Post by criswell on May 6, 2020 17:30:56 GMT
I've been a little worried about Dexter's droppings and had a Zoom consultation with the vet on 24th April who said to keep an eye on him and bring him in if they didn't improve. Monday night Dexter looked quite sorry for himself and his droppings were awful - too much urine and his faeces wasn't solid either, and there were undigested seeds too. I think his mouth or crop were bothering him too as he kept rubbing his face on everything and he looked really tired. I was so worried about him on Monday night but he didn't get any worse over night and we got him to the vets yesterday afternoon.
Dexter was an absolute nightmare to catch as he is so agile and such an excellent flier. He escaped from the cage and went up on top of the speaker but he came down again once we left the room and David was able to catch him. Dexter was not happy in the travel box and flapped about quite a lot until I got a cover over him.
The drive up to the vets was really nice it's up on top of a hill in the countryside and it's a really nice drive, made better buy low traffic levels and sunshine. We had to phone when we go there and wait in the car. The vet was running very late but we didn't mind. David brought his book and read to Dexter and me and there was lots to see in the car park. The first patient to be returned to its owner was a tortoise about the size of my hand. The vet demonstrated how to the owner how to give it injections and they had measured out all the doses in advance for her.
It was our turn next, about 45 minutes late and the vet phone me first and had a little chat because I'd emailed him pictures of droppings and a description of symptoms etc. Then the nurse came out to collect Dexter. The car park is surround by trees and the flower bed is full of wild plants so there was lots to look at. The vet telephone again after he had examined Dexter and he was concerned due to seeds in dropping that it could be Megabacteria/AGY. He was hoping that Dexter would do some more droppings so he could have a look under the microscope but Dexter didn't want to oblige. The vet asked if it was ok if he saw his next patient while he waited for Dexter to give his sample. We had nothing else to do and it was nice being out of the house so we didn't mind at all.
The next patient was a macaw with a very long beak. The vet spent ages talking to the owner in the car park and I couldn't help listening to the conversation and watching the macaw. She was climbing about the cage and hanging upside down from the room. It was easy to see that her beak was very long. The vet took her in for her beak trim and then another macaw arrived and the nurse collected him. The owner got the macaw out of the cage and handed him to the nurse on a harness. The nurse obviously know the macaw and the owner well so he must be a regular visitor. He wasn't in the surgery long so must have been seen first.
It was ages before the first macaw came back and her beak looked very much better. She was a bit unsteady after the anaesthetic and she kept trying trying to climb the bars but was finding it harder with her shorter beak.
Now the car park was empty I felt safe enough to get out and walk about and practiced my plant identification skills - there were loads of things I couldn't remember but I was able to identify 10 to 15 species including cowslip. I was getting a little be anxious about Dexter but about 15 minutes later the vet phone again to say he'd got a good faecal sample from Dexter and had spent 15 minutes looking under the microscope and hadn't see any AGY. Obviously that doesn't rule it out completely as it's not always shed but it makes it a bit less likely. What he did notice was a large amount of the same species of bacteria. He couldn't say what species it was but it was mostly all one species rather than the usual mixture you would expect so he thinks that Dexter's symptoms are a result of a bacterial infection so he prescribed 5 days of sulfatrim. He said it would be another 10 minutes or so before he had the medication ready so I carried on walking about. I walked out on to the road to look at the view over the valley. I could hear hoovering in the vets as it was past closing time by now and then I heard a male voice say 'oh no' but didn't think too much of it.
About 5 minutes later the vet brought Dexter back to us and sat his carrier on the ground. The vet apologised for having just stressed Dexter so he hadn't given him his first dose of antibiotic but I didn't think to ask how he had stressed him. He talked me through the medication while we kept our distance then he sat he medication and syringes on top of Dexter's travel cage. I said how hard it was to catch Dexter so we were relieved that it was only for 5 days (10 doses) and then the vet commented on how agile Dexter is and I had to agree. He also apologised for keeping us so long and I mentioned it had been nice to be out of the house and it was interesting seeing the animals coming and going from the car park and then we set off home.
It was only in the car when I was telling David what the vet had said that I may have worked out how he stressed Dexter. I think Dexter probably escaped in the consulting room when the vet tried to give him his medicine. I'm basing this on the 'oh no' I heard, then the vet apologising for stressing him and saying Dexter was very agile Maybe Dexter was just being very agile in the carry box but I bet he did escape though I did warn them that was likely to happen but no harm done.
We gave Dexter his first dose when we got home and he was really tricky to catch even in the carrier so maybe that was how he demonstrated his agility. I will never know. We weighed him before we put him home as the vet was concerned that he was underweight.
Hopefully the antibiotics will do the trick. His droppings are already looking better and there were no undigested seeds today. If he still has symptoms after when the antibiotics are finished then we'll be taking him back for more tests and PCR to check for AGY.