Post by tinker on Nov 6, 2013 22:46:14 GMT
Hi Everyone, I'm new here.
This is going to take a while to explain as this has been going on a while before I found this forum. Please bear with me..
I have owned budgies for years, and I currently have an enormous show breed of budgie called Smokey with a health problem that I haven't had before in a budgie. (I do not show him by the way - that's just his breed). It took him all year to be diagnosed, and he was on antibiotics all year for his runny poop - the vet thought it was bacterial, but it never seemed to clear up. He became more and more miserable, and I was at my wits end and was thinking of maybe getting him put down which was tragic because before that he had been wonderfully tame and free flighted throughout my rented room as well as a prolific talker. So about a month ago I took him back to the vet and my regular avian vet was not available so I took the normal vet who was. She looked him over and then said that his poop didn't look like a bacterial infection because it was the urine part of the poop which was runny, but he had good solids. She took out a test card and syringed a lot of the urine part onto the card and it came back as high for glucose and renal failure. Then she weighed him and his keel is now showing - but he was a bit heavy at the start of the year at 130gms when he first came in. Now he is 60gms and very much underweight. She said an average non show breed of budgie (australian wild type) is 30grams. So she referred me to a vet in another city to give him a series of tests.
So I took him up there and he spent the day being anesthetized, and blood was drawn then he was examined and x-rayed etc. He's come back positive for the treatable type of diabetes which he can have human diabetes medicine for. I have been putting it into his water daily and he skulls it down like a good boy. She told me to feed him Harrisons bird pellets (I give him topflight which is a very good mix..).. but they don't seem to sell Harrisons here. He won't have trouble converting.. I can tell you that - he eats ANYTHING and everything!! I am sorting out ordering some online, but this may be too difficult if it doesn't arrive in a timely manner after ordering each time, or for any number of reasons.. we will see. He IS spoilt and I want to do the best for him, but I think I need to be consistent as well with what he should eat.
The vet also said he has the beginnings of bumble foot on his foot. I had noticed a red patch from picking him up daily to give him his antibiotics. She has told me she wants me to take out the really wide perches in his cage because she believes that is what is causing it. This is where we had a disagreement. His rope perch is in front of his seed and water containers, and also ends on the side of the cage that is where my bed is (I rent a very small room) and as a result he spends all day sitting on his rope perch in front of the seed container or water container, and sleeps beside my bed on the perch huddled against the side of the cage. I guess he feels safe. The poops in his cage attest to this - when I return from work I can see he has barely moved all day. He spends most of the time sleeping nowadays. Also eating and skulling water. There is absolutely no tweeting, talking or flying. He can no longer fly anyway because his feathers are now growing in a stunted way. The bumble foot has not cleared up despite sticking to the rope perch and yesterday I put in a wider rope perch. They vet said they are softer than those large calcium perches he had.
She also said he had a strange fatty deposit at the base of his tummy and it is common in budgies that have bad posture. I have noticed this too - it looks like a blown up bum and has no feathers. I had thought it was a symptom of the bacterial infection previously, but I guess it is caused by him trying to sit on his perch and it rubbing when he hasn't been feeling well.
I'm also concerned that he is going blind. I have just noticed this, but when approach he whips his head around to try and see what is coming. He does not focus on me at all and is no longer relaxed but suspicious. Sure I did spend the whole year grabbing him for antibiotic administration, but this is new behavior. I put my hand in front of him and to the side without making any noise to tip him off and he did not react. He reacts if I accidentally tip him off my hand is there though. He also reacts if I put my finger directly in front of his beak for a while - pecks it accurately. I also did the winking thing with him on my hand directly in front of my face (as close as you can get) and he reacted appropriately and closed his eyes and relaxed.
Anyway.. that's about it. Do you think there is anything I can do to help him further, and could you comment if you think of something. He still has a good appetite and although he sleeps lots he no longer looks distressed now that he is on the diabetes medicine. His poops are a bit runny still but better than they were.
