Just a quick post for any parrot owners. Parrots are quite hardy, they don't generally show that they are unwell. The reason for this is pretty clear- a sick looking bird in the wild is going to be an obvious target for a predator. So generally you won't have any idea that your bird is feeling unwell except for slight grumpiness or reluctance to leave the cage.
But if you start noticing any symptoms, start worrying. Not only does this suggest something might be seriously wrong, but after the onset of initial symptoms your bird can go downhill very fast. The sooner you act, the better your chances of saving them. Take my recent experience. My parrotlet Coco was acting strangely for a few days. He would frighten easily and fly into the walls and windows. He also seemed a bit wobbly and unsteady at times. Other than that his appetite and attitude were fine so I just kept an eye on it. Then in the space of a few hours on Monday, he went dramatically downhill. He couldn't perch on one leg without falling forwards. He was reluctant to fly to my finger because he couldn't get his balance and would fall. He couldn't walk properly along his perch or ontop of his cage, and instead took to sitting, legs splayed, lethargically. I saw this and wondered whether he had hit his head or had a fall, but he didn't snap out of it. I also noticed that his body felt cold and lighter than usual, and after weighing him noticed he had lost 2grams (which is lot on his usually 30g frame).
Cue me desperately searching online for a local avian vet (if you need one, look here). Now, I'm quite lucky. Living in the capital city of Scotland means I had a number of options. In the end I rushed him immediately to the exotic animal unit at the small animal hopsital in Roslin. This proved to be a good decision, as they had the experience and facilities to care for him. In the space of hour between noticing his symptoms and arriving at the vets, he had become noticeably weaker. His eyes kept closing and he slumped against the side of his carry box. He also didn't try to fly out when I opened the lid (highly unusual given that he hates it), and gave no resistance to having his mouth and wings checked (again, highly unusual, normally this results in getting bitten). They admitted him immediately and started treatment to get his strength back. He was in the equivalent of human intensive care. They put him in an incubator to keep his body temperature up, and also increased his oxygen and humidity. Then they administered saline injections into his legs, and liquidised food with calcium supplements directly into his crop (via gavage).
At this stage, they had no idea what was wrong. We ruled out the possiblity of any infectious disease (I have no other pets, and he is otherwise apparently healthy), and decided it was a neurological problem causing ataxia and general weakness, but we don't know the cause. Several things can cause this in birds: metal poisoning, general poisoning, liver failure, kindey failure, and tumours. At this point he was too weak to have a blood test, and I certainly wasn't going to risk anaesthetising him for an x-ray (to look for tumours and metal). That was 2 days ago. At the moment his is still at the hospital in an incubator, though he is much improved. His ataxia is better and almost gone, he has his energy back and he's eating well. Yesterday he seemed to crash again, losing all energy and alertness, so much so that the vet rang me and said I should prepare for the worst. 30 minutes later we was ok again. He's by no means out of the woods yet. They are going to try and turn off the oxygen this afternoon and see whether he can cope. If he does, and he's ok overnight, then I can bring him home tomorrow. As for what caused this- I hope it's something random that he ate or inhaled, and it's out of his system. Of course if it's liver disease or a tumour, it's likely this will all happen again and there will be no cure for him. But fingers crossed that isn't the case.
Moral of this story- get your parrot to a specialist avian vet immediately if they appear ill, even if you have doubts about whether or not they are ill. You might think that keeping them at home and nursing them will be the better option, but it isn't if your bird is genuinely ill. If they need antibiotics, they need them immediately. The saline injections and food supplements are essential for keeping your bird alive, and if they are weak like my Coco, they cannot feed and hydrate themselves. The injections and gavage feeding are also vastly superior to mouth syringing that you could do at home (since the bird can spit this out or regurgitate it quite easily). Additional medicine might be needed too, such as calcium or vitamins. Phone the vet and ask whether they have a small animal incubator, as this is lifesaving. Also aim to get your bird to an animal hospital, where there are lots of staff and people to check on him, even overnight. A smaller surgery may not be able to do this, and if your bird goes downhill overnight it might be too late by morning.
