Please help!

[Hookturn]

As many of you know I had another thread about my sick Jenday conure JJ. He's 5 months old and was recently diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection. The vet prescribed cephalexin. He had lost about 10% of his body weight initially. After the antibiotics, he stopped losing weight and even gained a couple grams.

Today I weighed him and he's down to 80
Grams from a healthy 117. This is a 10 gram weightless from just this morning when I weighed him. I tried to get a hold of my avian vet but he is out until Monday. I am concerned that he won't make it until Monday. I called every vet in town and none of the others know anything about birds.

I am soooooo worried because again with this weight loss I don't think he'll make it through the weekend when the vet gets back. His office is tryin to get in touch with him but no luck so far. I live in a small town and am at least 3 hours from any major city.

Is there anything I can do to keep him alive until Monday? Should I give him some baby formula? Thanks for any advice.

[Hookturn]

Ok so I know vet that will prescribe anything I want for him. But she has no bird experience. My wife works for our local humane society and it's the vet that works with her.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should try?

[Wolf]

Why not try the enrofloxacin as suggested by Pajarita as it is a wide spectrum antibiotic as it appears that the one that you were prescribed is only for gram negative bacteria? The only reason that it would not have helped would be if the bacteria were gram positive.
I would also keep him warm as was previously mentioned, perhaps giving him some cooked rice for energy.

[Hookturn]

I tried to get the scrip but couldn't. Just hope JJ can hang on til Monday.

[Wolf]

I tried to get the scrip but couldn't. Just hope JJ can hang on til Monday.

Unless you can find an avian vet to see him right away, I hope so too. Perhaps you can call the vets in your area and see if they might know of another avian vet that will help you . Same for any pet stores, Do you know any bird people in your area that have another vet?

[liz]

My drug store will even fill prescriptions from Vets. They can be faxed in also.

[Wolf]

How is JJ this morning?

[Pajarita]

Keep him super warm, feed him soft bread and white rice mixed with grated hard boiled egg (not formula, they are not mammals) and give him some type of electrolyte liquid or water with a pinch of sugar and a smaller pinch of salt. If you cannot get anybody to get you the liquid Baytril (enrofloxacin), the dog vet should be able to get you Clavamox without a problem (it's used for dogs and cats all the time) which is also a wide spectrum that treats a range of both gram negative and positive. Start him off with a double dosage (use the dosage for dogs using the weight indicated as a starting point and calculate for the bird's weight) and then switch to the normal dosage twice a day (I usually do it at 7 am and then again at 7 pm).

[Hookturn]

Thanks so much everyone for your concern and advice. Based on your advice we got him through the weekend. He's now been admitted to the avian vets. They are doing blood work and finally gave him the baytril that Pajarita recommended from the start. I'm still very scared for him and unfortunately I'm out of town at the moment. He did gain back a little weight this weekend which is a decent sign.

I hope to get the blood work results tomorrow morning and then go from there. Sorry it took me so long to update but I was taking care of JJ and just hoping he'd make it until today. Still not out of the woods but things are hopefully looking up.

[Pajarita]

Ah, thank goodness! Thank you for the update. I never go on the net in the evening but I did today because I was worried about him and had not seen anything this morning. He should be OK now... The good thing about Baytril is that it's not only a good, solid avian wide spectrum (it will even treat psittacosis although it should be switched over to doxy once it's diagnosed because it's better for the long term treatment this disease requires), it's also tolerated very well by birds.

Now, personally, I don't allow any vet to give my birds injections unless it's absolutely necessary (life or death kind of situation) so, if your vet suggests it as a form of ongoing treatment (they like to do the once a week shot), please do some in-depth research about it before you agree to it.