Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 1:52 am Post subject: Phooey... not well... can any one help?
Yesterday when he was let out of his cage for a fly it was obvious something was wrong... he was all fluffed up with his wings held low...and crash landed.... he was walking on the floor occasionaly supporting himself with his beak on the floor and holding himself really low.... he did fly about a bit but mainly just sat and seemed to be holding 1 leg up a bit....
i cleand out the cage and sterilized it replaced all the food and took out some rope toys he may have got his foot tangled in.... There was no sign of worms and Rosemary has been with him all the time and she is fine... he was eating sunflower seeds and egg food last night and was climbing a bit when he was back in the cage..... he still looks hunched up and unhappy today and im not sure what to do........im hoping he has just hurt his foot a bit but im worried it might be something worse..... any ideas of what it might be... or advice would help.......
thanks
oh ps....happy newish year _________________ May........
oh i dont know if this has any relivance at all but.... i have noticed over the past few weeks they have both bean particularly interested in eating bits of stone from the walls.... they are limestone...i dint think this would be bad for them tho.....but........ _________________ May........
well......... he was getting worse... i found a birdy vet...... and just got back 100 quid lighter..... he had an xray..... and he has heavy metal poisoning....... the vet showed me the xrays n you could see 2 bright bits 1in his crop and 1 further down the digestive system hes had an injection ......h e said it was like an antidote and ive got some stuff to mix with peanut butter i have to try n get into him.... the alternative....was to leave him there for a week so they could inject him every day......... but i just cant afford that......
he also said he was extremley thin......which was a shock as he didnt look it at all he malted and got his new feathers n looked lovely and not skinny at all..... Rosemary is a bit of a bully and does push him off the food but he had been eating....... so now he is in his own little hospital ward.... on top of hot water bottle and looking very sick.... n rosemary is calling for him.
I have no idea what he has picked up.......... the vet said most probably Zinc or Lead...... but as far as im aware there is nothing like that in the house.....
anyhow..... any advice on how to faten him up quick.... and get him to take all the peanut butter mixture would help..... _________________ May........
Sorry to hear about your sick bird,
i dont have any advice for you for how he could have got sick, but fattening him up , maybe you could try him on a bit of yogurt, cheese, more of the higher fat content foods.Sometimes tho these foods can change their behaviour a bit i read once, dont know if its true tiki doesnt really get these so cant tell you for sure, good luck with the peanut butter mine turned his nose up at that, Ive tried honey too and didnt take to that, i know he would love jam but he has a sweet tooth (or should i say beak)
anyway good luck and hope it all goes well, keep us posted for outcome please.
Gina.
peanut butter...Dont use salted...normal peanut butter
As above bit of cheese, sunflower seeds...and keep up with high calcuim diet...stems of broccoli, cauliflower, silver beet stems.
Also finely chopped carrot and fresh beetroot. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Thanks me dears....... he is still alive..... but still disorientated..... hes has eaten and drunk and pooed....!!!! im taking that as a good sign.....he normally loves broccoli n stuff and also cheese.... but seems to have gone off the fresh stuff a bit latley...... but vet said he could have been ill for a while as they are very good at hiding it.... to protect themselves from predators .... the vet guy seemed very good... i was quite impressed with him. if anyone is looking for a vet in UK this is at Swindon.........
Neil Forbes BVetMed DipECAMS CBiol MIBiol FRCVS
RCVS Specialist Zoo Animal and Wildlife Medicine (Avian) and European Specialist in Avian Medicine and Surgery
Neil qualified from the Royal Veterinary College in 1983. After a period in large animal practice in Cumbria, he settled in mixed practice at Lansdown Veterinary Surgeons in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Since that time Neil has developed a large avian and exotic first and second opinion department at the practice. In the interim Neil has gained RCVS Specialist Status in the field of Avian Medicine and Surgery (1992), his FRCVS in Exotic Bird Medicine by examination (1997) as well a European Veterinary Specialist in Avian Medicine and Surgery (Dip ECAMS) in 1997.
Neil runs an ECAMS approved residency program and is also Vice President of ECAMS and Chair of the Education Committee. Neil is a Senior Lecturer at Bristol University, where he lectures and holds regular clinics. Neil has lectured and published widely in most parts of the world; presented and published many papers and edited, as well as contributed, to 15 books
going to try phooeys 1st dose of medicin now.............. _________________ May........
the medicine stuff i had to give him was Penicillamine and was a crushed tablet mixed with corn oil.... he has to have a tiny bit 0.1 ml mixed with peanut butter and it worked really well.... he wouldnt take it off the end of the syringe on his own but when i picked him up i stuck it in his moth while he was biting me and to my surprise he seemed to like it ....... so ..... fingers crossed...!!!!! _________________ May........
