Huge painful poops and straining

[kujen]

Buddy has started to have really large poops (like 5x the normal size). They are also pretty wet. He doesn’t poop as often as he used to. Maybe once every couple hours. He makes a squealing sound when he poops and looks like he is straining.

I took him to an emergency vet about 3 weeks ago. The poop wasn’t so large back then, but he was straining and making the noise. They did a gram stain on the feces and found nothing wrong. Gave me a week long prescription for Meloxicam anti inflammatory, which seemed to help as he stopped making the noise after a few days. But he still wiggled his butt a little when he pooped and they didn’t look normal.

A week or two later and the squeaking and straining has started again. I’ve made an appointment with a vet for next Monday, the earliest I could for a board certified avian vet. (The ER vet was not)

Does anyone know what this could be? He does have fatty liver so it may be related to that. When I look up large poops in birds, everyone mentions carrying an egg but he is a male.

Also, I have some old Meloxicam from a year ago. Would it still be good and would it be worth giving to him? I called the vets but they refused to tell me anything without seeing him again

[Hezz]

If his liver is enlarged it is possible that it is constricting his ability to poop. The meloxicam will have helped with this by reducing the size of whatever offending organ or growth is causing the problem. Besides his liver, it is possible that he has some other internal growth/ tumour which is causing the constriction. There is no spare space in a budgie’s body cavity so any one enlargement causes problems in other areas. It does sound as though he will need to be on Meloxicam indefinitely to help him cope. The vet will quite likely want to X-ray him to determine the cause so be prepared to give or not give your consent. If the question is thrown at you without you being ready for it, it can be hard to make a firm decision.

[kujen]

Is it dangerous to have them X-rayed? I’m assuming they have to sedate them?

[Hezz]

Yes, they have to be sedated, but an avian vet will know the safest way to go about it, birds need to be well oxygenated beforehand. Any xray carries some risk, and the vet won’t do it if they don’t feel the bird will cope.

[kujen]

I took him to the avian vet. He has lipomas and possibly something else inside him, like a tumor. I declined the X-rays because what can I even do if he has cancer? He is over 9 years old and has fatty liver disease. And it would cost over $900 for blood tests and X-rays. They prescribed metronidazole to help gut inflammation and I’ve been giving him that, metacam, and a probiotic.

Unfortunately his condition has continued to decline. He is listless and vomiting. I hope it’s not yeast, they told me quite certainly that he didnt have yeast when they prescribed the antibiotic. I have stopped it now, and wondering if I should continue the metacam because it is so stressful on him grabbing him. The poops are small and liquid and he still strains. I don’t think the metacam is helping his pain this time and I feel absolutely terrible watching him suffer. I feel hopeless. I can only hope that nature will take him quickly now because I really don’t want to make that decision.

[ffiscool]

I’m so sorry. What a hard situation to be in. I’d say go with your gut Re the meds and his pain and doing what you can to have him pain free.

[Marianne Marlow]

I'm so sorry to hear this. I know what it is like to have a budgie that is really unwell and you are not sure what to do.
Is he eating, drinking and singing or playing?

[Hezz]

There are really only two choices I’m afraid. You either make a commitment to give him the necessary medication and give him a chance of lasting a little longer, or you make the extremely distressing decision to end his suffering. The question to ask yourself is whether he has any quality of life firstly living as he is now; or secondly, living with the health problems he has but taking his meds. If the answer to both is no, then you know what the kindest thing to do is.

[kujen]

He is not eating, drinking, singing or playing. ☹️ The antibiotic prescribed didn’t really do anything - I am thinking he may have an internal tumor and nothing will cure that. Because it’s something that’s persisted for a month now and the last few days have been a real turn for the worse.

Right now he is weak and spends most of the time sleeping and occasionally still picking at his bottom. He looks dehydrated. I really hope that he can die peacefully at home, where he feels safe.

Is there anything else I can do to make him comfortable? I’m still giving him the metacam but I don’t know if it’s worth the stress of having to grab him.

It’s just awful, I love my little Buddy so much 😢

[Hezz]

You can try to feed him water (possibly try adding some metacam to it as well) with a dropper to get a bit of water into him; soaked seed is easier for a sick bird to eat than your normal dry seed mix- just soak a portion of his seed in some water overnight, rinse in the morning with a few drops of ACV added to the water, and hang a millet spray right next to him within easy reach in case he would prefer that. Millet is easily digested as well.

Unfortunately there is no way of treating tumours in budgies; all you can do at this stage is give him all the TLC he deserves.

[kujen]

Buddy is still unwell but he went from not eating anything the other day to eating like crazy yesterday. He is only eating his pellets and ignoring seed. I think he has diarrhea now. All liquid poops. He drank a little this morning but he has looked dehydrated for days. Another vet appointment is Thursday.

I want to try to get his hydration up. The vets said there’s nothing I can do at home. He often drinks when I hold his water dish near him but he doesn’t want anymore than the sip this morning. I know it’s can be dangerous to try to force feed them water. Should I try to? Maybe some pedialyte? How much do I give him?

[Hezz]

You can try him with some pedialyte, but I wouldn’t force it on him. If he will drink it, let him have whatever he wants. If you do want to get a few drops into him, just give it the same as you would any meds, and just a drop or two at a time.

[kujen]

He’s still with me!

So I have lots to mention! Buddy went to the vets about 2 weeks ago. At the time his poops went from the large poops, to not eating, to eating lots, to diarrhea, to having undigested seed. By this time he was no longer really straining but had lost a lot of weight (from 50g to 32g). They did an X-ray and a PCR test for avian gastric yeast. His X-ray showed a slightly enlarged liver and displacement of his GI organs. He was prescribed 10 days of Baytril in case of infection, which has just finished. I’ve been giving him probiotics and a prescribed omega fatty acid liver support supplement as well. I recently heard back that his PCR test is positive for avian gastric yeast. The vet is gonna prescribe amphotericin B for 3 weeks.

But by now he no longer has undigested seed in his poops (I last saw a few the other day) and has gained weight. He has actually improved so much! He is more active and sings, eats well, has gained weight (38g), doesn’t strain except for a little wiggle now and then. His poops are a normal size and frequency, except a bit soft and they often have a white mucousy coating. I’m so reluctant to give the amphotericin B for three weeks when he really isn’t showing any symptoms of the avian gastric yeast (unless the mucous is a symptom?). But I guess it is best to go ahead and treat him because he did test positive?

I’m so sorry to hear about your budgie ivanvancaslovakia. These precious little creatures hold such a special place in our hearts.

[Hezz]

kujen, so sorry for my mistake; I have corrected my message, and yours, to make more sense.

So good news and not so good news for Buddy. If he is doing well at the moment, and you wish to try to eradicate the AGY this would be the time to give the drugs - while he is well enough to handle them. Some of these drugs are very hard on the birds, so you would be advised to keep monitoring his progress as the course of drugs is given. Keeping any stress in his life down to a minimum is helpful in managing AGY as well.

[kujen]

The vet told me that it is not systemically absorbed, and just goes through the GI tract, so shouldn’t hurt his liver or kidneys. But I’ve heard before that the drugs can be hard on them like you mentioned. Does it upset their stomach or what are the negative effects?

I do try to keep his stress down. But I’m having to grab him daily to give the liver support supplement (prescribed for the rest of his life so I really need to find a way to get him to take it on food). The amphotericin B will probably be twice a day for three weeks. And he really hates being grabbed.