Need help!

[Victor]

My (TAG) just had two seizures today! Am still looking for a good pellet food so my birds are on the best seed I can give. I pick out the peanuts. And try to limit the sunflower seeds. They get a melon melody apple bananas. And anything else I think would be good. Am told they are 10 years old. Am telling you all this. So one if am over looking anything. You can let me know. And also if you can think of anything els that mite help me or the vet . When we go see him. Feel free to ask any questions you need to get any info I left out. Am so scared of all the birds. I have had/dealt with. I have never seen seizures in birds.

[Wolf]

Hi Victor;
I really should wait and let Pajarita answer you first as she is the more knowledgeable in these matters, but I am here to share what I can. I don't feed pellets to any of my birds,I use a quality seed mix instead and only provide them a limited amount of the seed mix for their evening meal and then remove the leftovers after they go to sleep. I feed gloop for breakfast along with added veggies and fruit for all day nibbling. The recipe for gloop can be found here:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13102
Also there is a good list of things that are good for or are toxic to your bird here:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521 This list covers plants woods, foods and household items and begins on page two of the topic.
I am hoping that the reason for seizures in your Grey is easily fixable.

[marie83]

Well I can't guarantee it's diet related but it sounds like your birds not getting enough of the right nutrients. Seeds aren't very nutritious although they can definitely form part of a birds diet. The fruit is the same really from the examples you give they are certainly not the most nutritious of the fruits available. I would guess your grey isn't getting enough calcium for starters.

You do need to see an avian vet as soon as you can, they can help you diagnose dietary deficiencies or any other issues that might be there.

Also I would start looking into improving your greys diet as soon as your back from the vets.

[Victor]

Think you Wolf . I will have a look at your list. I have not looked at one in years. Hopefully I'll find something. In them. Am hopping it's easy fix. The good news is the other birds are fine. Aside from the other grey is so quite. I was thinking of getting her looked at. But Shuggie just went to the front of the line. She may still go. But I'll see what his blood work terns up first. Speaking of we need to get to the vet. Before am late. I hope I don't have too sick birds. This my be a one hell of a bill. But that's ok. The pets have there own bank account. For this sort of thing

[Pajarita]

Without having any other info (blood work, Xrays, etc), I would say it's either a calcium deficiency from an inadequate diet. There are other causes, it could be metal poisoning, it could be kidney failure, etc. But, if she is ten and has only eaten seeds and a little fruit and has gotten no vitamin/mineral supplements, the first thing that comes to mind is hypocalcemia so ask the vet to do an ionized calcium test (the regular one is no good, calcium values in birds naturally fluctuate too much and the blood always tries to keep good levels so it will take the calcium from somewhere else) but, in the meantime, if you haven't been supplying her with avian calcium, get yourself some Calciboost and give her the recommended dosage 5 days in a row. In an emergency situation, get yourself to a vitamin store and buy the human liquid calcium supplement (it has vit D3 in it as well as magnesium and phosphorus which need to be in a good balance with calcium levels for all of them to be effective) and adjust the dosage for her weight (they calculate the dosages based on a 150 lb human and a gray weights about 1 lb) but double the dosage for five days.

[Victor]

Wow the birds are so smart! I have time for one more post as I what for my ride. He hade a fit about stepping up. As I haven't had him that long we are still working on it. But after the bite I got him on my hand and he was good. Now I know why he don't fly much. He is no good at it. Like he just fledged. Anyway when we got to the cat carrier he ran in like its fun go go places. So I set him by the cage. To say goodbye to each other. And the did the are waving at each other. But when I try to get video they stop. Camera shy. Or should I say phone shy Lol

[Victor]

Back from the vet. My local vet is no help. She has never seen this before. So am working on getting him a new vet.... 4 calls later. I mite of found one but he has to go to Eugene. So am working on setting up the road trip for tomorrow. It's like a three hour drive.

Edit Shuggie will be seeing the new vet tomorrow at 11:30am . The good news is I know of no more seizures. If he had one in the night it did not wake me. But has not had any in the time I have Ben up!

[Pajarita]

Let us know what happens.

[Victor]

Will do. I hope the other bird is doing better as well. But I fear they lost him 15+ in one day is a lot. Or they freaked out. ( like I did) and post on a lot of forums and forgot about this one. Am on this one and parrot forums. Sister site to this one? Maybe the elder to this one? Don't know it's just not put together as well as this one.

[Victor]

Back from the vet. Talked to her about wanting a better diet. She was happy to start me in the right path. We went over the foods he gets in detail. She likes my shopping list. And is happy with it. Added about 4 thing to it. And gave me Harrison's bird food hand book. To read before talking to them. Notting points in it. The one thing she is not happy about is the sunflower seeds. Saying they need to go in the trash with the peanuts. And any other nut. The other seeds can stay will I ween him on the new food. Potency formula. When he is healthy we will talk about sum seeds like the sunflower. For training. But for know she wants him on the diet as fast as I can get him to eat it. We also got X-rays and blood work.the ionized calcium test. The lab told her how much blood was needed. And it's more then she is willing to take at this time. But she is willing to fight for it. Even if it takes more blood. But is first going to try and get the test with the blood we already have. As she thinks there is a nuff for it and the test she ordered.

I forgot. She also told me to go ahead and start with the inside flying. Just not to rush it.