Post by pianothing46 on May 30, 2013 21:06:50 GMT
Six days ago we noticed that our budgie, Peter (he is about 6 years old), was completely silent and wasn't playing with his toys, which is VERY unusual for Peter. He was sat, not eating, with shivering wings, puffed up, trying to sleep and when he sat on our finger he had very cold feet too. He kept looking as if he was trying to re-arrange his crop and we noticed a couple of thin black dropping on his perches. Soon afterwards, the droppings were coming out dark green. We immediately took him to the avian vets who diagnosed him with an infection and prescribed Baytril twice daily, and Avipro Plus to put in his water. The vet said that in about three days the antibiotics should be starting to 'kick in' as he was otherwise very healthy (bright eyes, no discharge from nose or ears) and not to worry about him not eating for a few days as he had a bit of weight to go at. He was confident that he would make a full recovery.
However, Peter did not improve and stayed very much the same and so on the third day, as he still wasn't attempting to eat, we took him back to the vets. The vet said he was still not concerned about him, but now said it was a respiratory infection, because as he said his tail kept bobbing (but to be honest I think he has always had a slight bobbing tail ever since we got him 2 years ago!). However as he was accepting hand feeding that morning, he gave us some Vetark Critical Care formula as an addition. Since then there is still not much change - when we put him on his food bowl, he will eat maybe one of two seeds but then hops away. When we have him out of his cage to administer his medication he is certainly very energetic and will fly and run along the floor very fast (there is quite a chase to give him his medication, and he is very strong and feisty when administering it!). To look at him, he does look fine and will hop around from perch to perch with some energy and his eyes are very bright, but having said that, he sit a lot on his perch with his head in his back. His droppings are liquid green, with the occasional formed 'lump' in them, but he is only eating a few seeds a day and mainly liquid medication/liquid food. I can see Peter sometimes trying to pass some droppings, but nothing seems to come out.
One thing we have also been concerned of is that Peter is serial cuttlefish eater. This packet that we bought recently does seem to be quite a soft cuttlefish that he loves to eat. In the past, this has made him have loose dropping and we had to take it out, but this time, just before he was ill we noticed that he was eating cuttlefish to excess again - could this cause a blockage? Especially as he looks as though he keeps trying to rearrange his crop - or is this just from the respiratory infection?
He is preening quite a lot (especially around his
neck/shoulders and vent area), and has just coming out of quite a bad
moult. One thing that we have noticed is that this past week he has been
sat on a perch he doesn't use very often just in front of a mirror -
could he be better but now is just lovesick?! We have taken out this
mirror as a precaution today.
It is just very unusual for Peter to be so quiet and not play with his bells/toys, but can move very well around his cage. I am just concerned about his loss of appetite, but he does have odd moments of lively behaviour. I must say though that now as I am writing this message, after being very quiet all day, he has just darted across his cage to ring his bell, eat a little bit of millet spray, tweet, ring his bell again, climb across to the other side of his cage, tweet, and eat about half a dozen seeds from the bowl, but has now returned to his head in his back.
One comment that the vet did make though was that Peter wasn't behaving like a poorly budgie... it's very confusing!
I would be very grateful if anyone has any advice as to what could be going on please? Could it still be his infection, 'lovesickness', excessive cuttlefish eating, or just still off his food since his infection?
However, Peter did not improve and stayed very much the same and so on the third day, as he still wasn't attempting to eat, we took him back to the vets. The vet said he was still not concerned about him, but now said it was a respiratory infection, because as he said his tail kept bobbing (but to be honest I think he has always had a slight bobbing tail ever since we got him 2 years ago!). However as he was accepting hand feeding that morning, he gave us some Vetark Critical Care formula as an addition. Since then there is still not much change - when we put him on his food bowl, he will eat maybe one of two seeds but then hops away. When we have him out of his cage to administer his medication he is certainly very energetic and will fly and run along the floor very fast (there is quite a chase to give him his medication, and he is very strong and feisty when administering it!). To look at him, he does look fine and will hop around from perch to perch with some energy and his eyes are very bright, but having said that, he sit a lot on his perch with his head in his back. His droppings are liquid green, with the occasional formed 'lump' in them, but he is only eating a few seeds a day and mainly liquid medication/liquid food. I can see Peter sometimes trying to pass some droppings, but nothing seems to come out.
One thing we have also been concerned of is that Peter is serial cuttlefish eater. This packet that we bought recently does seem to be quite a soft cuttlefish that he loves to eat. In the past, this has made him have loose dropping and we had to take it out, but this time, just before he was ill we noticed that he was eating cuttlefish to excess again - could this cause a blockage? Especially as he looks as though he keeps trying to rearrange his crop - or is this just from the respiratory infection?
He is preening quite a lot (especially around his
neck/shoulders and vent area), and has just coming out of quite a bad
moult. One thing that we have noticed is that this past week he has been
sat on a perch he doesn't use very often just in front of a mirror -
could he be better but now is just lovesick?! We have taken out this
mirror as a precaution today.
It is just very unusual for Peter to be so quiet and not play with his bells/toys, but can move very well around his cage. I am just concerned about his loss of appetite, but he does have odd moments of lively behaviour. I must say though that now as I am writing this message, after being very quiet all day, he has just darted across his cage to ring his bell, eat a little bit of millet spray, tweet, ring his bell again, climb across to the other side of his cage, tweet, and eat about half a dozen seeds from the bowl, but has now returned to his head in his back.
One comment that the vet did make though was that Peter wasn't behaving like a poorly budgie... it's very confusing!
I would be very grateful if anyone has any advice as to what could be going on please? Could it still be his infection, 'lovesickness', excessive cuttlefish eating, or just still off his food since his infection?