Loss of Flight?

[meebeesoo]

Hello to all

I am newbie to this forum and this is my first post so am hopeful someone can help me.  I have a gorgeous blue male budgie called Fudgie who is approx 4 and half years old.  He is a real charchter and excellent talker - in fact its not getting him to talk its getting him to shut up thats more difficult lol! 

Approx 3 months ago Fudgie had a problem cyst on his back near to his preen gland which was red and obviously ulcerated - so I had to take the risk of putting Fudgie through surgery to remove the cyst - and thankfully he coped just fine and got thro the anaesthetic much to relief of the vet! 

Since that time Fudgie has been fine but over the past 6 to 8 weeks he hasnt made much effort to fly around as he used too.  During the day he is always out of his cage and usually sat with his stuffed toy parrot on top of his cage.  He used to do a few circuits of the room.  Now he makes no effort to fly at all - but if startled will try his best to get a bit of lift with lots of flapping but cant get far before he seems to run out of steam and will either bump into something or just drop.  Then he sort of chirps me and I can just say come on then and he will toddle along the floor to me so i can lift him back to his cage.  I am disabled so this makes it a little awkward if he ends up far away.  He sometimes ends up on the floor behind th cupboard that his cage is on so I have to pull a few files out to create a tunnel ..and he once again will toddle to me which is so cute!

Any ideas or advice would be great - Fudgie is perfectly healthy otherwise has normal poo and eats and drinks well.  Am unsure if he is preening his flight feathers too much or have heard of a condition called French Moult - could this be his problem?

Sorry for such a long garbled thread!

All the best to everyone - Sue

[BudgiesBuddy]

Welcome to forum

Fudgie sounds like a lot of fun. I am sorry that he is not able to fly currently. I can't find anything wrong from your post but it maybe the same problem area on his back which is causing him discomfort during flying. I am sure others will share their experience with you. I will ask Barrie to have a look at this thread.

[Hezz]

Hi and welcome, Sue.

Poor Fudgie ...... I am inclined to agree with BB, in that the surgery may have created some pain during flight. I wonder if the not flying for a while has caused him to lose muscle mass and maybe also put on some extra weight? And whether giving/allowing him some short flights may be beneficial to strengthening him up. I wouldn't have thought a budgie would lose condition so quickly, but .........

I hope Barrie has some better advice for you.

PS If he was previously flying I doubt it would be FM. This usually causes loss of the long tail feathers and flight feathers. If he is fully fledged still, all feathers intact, it is more likely the surgery has left it's mark ........ in my amateur's opinion.

[barrieshutt]

we need a picture Sue just to confirm he has lost no primary flight feathers