Navre and Friends in Boston

[Navre]

Speaking of nuts, if anyone knows of a source for macadamia nuts, in the shell, suitable for Macaws, let me know. Nuts.com has them, but they are super expensive. We have a couple of Macaws who eat almost nothing else. It's insanely expensive right now.

[Navre]

I am putting 1/4 teaspoon of Avi-Calm, in each of Nicky's water dishes. I also sprinkled a very small amount of his gloop. I want him to eat it, so I don't want to mess it up too much. I have no idea how much he will get from the water. Seems like next to nothing.

I suppose I should taste it and see if it has a taste.

[Navre]

Nicky seems to be back to his old self, but I just watched him pull a couple of down feathers out. I gave him a spray bath when I saw that. The spray baths seem to help.

I have still not given him any Gabapenten.

I tasted the Avi-calm, and it had no taste at all. I'm still not sure how much he is getting.

[Pajarita]

Just follow the instructions and it should be OK. But you will need to wait a few days to see if it really had any discernible effect. I would not give him the Gabapentin... You already know how I feel about using mammal medicines on birds. In the case of this particular medicine, it's mostly because I don't like to give them any kind of medication that alters their neurological processes or keeps them sedated all the time. I don't mind using something that would calm them down a bit but gabapentin acts directly on the nervous system (that's why it's used for neuropathic pain) and stops seizures (although, in reality, they are not sure exactly how it does this). It causes sleepiness (which is not bad) and dizziness (and that I don't like). But the main reason for my not liking it is the fact that studies done on parrots (amazons) found that you need to medicate them orally every 8 hours for it to be effective which is very stressful to a parrot so how do you medicate for stress with something that is going to stress the bird even more? I am no vet but it seems to me that the only way is to give the bird a high dosage that would make him so groggy it would counteract the stress of having to be toweled every 8 hours - but that's not good at all! Avian vets don't always take into consideration the terrible effect of having to medicate the bird and are too quick to give in the beak meds... I would much rather put something in their water.

[Navre]

She told me that the gabapenten can go on food. It's just the antibiotics that can't. I guess it is prescribed in case the plucking is casused by skin itch.

Also, taking gabapenten myself, I know it's very addictive. I literally can't stop taking it now or I wake up in the middle of the night in horrible panics.

[liz]

I added human quality aloe to their spray bottles. It helps with the dry skin.

[Navre]

I added human quality aloe to their spray bottles. It helps with the dry skin.

We do that at the rescue. I've never been super comfortable with it. I worry about what happens if they breathe it in. I guess I should look more into it.

[Pajarita]

I put a splash of aloe vera juice in their water regularly and, although I usually use just plain cool water in the spray bottle, I doubt that adding a splash of aloe vera juice to it would have any harmful effect on the birds. After all, this is something that you can use both externally and internally so, obviously, it's not dangerous in any way.

[Navre]

I will pick up the stuff I used to give Tanya

[Navre]

I have two things I keep getting contradictory advice on. The first is spray baths. I have always used plain water, but I have read that 3/4 of a teaspoon in a spray bottle will help the skin. I have always worried that anything that leaves a residue on the feathers could make them pluck kore as they try to remove it.

The other is adding oil to the diet. Many recommend Red Palm Oil and have seem to have had success with it. I know the long term issues, but I am wondering about using it short term. Others have recommend coconut oil for feather and skin problems. They add it to the gloop a couple of times a week.