Sick bird

[Hookturn]

Our 5 mo old Jenday (JJ) is not acting normal. He is normally 107 grams and yesterday weighed in at 102. Today he is 95. So about 10% loss in two days. I also saw him shivering a bit. It's 68 degrees in our house so not cold at all. He also has his feathers really puffed up. I called the vet and can't get him in until tomorrow.

I really worried and figured I'd Post here just to see if anyone recognizes these symptoms. Do birds get transient viruses like humans(eg colds etc.). I've not dealt with a sick bird before so I'm just freaking out a bit. Any suggestion or advice would be awesome. Thanks!

[Hookturn]

Oh and if you think there's any tests or whatever that I should ask the vet to do, please let me know.

[Hookturn]

I'm thinking of giving him some baby bird formula to get some nutrition in him. What do you think?

[marie83]

No get him to the vet immediately, don't bother with supplement or force feeding yet as you would just be wasting time. Take a stool sample if you can (the fresher the better), exact details of food and weight/amount consumed and weight records if you have them and any details of any abnormal behaviours. Don't be fobbed off with its probably only an infection- a good vet shouldn't do that anyway, they might put the bird on a broad spectrum antibiotic if needed whilst they find out what the actual problem is though.

There's loads of tests that could be done, it would be hard just to give you a list and tell you to insist on them, we only really know that your birds sick and is losing weight which is the symptoms of loads of birdy illnesses. The important thing is get an emergency appointment and don't delay.

**EDIT** sorry just saw you already spoke to your vet, please find another if you can, your baby really does need seeing asap. He needs heat, I don't know the conversion for celcius to farenheit but it needs to be much warmer than that for a sick bird and yes you can try handfeeding if he is not eating. Don't "cuddle" him to keep him warm because our body temp is cooler than a birds so we are actually taking heat from them not warming them up

[Wolf]

You need to bring the heat for the bird up to about 80 degrees, you can do this with a heating pad wrapped in a towel and monitor the temperature with a thermometer. Make sure that you have water available for the bird to drink. The sooner that you can get this bird in to the vet the better. Birds hide illness until they can't hide it any longer and this means that he has been sick for longer than you realize and his life is in jeopardy.

[Pajarita]

No, no, sick birds needs 85 - 95 degree temperatures (put the heating pad on the bottom of the cage and cover all sides of the cage but one -for light- with a towel). And, yes, it sounds like he has an infection and no, birds don't get viruses like the human cold that they can fight off on their own so he needs to take prescription antibiotics.

[Wolf]

sorry about giving the wrong temperature.

[marie83]

Any news hookturn? Have my fingers crossed for you.

[Hookturn]

Thanks for the replies. Seeing the vet this afternoon.

[Hookturn]

Saw the vet. He took fecal and a mouth swab samples. I should have results by tommorow or the next at the latest. Vet gave me cephalexin to start him on in the meantime. Thanks again for the replies!