Concerned about health to often?

[Tro]

Hello,
Does anybody else ALWAYS feel worried about their parrots health?
I just scheduled my parrot an appointment for tomorrow because I feel like he is sleeping during the day more than usual. We recently have been staying at my moms place and he has been doing it since we have arrived. He sleeps the same amount at night but during the day seems to be sleeping more. His weight hasn't changed his poop is normal, and he otherwise looks fine. It's like I know he is fine but in the back of my mind there's this "but what if he's not". He had the same behavior last time we stayed at my moms so I wonder if it's just his adjusting to the new environment.
I have brought him to the vet three times this year and nothing has been wrong w him any of those times (this will be the fourth). I feel very guilty because one of those times they have drawn blood.
I know I get more nervous w my parrot because everyone says they are masters of hiding illness, but when does it become ridiculous.
What would you all do?
Thank you

[Wolf]

The reason that parrots hide any illness for as long as they can is because they will be kicked out of the flock if they are sick. A sick bird draws predators to the entire flock, putting them all in danger. The flock itself is the primary means that a parrot has to avoid and escape a predator so if it is sick and alone it will very soon be eaten, in their natural habitat.

Sleeping too much could be an early sign of illness and it is always better to have the bird checked out as soon as you see an abberant behavior rather than waiting until they show that they are sick because by the time they are actually showing their illness it may be too late to save them. Another early sign of illness is weight loss of 10% or greater so you could and should keep a record of your birds weight on at least a weekly basis.

Although it is more expensive, blood work is good as even a vet can not always tell if a bird is sick just by a physical exam. When in doubt it is always better to have the bird checked out.

[Tro]

Thank you for the response that makes me feel better about my decision to take him in. The vet that he is seeing tomorrow will most likely draw blood, which always makes me nervous, but I see the importance.
I weigh him often (I just weighed him tonight in fact) he is a pretty consistent 66g parrot. His weight has been stable during this situation. I didn't know what amount of weight loss was considered bad so that is great info to have, thank you!

[Wolf]

It pays to really know your bird and its normal behaviors. We bring these birds into our homes which is totally unnatural for them and then we feeb them a diet that is different than they should have eaten and very often keep them to a human light schedule instead of the natural light schedule that they need, all of these things are stressful to the bird, which could easily weaken their immune system. So it is no wonder that we need to be very aware of then so that we can try to catch any sign of illness as early as possible.

If your bird is normally vocal and suddenly quits being vocal it could be a sign of illness.

Sometimes the changes in their behavior are not from illness, but due to stress, birds do not handle change very well and it can be hard to tell whether something is stress or illness.

[Navre]

I took my Greencheek into the vet last March. As to what was wrong, I didn't have anything to tell them. There was nothing I could really verbalize, but I just thought something was wrong. By the time I got to the animal hospital, about an hour drive, the bird seemed a bit lethargic and quiet. It turned out that her blood sugar was low, she had some sort of infection, and was admitted to the hospital for 2 days.

Trust your gut.

[Pajarita]

Yes, indeed, trust your gut! And yes, I am constantly and forever worried about all my birds to the point that my entire family thinks I am 'obsessed' (they don't dare call me crazy -at least, not to my face )

[Tro]

Thanks,
I'm glad I'm not the only one. I took him to his appointment and the vet did a thorough exam and thinks he is just fine... He mentioned that Tak is not around little kids back at home and my mom has 5 grandkids running around her house all day and that could be making him tired which makes sense because all those kids are enough to tire anyone out! I hadn't thought about that before I took him in, because he likes being around adults so I just didn't realize. But I'm glad I took him in because now I know.

[Wolf]

Kids are very often a source of high stress for birds and I know for a fact that stress can be very tiring.

[Pajarita]

Was there bloodwork done? I ask because you say the vet 'thinks' he is fine... And yes, parrots don't do well with small kids running around.

[Tro]

Yes blood work and X-ray were taken to check for abnormalities in organ size that could be missed w blood wrk was done to be on the safe side. After he did the full physical exam and found nothing he was concerned about, he started asking questions about the changes in environment and mentioned they usually don't have that hard of a time adjusting if everything (cage type, food, person, ect) is the same and only the place changes, unless there is something like rambunctious children running around, which there is. Now that I know I will wrk on a solution for him.