Conure sneezing excessively. Help!

[Andromeda]

Long post, so apologies in advance.

Okay, I know the first responses will be "take him to the vet" so I just want to say he has been to the vet for this twice already and he is currently on an antibiotic but as he is still sneezing 7 days into the course of the antibiotic at this point I don't think it's helping. The antibiotic is for 10 days so I'm going to finish it but if the sneezing doesn't stop (and I'm not sure why it would) I'll probably be taking him to the vet again next week. In the meantime I am posting here to see if anyone has any ideas or advice.

So here is a little history: Bubba is 7 and has never been sick. He had a routine examination on Feb. 16 which included blood work (CBC and an avian chemistry panel) and it came back normal. He was not sneezing at the time of the exam.

However one week later on Feb. 23 I noticed he was sneezing quite a bit. He would dig in his left nare over and over again and sneeze. On some days he would dig at it until it was red. After this went on for a few days I took him to the vet (Feb. 27). The vet did a physical exam (ears, nares, choanal slit, listened to heart rate and breathing with a stethoscope) and said by all appearances everything was normal and maybe he just had a piece of something stuck in his nare. He did a sinus flush and told me to take him in the shower every day for nebulization and said if the symptoms didn't resolve we could try something more.

Well, the digging in the nare stopped. However, the sneezing did not. I took him to the vet again last Friday (March 15) and he saw a different vet at the same practice (the vet he usually sees). She did a physical exam and said everything was normal. She did another sinus flush but this time a sample was collected for a Gram stain (cytology). She said she saw Gram positive rods but she said that some amount of bacteria in the sinuses is normal and when there is an infection you see inflammatory cells "eating" the bacteria and she said she saw literally no inflammatory cells. Due to this she said he did not have sinusitis and that the Gram positive rods were probably just normal bacteria. She agreed that the amount of sneezing was abnormal, though, and put him on an antibiotic to "rule out infection." She said if it was an infection the antibiotic should improve the symptoms within 48 hours but it has been 7 days now and he is still sneezing.

When I say he is sneezing I mean he is sneezing 15 - 20 times a day (that I am around to count; he spends several hours in his cage in the morning when I am not around). This past hour alone he has sneezed 7 times. Sometimes he will sneeze 2 - 3 times in a row. There is no discharge from his nares, his nares are not red, and the sneezes are dry. Literally everything else is normal: droppings, appetite, activity level, vocalizations, mood, and weight. He is not sleeping more or spending any time fluffed up, etc. and he still flies all over the place like he usually does. If it weren't for the sneezing everything would be 100% normal, but... The sneezing.

Nothing in the environment changed prior to the sneezing and my home is "bird safe" meaning there is no Teflon, smoke, incense, candles, scented cleaning products or air fresheners, etc. and I also run an air filter all the time. I have considered allergies but I don't know why they would start all the sudden after 7 years with no change in the environment.

I keep his cage and tree and toys very clean. Papers are changed daily and any bird droppings in reach (such as on the grate in the cage or on toys) are cleaned daily. I spray everything with a water/GSE mixture every week as a disinfectant and scrub non-porous items down every other week with Pet Focus which is a quaternary ammonia product (done outside).

Thanks for reading and I welcome any ideas that anyone may have.

[marie83]

I don't have any ideas for you but wanted to wish you well and hope you can get to the bottom of this asap. I'm sure you will but please keep updating this thread.

[healthyaddict]

I have no idea but... given that people can develop allergies to certain things later in life... I don't see why this couldn't happen to a bird as well.

Good luck with with everything at the vet, and I hope he's ok!

::: hugs :::

[cml]

Leroy sneezes quite a bit too (I dont know how many times daily but perhaps between 5-10?), and he isnt sick at all. Ive been to the vet twice and done a lot of checks and nothing indicates anything out of the ordinary. He's sneezed since we got him, and I think its just how he is, he is completely normal in every other way, active and eats like a dog (his weight curve is stable though ).

