A Sick Bird Rescued during Lockdown - advise me please!

[lemonyhannah]

Hi guys,
Nice to meet you all!
I have a bit of a complex situation and am hoping for any general wisdom/ experience/ thoughts/ advice on this:
Last week, a neighbour called me and asked if I’d like a couple of budgies. She said she had 7 in her cage, the cat had just killed one and she thought they might be overcrowded. Guys I’ve never kept birds in my life but it took me about 5 seconds to decide I could probably give them a better life than that!
Sure enough, I pick up the birds, a yellow male (Lemony) & blue female (Tippi) I’m told are about 4 months old, and immediately notice the female is looking ‘old’. I get to googling her symptoms: clogged poo around vent, hunched, quiet, puffed up, shivering, sleepy... I’m hoping it might be mostly stress related, but then I give her a gentle bath to soak off that poo and notice her beak is really damaged; black and flaking, and in daylight I think I can see little red holes in it, but not always. Mites?


Everything I read on the internet tells me this bird is probably a goner, but she already seems to be really perking up and I’m not happy to just give up on her.
Also, after living with us for a week, I swear Tippi is doing so much better. No more clogged poo, less puffing. More inquisitive and vocal and playful. Weirdly, of the two birds, she seems much less afraid despite being through so much. Lemony has appointed himself as her bodyguard. He follows her everywhere in the cage and is really looking after her, but he doesn’t like me because I take her away and she comes back all wet!!

Budgie forum people, what would you do? What would you advise?

I have had some luck, in that I found a vet who looked at a photo and has prescribed antibiotics and analgesics, parasite drops and vitamins for water. These arrived today.
In the meantime, I’m feeding the seed mix the birds came with (I don’t know what brand it is, it came in a freezer bag) and I’m mixing that with a bit of pellet food.
I’m feeding one millet spray per day - Tippi is only eating millet from the seed mix anyway - I think it may be all she can manage with that beak - and right now I just want her to keep her strength up.
I’m trying greens and fruit but they’re not going near it.
I’ve bought a full-spectrum light bulb for vitamin d on days when it’s too cold to put them outside (I have a garden, but all the windows are really stupidly placed - above sinks, etc, so I can’t put them there) and am considering an infrared bulb to keep them warm at night, but my inner voice says that’s just a big fire hazard!
I’ve moved them into a Hagen Vision M02 cage, which was the largest I could fit in my home.
I’m going to order some of that F10 stuff you all talk about right now!

Is there anything else I should be doing? Anything that’s worked for you in the past?
Any ideas what’s wrong with that beak? The vet naturally said they’d really need to see it so the medication might not be exactly right, it’s a stab in the dark!

I would really appreciate your help. These little birds have not had it easy and I want to do what’s right by them!

[tweetiepiesmom]

Can you post some pictures so the experts here can see what the problems look like?

[lemonyhannah]

Ah yes, I’m posting from an iPhone and had to move to the non-mobile site. Done!
theres a weird track mark running up her forehead, too. Assuming she can be cured of whatever is causing this, do you think the beak itself can heal? 

[blue48]

Awww Tippi doesn't look great. I hope everything the vet has prescribed will help her along. I'm no expert being a newish budgie owner myself, so I can't give any advice.

Your neighbour sounds a piece of work, allowing a budgie to get into that state then giving it away but I'm glad she did as she obviously isn't managing. I hope the ones she has left are better looked after.

[lemonyhannah]

I really do think she’s on the mend! As long as the beak can heal, I’m hopeful she’ll pull through.
I honestly don’t think my neighbour knew. She told me Tippi was the best one because she’s so tame she’ll sit on your shoulder. Looking back, I think she was just too exhausted to fly away!

[jellybean]

A question to more knowledgeable members than myself.......Does this little bird look like it has scaly mites?

Well done to you for taking these birdies in and giving them a loving home.

In your 3rd picture it looks like you have a snuggle hut, budgies don't need these to sleep in, they might end up chewing on them and swallowing the fibres, so better to remove it.

[Deleted]

Well done to you for taking them in and caring for them. They’re beautiful birds. One of the more experienced members may be able to give you some tips, and hopefully the medicines will help her to feel better.

[Marianne Marlow]

I've never seen a beak that looked like that. The black tip would normally indicate that the bird is very young. But is her beak crumbly or just messy. I cannot tell.

You are right in that she's "tame" because she's ill/exhausted.

Any chance you could weigh her on a weekly basis, this will show if she;s rapidly losing weight or not.

[lemonyhannah]

Thanks for the comments, guys!
Jellybean, I had no idea they might nibble at the hut! I had tried it to offer a warm place to hide as she seemed so cold and scared, but aside from a few walkthroughs she isn’t interested. I’ll chuck it out tonight!
Marianne - I noticed today there does seem to be a very pale edge to her beak which is smoother, but disguised by the black marks. There are definite flakes and holes, but she does seem to have a better edge to the beak than is clear in the photo.
I can’t think of a way to weigh her accurately. She‘a 100% not hand trained. The only way I could do it is if I put her into a cardboard box first? Not sure she’d appreciate it, but I’m having to give her 2 x 0.2ml syringes of medication every day at the moment so I think the bond of trust is pretty much broken between us anyway 😕

[helenmat]

I wouldn't have thought scaly mites would have turned the beak black, just usually crusty. I too wondered if the bird was very young as the beak is black and there doesn't appear to be any iris rings either but its hard to tell with all the damage. Until you can get her to see a vet all you can do is give her what the vet has sent you. If she wants somewhere to hide, just give her a small box with some torn up paper inside. Well done for taking them in though.

[tweetiepiesmom]

lemonyhannah did you come up with a way to weigh Tippi? When I took my little guy to the vet, she used a small brown paper bag like what we used to carry lunches to school in. The vet put the bird in the bag and left it open but held her hands over the top so he wouldn't fly out. She got his weight pretty fast and then reached in and pulled him out and put him back in the cage. She used the bag because its disposable in case he had anything that would spread to other birds. You might consider that Tippi doesn't keep getting exposed to something communicable every time you weigh her.

How are they doing now?

[clt80]

I have weighed mine in a clear tupperware box. Put it on the scales and reset the scales then I put the budgie in and just cover with my hands, read the weight and let them out. As they can see through the box they don't seem to panic as much.

[willowsmum]

I put Willow's little playgym on my scales, zero the scales and then put Willow on one of the perches on the playgym. The scales are electronic so they are easy to read and thankfully the playgym is flat bottomed and small enough to sit on the scales without obscuring the digital display.