But if you start noticing any symptoms, start worrying. Not only does this suggest something might be seriously wrong, but after the onset of initial symptoms your bird can go downhill very fast. The sooner you act, the better your chances of saving them. Take my recent experience. My parrotlet Coco was acting strangely for a few days. He would frighten easily and fly into the walls and windows. He also seemed a bit wobbly and unsteady at times. Other than that his appetite and attitude were fine so I just kept an eye on it. Then in the space of a few hours on Monday, he went dramatically downhill. He couldn't perch on one leg without falling forwards. He was reluctant to fly to my finger because he couldn't get his balance and would fall. He couldn't walk properly along his perch or ontop of his cage, and instead took to sitting, legs splayed, lethargically. I saw this and wondered whether he had hit his head or had a fall, but he didn't snap out of it. I also noticed that his body felt cold and lighter than usual, and after weighing him noticed he had lost 2grams (which is lot on his usually 30g frame).
Cue me desperately searching online for a local avian vet (if you need one, look here). Now, I'm quite lucky. Living in the capital city of Scotland means I had a number of options. In the end I rushed him immediately to the exotic animal unit at the small animal hopsital in Roslin. This proved to be a good decision, as they had the experience and facilities to care for him. In the space of hour between noticing his symptoms and arriving at the vets, he had become noticeably weaker. His eyes kept closing and he slumped against the side of his carry box. He also didn't try to fly out when I opened the lid (highly unusual given that he hates it), and gave no resistance to having his mouth and wings checked (again, highly unusual, normally this results in getting bitten). They admitted him immediately and started treatment to get his strength back. He was in the equivalent of human intensive care. They put him in an incubator to keep his body temperature up, and also increased his oxygen and humidity. Then they administered saline injections into his legs, and liquidised food with calcium supplements directly into his crop (via gavage).
At this stage, they had no idea what was wrong. We ruled out the possiblity of any infectious disease (I have no other pets, and he is otherwise apparently healthy), and decided it was a neurological problem causing ataxia and general weakness, but we don't know the cause. Several things can cause this in birds: metal poisoning, general poisoning, liver failure, kindey failure, and tumours. At this point he was too weak to have a blood test, and I certainly wasn't going to risk anaesthetising him for an x-ray (to look for tumours and metal). That was 2 days ago. At the moment his is still at the hospital in an incubator, though he is much improved. His ataxia is better and almost gone, he has his energy back and he's eating well. Yesterday he seemed to crash again, losing all energy and alertness, so much so that the vet rang me and said I should prepare for the worst. 30 minutes later we was ok again. He's by no means out of the woods yet. They are going to try and turn off the oxygen this afternoon and see whether he can cope. If he does, and he's ok overnight, then I can bring him home tomorrow. As for what caused this- I hope it's something random that he ate or inhaled, and it's out of his system. Of course if it's liver disease or a tumour, it's likely this will all happen again and there will be no cure for him. But fingers crossed that isn't the case.
Moral of this story- get your parrot to a specialist avian vet immediately if they appear ill, even if you have doubts about whether or not they are ill. You might think that keeping them at home and nursing them will be the better option, but it isn't if your bird is genuinely ill. If they need antibiotics, they need them immediately. The saline injections and food supplements are essential for keeping your bird alive, and if they are weak like my Coco, they cannot feed and hydrate themselves. The injections and gavage feeding are also vastly superior to mouth syringing that you could do at home (since the bird can spit this out or regurgitate it quite easily). Additional medicine might be needed too, such as calcium or vitamins. Phone the vet and ask whether they have a small animal incubator, as this is lifesaving. Also aim to get your bird to an animal hospital, where there are lots of staff and people to check on him, even overnight. A smaller surgery may not be able to do this, and if your bird goes downhill overnight it might be too late by morning.
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