I dont like the sound of Bubba scratching his nostril though, that doesnt sound good. I hope you can find out whats wrong, if anything.

[friend2parrots]

sorry to hear that Bubba is sneezing so much. I was wondering what the situation is in your house with respect to heating? I've heard that tropical birds sometimes go into sneezing episodes when their nasal membranes are dry from lack of moisture in the air. not sure if that's the case in your house, and I think from what I recall in your previous posts you mentioned at some point that you use a humidifier...so I'm not sure if that would be it.

also, I've heard that sneezing could also be due to just a physical or chemical irritant, not something that the bird is necessarily allergic too, but something that physically irritating their nasal area. a chemical can cause physical irritation.

i'm glad to hear that Bubba otherwise appears healthy. all the best and I hope youre able to find out whats causing the sneezing.

[rebcart]

Have you done a test for Chlamydophila (psittacosis)? That usually emerges as sneezing, and it needs ~45 days of a specific antibiotic (doxycycline) in order to clear up completely. Also, it's contagious to other birds and humans, and spreads very easily via feather dust and droppings, so you could have brought it into the house by accident on your shoe.

It's an expensive test, but I'd highly recommend it.

[Andromeda]

Thanks for all the replies. I really appreciate the well wishes and the thoughts on what might be wrong.

I have no idea but... given that people can develop allergies to certain things later in life... I don't see why this couldn't happen to a bird as well.

This is possible; one thing the vet suggested was putting some Benadryl in his water to see if that helps but I haven't tried that yet. I do run an air filter, though, so I just don't know what would be causing allergies.

I dont like the sound of Bubba scratching his nostril though, that doesnt sound good.

He actually stopped doing that after his first sinus flush on Feb. 27 but unfortunately the sneezing continued. However, I'm glad the nare digging stopped at least because the vet said if they do that too aggressively it can cause an infection in the tissue.

sorry to hear that Bubba is sneezing so much. I was wondering what the situation is in your house with respect to heating?

...

also, I've heard that sneezing could also be due to just a physical or chemical irritant, not something that the bird is necessarily allergic too, but something that physically irritating their nasal area. a chemical can cause physical irritation.

Good thoughts on heating because that can definitely cause respiratory issues (even infections) which is why when I lived in Boston I ran a humidifier all winter. However I currently live in Florida so I haven't used the heater in a while and I think I used it literally twice between December and February.

The vet first thought it was a physical irritant which is why he suggested a sinus flush. I don't know what chemical irritant it could be as I use vinegar and water, GSE and water, and baking soda when I clean around the house. I do use a quaternary ammonia product on their cages but I use it outside and I later rinse the cages with water and have been doing that for years without issue so I'm not sure why that would be a problem now.

Have you done a test for Chlamydophila (psittacosis)? That usually emerges as sneezing, and it needs ~45 days of a specific antibiotic (doxycycline) in order to clear up completely. Also, it's contagious to other birds and humans, and spreads very easily via feather dust and droppings, so you could have brought it into the house by accident on your shoe.

It's an expensive test, but I'd highly recommend it.

Thanks for suggesting this. Bubba and Jimmy both had an annual exam on Feb. 16 and along with blood work they asked if I wanted a chlamydophila test at that time and I said yes. Now this was before the sneezing started but they both tested negative and as neither they, nor I, nor my husband were exposed to any other birds since the test I don't know how he would have contracted it. I do know that birds can be asymptomatic carriers and can have false negatives but they both have been tested in years past as well and it's come back negative so if one of them was a carrier they would have tested negative not once but several times.

I know when you have an animal you can have unexpected expenses and I will pay whatever it takes to get him well but I can't help but be really frustrated that I just spent upwards of $300 on blood work and disease tests on the 16th before he was sneezing just as part of a well-check and now I'm probably going to have to shell out that money all over again. At the very least I feel like the next step is a culture and/or a CBC and neither one is cheap.

