My sennie is sick :(

[janetafloat]

I haven't had a chance to update on my sennie, who's been with me for about 3 weeks now, for one reason and another. I've had a lurgy myself and haven't been feeling too great.

So, he's been settling in well and I'd started training, and started converting him to pellets (Harrison's), weighing him every day etc....and then last Thursday evening I thought he was a bit quiet. He seemed fine Friday morning then in the evening all was definitely not well. He sat on me for ages, really subdued, with his feathers a bit fluffed up. Saturday morning he was a bit brighter but his poo was really runny so I called the specialist avian vet I'd found, and had spoken to re an initial health check earlier in the week, and bf and I trekked some distance to the vet's.

The vet was very very good and very very expensive . I liked him a lot - he was clearly knowledgeable and thorough and took Alfie/Sadie (sorry, name coming very soon!) out of his carrier immediately and handled him so confidently and kindly, Alfie was like putty in his hands! The vet did various tests and after took a lot of time to talk over diet, foraging, training etc with me.

Upshot is he was clear on other health checks but has a nasty crop infection. The vet started him on Baytril then called me this morning to say after the culture results had come in he's switching him to something else, which will be here tomorrow.

Poor little squib! Plus, although he's very good about lying in my lap while I administer medicine, he's not at all happy with me as a result and is acting much more wary around me than he was. And we've got another five days of this to go! Today he's been okay, he's eating well, had a fly around, and been playing with his toys, but also has had frequent very runny diarrhoea (a lot of clear liquid like water) and I worry about him getting dehydrated. I haven't noticed him drinking a lot. If it carries on like this tomorrow I'll call the vet.

Don't you hate it when your feathery/furry family members are poorly?? I wish I could just give him a cuddle but that's not going to happen....especially now I'm putting him through the twice daily medicinal trauma. I just want him to get better (obviously) and I hate that this is happening at the beginning of our relationship.

[Eurycerus]

Oh no your poor little buddy! This must be a terrible time of year. I hope everything clears up. I'm pretty nervous that there's something wrong with Diggy (scheduling a vet appointment for soon) and that I'm going to have to give him medication. We still are working on trust and it's taking a LONG time so I'm concerned he'll hate women if he ends up being sick. :/

Also Nika and Diggy don't appear to drink very often. If I take notice of it, it always scares me. Could be because they eat moist vegetables and don't need much water, or just really don't need much water. I bet he's drinking okay, but I suppose you never know.

[Andromeda]

Your poor bird. Hopefully he will get better soon and I'm glad the vet was able to diagnose the problem. Did he know what might have caused the infection? Best wishes and keep us updated!

I'm pretty nervous that there's something wrong with Diggy (scheduling a vet appointment for soon) and that I'm going to have to give him medication. We still are working on trust and it's taking a LONG time so I'm concerned he'll hate women if he ends up being sick. :/

He's unlikely to hate women just due to being medicated. My Poi hates women due to an illness but it's because he was handled and restrained and had all kinds of vet procedures over a long period of time (always by women).

Delivering medication is usually not too traumatic. If the vet can add flavoring to the medication sometimes they will eat it from a syringe because it tastes good, and you can deliver it through the cage bars. If that doesn't work it's usually okay it mix it with a very small amount of fruit juice and offer it in the syringe (check with your vet first).

Also Nika and Diggy don't appear to drink very often. If I take notice of it, it always scares me. Could be because they eat moist vegetables and don't need much water, or just really don't need much water.

Birds don't really drink very much in the first place and if they are eating foods with high water content (such as fruits or vegetables) they will drink even less.

[marie83]

so sorry to hear this but at least you caught it early.
I was also going to suggest giving a tiny amount of juice via a syringe before you give the medication and just after giving it. If not juice I'm sure you can find another substitute s/he likes, it really does help make medicating a little more positive for the bird.

Keep us updated

[friend2parrots]

sorry to hear your sennie is sick hope he feels better soon! sounds like he's being a good sport about things. I hope the five days pass quickly, and that he'll be back to his usual self by then. youre taking great care of him all the best

[janetafloat]

Thanks guys! The juice trick worked well this morning so hopefully I'll have a well little bird in 5 days that still likes me

[GreenWing]

'Sorry to hear about this. Your poor baby. I hope your sennie is doing much better now.

[janetafloat]

He's still not well...he was much perkier on Thurs but was sneezing again and was a bit subdued on Friday so I spoke to the avian vet who has advised carrying on the antibiotic for 3 more days.
Apparently he had two different bacterial infections when they did a culture from his crop
He must have come with at least one of them because he was sneezing from the day I got him, though only occasionally and seemed healthy in every other way. The vet said that the stress of moving probably kicked it/them into high gear.
Oh well....we'll get there. Here he is today, getting all 'blissed out' from having a good neck scratch. I think it's funny the way he can close each eye independently. The first time I noticed it I thought there was something wrong with his eye, but he does it all the time, and will close the eye closest to the most intense scratching action!
And yes, the DNA test came back and he is indeed a 'he', so I'm sticking with the name he came with...Alfie.

[cml]

What a cutie, I hope he has a speedy recovery. Leroy sneezes quite often to but we've been to the vet and there was nothing wrong with him. I think its just dust, just like my own sneezes from dust sensitivity.

[janetafloat]

Thank you, cml, me too! Yes, I looked up 'bird sneezing' when I first had Alfie because he sneezed maybe a couple of times a day & all the info I found said that birds can sneeze for any number of reasons, just like us, and without any other signs of illness is usually nothing to worry about. But then he started to sneeze a lot & many times in a row, along with being subdued & fluffing feathers.