by Pajarita » Sun Sep 14, 2014 9:15 am
Liz, birds gasping for breath doesn't necessarily mean that there is an obstruction and putting anything down their throat will cause more damage than good. And, just because we haven't noticed anything prior the incident doesn't mean there wasn't. The truth is that it's impossible to judge respiratory function accurately in captive birds and we only notice when it's real bad because these are birds that have, at best, a semi-atrophied respiratory system to begin with and, as they are mostly sedentary, there is simply no way to judge if they are breathing right or not. What we notice is a tail bob but, by the time this happens, the bird has already been breathing badly for days. And gasping for breath can mean cancer, a cardio-vascular episode, a bacterial or fungal respiratory infection (including an aspergilloma, psittacosis, Pacheco, Newcastle, etc), aspiration and hepatic failure!
Personally, I've had birds my entire life and have been keeping parrots since 92 and I've never had a single one that had a foreign object in their throat (or anywhere else for that matter).
Charlene was very special to me. She was a loving baby and we had a tight bond. One day I found her gasping for air. I was having a dumb day and all I could think to do was hold her and tell her I love her. She was gone in 15 minutes.