I also feel really bad for poor little Bubba because he gets violently carsick and it's an hour round-trip to the vet, plus he just had blood taken a month ago and now he's probably going to have to have blood taken again. I'm so worried about him! I know other people with birds and pets know how that is when you know your pet is sick but you don't know why. Even though he is acting completely normal aside from the sneezing it's hard for me not to think the worst just because I know how birds hide their symptoms. I also can't help but think of Jimmy years ago and how it took 6 months and thousands of dollars before we had any answers when he was sick. Ugh.

[GreenWing]

Sorry to hear about your baby, Andromeda. You're a great momma to your bird; I am glad your baby isn't sick.

I can't help but wonder if maybe your bird has allergies? Tiki has been sneezing, too, as I have been as well... it could be seasonal pollen allergies OR (as an experienced bird owner told me) it could be bird dust and mold in the carpet. I've been meaning to clean the carpets with a carpet cleaner shampooer. I use a vacuum cleaner everyday where her cage is... but a carpet cleaning would be even better. Do you think a carpet cleaning would help?

[janetafloat]

I have nothing helpful to add to all the other suggestions but wanted to add my well wishes to you & Bubba, and hope you can sort it out without too much stress & expense. I know how worrying it is when one of our FIDS isn't well, if indeed he isn't well.

[Andromeda]

Tiki has been sneezing, too, as I have been as well... it could be seasonal pollen allergies OR (as an experienced bird owner told me) it could be bird dust and mold in the carpet. I've been meaning to clean the carpets with a carpet cleaner shampooer. I use a vacuum cleaner everyday where her cage is... but a carpet cleaning would be even better. Do you think a carpet cleaning would help?

My whole house is tile/wood floors except for one room that is carpeted but the carpet is only three years old. Their cages are in a room with wood floors. While the birds do spend some time in the carpeted room I vacuum every day and they've only been in that room at all for the past year and a half so I doubt the accumulation of dander or mold is high enough to cause allergies. However I did consider cleaning the carpet. If you do clean your carpet don't use shampoo because the chemicals or perfumes could be harmful or even deadly to your bird. Using hot water extraction would be best as it's possible to use only water and still kill any bacteria and mold without using harmful chemicals.

Anyway, my brown-headed parrot started sneezing as well so I'm pretty sure it's contagious. I had noticed him sneezing more for about a week but was kind of on the fence about whether it was abnormal but Friday he sneezed three times in a row and I knew it was a "wet" sneeze because I heard droplets hit the newspaper under his tree. Sure enough when I went over there and looked at him he had a clear fluid coming from his nares. Even though I doubted the antibiotic was helping Bubba I called the vet and got some for Jimmy, too, because I hadn't finished the course with Bubba and if it did end up helping and Jimmy was contagious then Bubba would just catch it again.

The good news is that Saturday and Sunday Bubba only had a couple of dry sneezes (well within normal) and today he has not sneezed so far at all. Jimmy still had some wet sneezes Saturday but yesterday and today his sneezes have been dry and although he is still sneezing quite a bit I am hoping that, like Bubba, it will decrease in a few days as he continues to be on the antibiotic. Regardless he has been on it for over 48 hours now so he should no longer be contagious (that is, if the antibiotic is even effective which I'm hoping it is).

I really, really hope these meds will be the end of it because it's become almost impossible to medicate Bubba. For the first few days he would take it out of the syringe with juice, but then he didn't want to do that anymore, so I put it on a small piece of bread with almond butter and for a few days he ate that but then he wouldn't do that anymore, either. The past few days I've been having to restrain him but he's caught on that when I let him out of his cage first thing in the morning it means meds so this morning when I opened his cage he didn't waste any time and just flew away the instant I opened the door! I chased him all over the house. As soon as he saw me enter the room he would fly off somewhere else. Eventually I managed to catch him but I have to give him one more dose tonight (the meds are q12h) so that should be fun.