Sick eclectus!

[ConEkatoolet]

While normally I would freak out in these situations, I feel like this is more of an acute thing.

This morning I was in a hurry to go to a job interview and peaked in on my birds, as usual, and, as usual, my 7yo male SI ekkie had no food in his bowl and was acting like he was starving (as usual). So I quick went and grabbed a pumpkin muffin for him that I keep in the freezer. I thought it would be fine as there aren't that many grains in it and he never gets any added grains in his diet anyways. The base of the muffins is pumpkin, cornmeal, grits, and oatmeal with some dried cranberries and eggshell mixed in. The plan was to just have it for him to nibble on during the ~3hrs I would be gone.

When I got home from my interview he had eaten the outsides of the muffin and it looks like he had vomited some of it up in a few spots of his cage and he was sitting at the bottom all fluffy. I immedately removed him to clean up the cage and removed the muffin. He stayed perched where I sat him and fought me as I tried to clean him up. I know birds shake when they vomit and get it on their heads, and he had a very small amount of crusty stuff in his feathers. I grabbed his normal food, some of his ekkie pellets, and half of a kiwi and put it into a clean bowl. He looked curiously at the food, but didn't touch it. I peaked in on him a few minutes ago and he was dozing on the perch still a little fluffy.

A series of car emergencies has left me broke, I don't even have $10 to put in my car for gas right now, so I can't bring him to the vet. Where he is is very warm, but should I move him into a smaller cage or do anything different???

I think he just has an upset stomach, but there isn't anything I can find on it on the internet. He was 100% normal this morning. And he perched as normal and fought me like his normal self when I was trying to clean him.

[pennyandrocky]

how well were the egg shells ground? if they're not ground up enough they can cut his crop. i would call the vet, sometimes like my own avian vet they will make payment arrangements with you. i know when i took my to him he said depending on test results it could have been over $500.00 he said if we couldn't afford that much he would take payments. we had more than enough in our account but it was nice to know that in case we were in a jam. you could ask rescues to collect donations for your vet costs too i know i myself have sent money to help a bird in need through a rescue where i adopted mya .

[ConEkatoolet]

He is all better!!! YAY!!! I was right, phew, it was just a tummy ache.

When we got home tonight from running errands he started screaming from the bird room, and when I walked in he was on the top perch. When I opened the door he FLEW out onto my face! He proceeded to scramble all over me, being COMPLETELY squirrely, so I pulled his bowel of nibbles out and he hasn't stopped eating since. The poos were always normal and there was no more vomit in the cage. Tomorrow he will have a shower to deal with the dried food all over his head.

[Eric&Rebecca]

I'd probably still be inclined to get checked out when you're finances have recovered a bit. Just to be sure. You're probably right that he just has an upset stomach but always best to check.