Good luck. I hope the medicine works. Can you imagine where in your house he might have gotten into some lead or zinc? I've just tried to think of any lead or zinc in my house. We have some stained-glass hanging window decorations that may have lead solder on the joints. Do you have anything like that the bird may be perching on? Ours gets everywhere. We have to hide things like that. Make sure you keep a heat lamp shining on part of the cage so he can stay warm, that is why he is fluffed up. I'm sure you already know that. Ours was very ill a week or so after we got him, I had to feed him medicine and water from a syringe because he wouldn't eat or drink, but he got better quite quickly once the medicine got into him. I hope your bird does too.
thanks sticky...... hes in a sort of plastic carry case thingy at the mo which is much less draughty than the cage..... its by the radiator on top of hot water bottle......and..... he seems to be perking up a little... i can keep an eye on him better like that too n see what he is actually eating...
i cant think what he could have got at..... dont have any stained glass stuff..... i thought it could be old paint as we just decorated..... but it has to be actual fragments as it showed up on the xray...... the only metal fragments i can think of would be copper as i used to work with a lot of copper wire n stuff and did do some in the house but several years ago........there may still be tincy bits in the carpet or something.... but i dont know if that would do the same... am at a loss really..... _________________ May........
im now actually thinking it could be the coating on the cage....!!!??!!! althought i bought it new and i havent painted it with anything its sorta got a coating and phooey does chews where there are little spikey bits.. _________________ May........
Hes still in hospital cage.... i let him out for a while yesterday but still unco-ordinated and week .... he hasnt got worse again but i think he is 'fake eating'..... keeps spitting out the seed he just cracked open to try fool me ...... so decided i need to syringe feed him in between his medicine ...... only peanut butter stickyness has taken its toll on the syringe n i need to get some back ups..... called vet this am n he said he really needs to be eating and if i take him back he will show me how to use a crop feeder.......... doubt that will be for free tho....!!! he does take it from a little syringe quite well...... but i dont know how much i can feed at once or how often i should do it .... been trying different mixtures of fruite n nuts/seeds sorta baby food style blended up with some sunflower oil and he does actually like it.... almost as much as biting me....
thanks for your support :) _________________ May........
Zinc on avairy wire mess is often consided a source..
BUT we have often build new avairies/flights with new gaved mesh and never had an issue
Sometimes there maybe dags,,,peices that we do break off
And eventually we do paint the outside of the mesh a very dk brown...but this is so it is easiers for people to see in...no other reason
You mention copper wire etc...
Copper is very toxic...to fish , birds etc
Solder is also very toxic. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
well....... he is back in the cage with Rosemary....... im still giving him the medicine twice a day but he is proving more n more difficult to catch...... so must be feeling better.... hes been eating egg food n veg/salad....and seed especially picking out the hemp seed from the mix so i ordered some straight seed for him hes still really skinny and you can feel his breast bone sticking out quite badly.... guy from the place i get seed from is sending palm fruit oil too as he said its really good for recouperating birds... but ive never tried it.
i have moved the cage to a different room and now will only let them out in there.... ive checked for stuff that could be bad and think its all fine now..... ive read up quite a bit about what has stuff in that could have caused the poisoning and was surprised that loads of stuff have zinc in..... nails n screws n all sorts and i sorta have little piles of screws sitting in pots n stuff and lots of old beams with nails in he was playing on when he was alowed all round the house...
i was really suprised about the wire in averies when i read that too steps.... thought how come they dont all drop dead..... and wild birds too.....but it did say somewhere that once it has weathered it forms a protective oxidised coating.....which can also be speeded up by spraying with vinigar...!!!! i also read that electrical wire is bad if they chew that..... (other than actually getting electricuted ) and as i used to make sculptures out of old electrical wire there could still be fragments about
he is a very inquisitive bird and likes picking stuff up n giving it a little chew to see what it is..... where he is now he can only really get wood...... hes started working on the log basket _________________ May........
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Yesterday when he was let out of his cage for a fly it was obvious something was wrong... he was all fluffed up with his wings held low...and crash landed.... he was walking on the floor occasionaly supporting himself with his beak on the floor and holding himself really low.... he did fly about a bit but mainly just sat and seemed to be holding 1 leg up a bit....
) and as i used to make sculptures out of old electrical wire there could still be fragments about
