Sick Sun Conure - Squiggy

[fiveinpa]

I have a Sun conure that i got in feb of this year. Seemed to be healthy when i got her. after about a month she all of a sudden got very quiet and still and i took her to the vet. He seemed to think she had some respiratory thing going on. we had her tested for all kinds of stuff and everything came back neg. He put her on two or three rounds of antibiotic i don't remember. pretty quickly she was vocal again and eating and drinking. the problem is she has never been the same. she gets out of breathe when she flys, she is now scared of everything and just sits still in her cage most of the day. when i take her out she just sits. no interaction at all no matter how hard i try. she is very sweet not aggressive at all. Her beak has also lightened in color quite a bit. It was black. i think i am going to take her to a better avian vet. i think she was exposed to something and now has a heart problem, but i am just guessing. I am also working on her with Micheal's training now. She will step up but will not take a treat from me. i haven't found that magic treat she cant resist. she is on a pellet diet.
thanks for any suggestions.

[ickybird]

Has she been back to the vet? I think I would have her have a complete work up by the vet again.
If she is well, then I would say that it could be that she is weakened enough that it is very hard for her to get back her strength. We think that if we just get them over an illness and feed them right, they will be fine. That is true for something simple and short term. But if she was seriously ill, she will have had muscle deterioration, depression and all the same things we have after a long term serious illness.
For example. I was very ill with my first child. I ended up having to spend the last 5 months of my pregnancy in bed. Not just resting. IN BED! On my back, lifting only about 5 lbs tops. After she was born, I was expected to hop up and start doing house work and child care and go about my merry way. I could barely take care of our child and not me or the house at all. I had had five months were my body was being used up by this baby and what was left was turning to jelly from lack of use. It actually took me years to get back into some form of good health. I suffered tremendous depression and insecurity and anxiety fearing that I would not be able to do what needed to be done just to get along.
Had I and those around me at the time, been thinking, I would have been put on a training program by a PT to start to rebuild my muscles, stamina and agility.I had become somewhat phobic and I really needed help to get beyond those fears. I would have had people encourage me to take small steps toward recovery emotionally and physically. I would have had a support group.
That was 30 plus years ago. We have come a long way with understanding the issues surrounding illness and injury for humans. We need to apply that understanding for our animals.
You may need to do these things for your bird.

[Pajarita]

You need to take her back to the vet because birds don't have shortness of breath due to heart problems so there has to be something else (possibly a fungal infection which is not cured with antibiotics). And you can't train a sick bird. She needs warmth, quiet and medical treatment.

[fiveinpa]

She was just at the vet a week or two ago. they are coming up with nothing but possible allergies now and i don't believe that which is why i am going to take her to a better vet as soon as i can.
And yes you can have shortness of breathe with a heart condition - it is one of the symptoms in every species including humans when hearts fail in anyway it causes a fluid build up which makes it hard to breathe.
And her training is going well just very slow. she is becoming more confident and less scared by having more productive time together. Not looking to do tricks just trying to make her more happy and its working.