This is going to take a while to explain as this has been going on a while before I found this forum. Please bear with me..
I have owned budgies for years, and I currently have an enormous show breed of budgie called Smokey with a health problem that I haven't had before in a budgie. (I do not show him by the way - that's just his breed). It took him all year to be diagnosed, and he was on antibiotics all year for his runny poop - the vet thought it was bacterial, but it never seemed to clear up. He became more and more miserable, and I was at my wits end and was thinking of maybe getting him put down which was tragic because before that he had been wonderfully tame and free flighted throughout my rented room as well as a prolific talker. So about a month ago I took him back to the vet and my regular avian vet was not available so I took the normal vet who was. She looked him over and then said that his poop didn't look like a bacterial infection because it was the urine part of the poop which was runny, but he had good solids. She took out a test card and syringed a lot of the urine part onto the card and it came back as high for glucose and renal failure. Then she weighed him and his keel is now showing - but he was a bit heavy at the start of the year at 130gms when he first came in. Now he is 60gms and very much underweight. She said an average non show breed of budgie (australian wild type) is 30grams. So she referred me to a vet in another city to give him a series of tests.
So I took him up there and he spent the day being anesthetized, and blood was drawn then he was examined and x-rayed etc. He's come back positive for the treatable type of diabetes which he can have human diabetes medicine for. I have been putting it into his water daily and he skulls it down like a good boy. She told me to feed him Harrisons bird pellets (I give him topflight which is a very good mix..).. but they don't seem to sell Harrisons here. He won't have trouble converting.. I can tell you that - he eats ANYTHING and everything!! I am sorting out ordering some online, but this may be too difficult if it doesn't arrive in a timely manner after ordering each time, or for any number of reasons.. we will see. He IS spoilt and I want to do the best for him, but I think I need to be consistent as well with what he should eat.
The vet also said he has the beginnings of bumble foot on his foot. I had noticed a red patch from picking him up daily to give him his antibiotics. She has told me she wants me to take out the really wide perches in his cage because she believes that is what is causing it. This is where we had a disagreement. His rope perch is in front of his seed and water containers, and also ends on the side of the cage that is where my bed is (I rent a very small room) and as a result he spends all day sitting on his rope perch in front of the seed container or water container, and sleeps beside my bed on the perch huddled against the side of the cage. I guess he feels safe. The poops in his cage attest to this - when I return from work I can see he has barely moved all day. He spends most of the time sleeping nowadays. Also eating and skulling water. There is absolutely no tweeting, talking or flying. He can no longer fly anyway because his feathers are now growing in a stunted way. The bumble foot has not cleared up despite sticking to the rope perch and yesterday I put in a wider rope perch. They vet said they are softer than those large calcium perches he had.
She also said he had a strange fatty deposit at the base of his tummy and it is common in budgies that have bad posture. I have noticed this too - it looks like a blown up bum and has no feathers. I had thought it was a symptom of the bacterial infection previously, but I guess it is caused by him trying to sit on his perch and it rubbing when he hasn't been feeling well.
I'm also concerned that he is going blind. I have just noticed this, but when approach he whips his head around to try and see what is coming. He does not focus on me at all and is no longer relaxed but suspicious. Sure I did spend the whole year grabbing him for antibiotic administration, but this is new behavior. I put my hand in front of him and to the side without making any noise to tip him off and he did not react. He reacts if I accidentally tip him off my hand is there though. He also reacts if I put my finger directly in front of his beak for a while - pecks it accurately. I also did the winking thing with him on my hand directly in front of my face (as close as you can get) and he reacted appropriately and closed his eyes and relaxed.
Anyway.. that's about it. Do you think there is anything I can do to help him further, and could you comment if you think of something. He still has a good appetite and although he sleeps lots he no longer looks distressed now that he is on the diabetes medicine. His poops are a bit runny still but better than they were.
