm hoping someone more experienced with birds might spot something in the story that indicates one way or another.. if she was already sick when I got her, or if its likely something I triggered

[tweetiepiesmom]

So sorry about your loss - she sounds like she would have been a wonderful companion. I have one budgie and recently brought home another to be a companion for him. After having him for a day he developed a respiratory issue, the only symptom was tail bobbing. Fortunately he saw a vet and got treatment. He is ok now. I was told the the stress of moving a budgie to a new home sometimes brings out a latent issue. It doesn't sound to me like you did anything wrong but I'm not an expert. Let's see what the experts here think. It sounds like you are in the US? Many of the experts are in the UK and Australia, so allow for the time difference for them to get on with help.

[Hezz]

It doesn't happen a lot, but this does sometimes happen that a baby budgie comes into a new home and almost immediately becomes ill and passes away. As the vet told you the stress of a move can cause any latent illness to come to the fore, and baby birds, especially ones who have been hand raised don't have any immune system to speak of. This only develops over time with the help of the hen's crop milk initially and then other factors in their environment. This little one may have already been ill, may not have handled the stress of a new home.

If a vet is not wishing to speculate on the cause of her death, I'm certainly not going to. If you do decide to try again, you might want to think about using a different breeder and have the breeder not clip the wings of the bird. Some birds do not take well to having their freedom to fly taken from them. It is also possible that she hurt herself internally in a fall if she was used to being able to fly and then not being able to do so, if the wing clipping was severe. Was she able to glide down, or fly at all?

I wouldn't have thought it necessary to throw out the feed/water containers unless the vet had some reason for saying this. Even with a case of beak and feather disease my vet didn't suggest that this was necessary.

[elysianblight]

Thank you for your response.

The vet was not an avian specialist, so I'm not sure how much he really knew.. one of them tried to tell me the baby was probably a boy, because there was blue on the cere. But this was a turquoise pied bird and very young, I'm pretty sure a pale blue and white cere at that age and that mutation is more likely a girl? But either way, not decisively male just because of the blue tint.

If you had any possible suspicions on cause of death I'd not object to hearing them..

She was in a glide clip, so she could fly maybe a foot or so and flutter down to the ground safely. She did seem to have trouble getting on a high swing in her cage, but was able to get to other high stationary perches.

Is it weird that she was so cuddly right from the beginning? She even snuggled up under my hand sometimes. Now I'm wondering if she was doing that because she was cold or something..

[tweetiepiesmom]

My only experience is with Buddy. He was hand fed almost from the time he came out of the egg. Anyone who put a hand near him, he would run and jump on it. The first vet I took him to when he got sick even commented that when she put her hand in the cage he jumped right on it. I don't know if that's true for all hand raised budgies but it was for Buddy.

I do think that you should look for another breeder and visit/talk to them just for comparison.

[Hezz]

Mar 14, 2020 1:06:48 GMT elysianblight said:

Thank you for your response.

The vet was not an avian specialist, so I'm not sure how much he really knew.. one of them tried to tell me the baby was probably a boy, because there was blue on the cere. But this was a turquoise pied bird and very young, I'm pretty sure a pale blue and white cere at that age and that mutation is more likely a girl? But either way, not decisively male just because of the blue tint.

If you had any possible suspicions on cause of death I'd not object to hearing them..

She was in a glide clip, so she could fly maybe a foot or so and flutter down to the ground safely. She did seem to have trouble getting on a high swing in her cage, but was able to get to other high stationary perches.

Is it weird that she was so cuddly right from the beginning? She even snuggled up under my hand sometimes. Now I'm wondering if she was doing that because she was cold or something..

This is a red flag to me, as well. A well bird should have been on high alert with a change of scene, into a new place and with people it didn't know. Poor little mite.

Glad to hear that she wasn't severely clipped and could safely glide to the floor. That is a relief.