aspergillosis question from a newbie here!

[Bunchy]

My wife and I just took in a congo african grey from an older woman who could no longer care much for her self much less a parrot of this type. The house was not very clean and neither was the cage and the surroundings. We had a grey many years ago and has since passed years ago. We have been wanting to get another grey and when we heard about this situation we had to rescue this beautiful bird. She didnt have a name since her husband took care of the bird and he has passed. Our BUNCHY (His new name) was very thin so we took him to an avian vet. complete work up and found out he has the aspergillosi virus. white blood count was normal. the vet said having the virus does'nt mean certain death. He eats like a horse(now we are introducing him to a healthy diet and he's taking it well). By all accounts Bunchy seems very well. Any advice from anyone living with a bird with this condition??

[Wolf]

Aspergillosis is a fungal infection and not a virus at least according to my medical text. The presence of the fungus does not always mean that the bird has an aspergilliosis infection, but it does indicate that the bird has been exposed to the fungus probably in high amounts. It tends to be an opportunistic type of infection with malnutrition or a weakened immune system due to stress or other causes being the primary factors as to whether the bird develops this infection or not. Proper ventilation, adequate heat, proper diet and reduced stress levels are perhaps your main supportive therapies for controlling aspergiliosis if, indeed, your bird has this infection.
I am curious as to what test your vet used to make the determination of aspergiliosis as there are currently no hematological tests that can reliably detect aspergiliosis.
I have no experience with this disease and all the information that I have posted is directly from my medical text, Pajarita probably can give you much more information on this than I can.

[Bunchy]

Thank you for the info!! And yes, it is a fungal infection not a virus, my mistake. Off hand I don't recall the exact types of tests, I will get the info and pass it on. Bunchy is now getting all the proper care that he deserves and needs to hopefully live a long,happy healthy life. He has only been with us for a month and he's been doing so well. When he becomes more comfortable in his new home and with us, we want to take baby steps and start to train him so we can handle him a bit more. But that will take some time as we all know!! Thank You again for the support. I'm sure there will be more questions and soon I will figure out how to post some pics of Bunchy.

[Wolf]

If you go to post reply then scroll down you will see two tabs like on file folders the first is option which is showing click on the other which is upload attachment and go find your picture and open it, then add the file to the post. The thing is that you need to reduce the picture so that the longest side is 630 pixels or kb depending on your photo shop.
I am still pretty much a newcomer to living with parrots, only about three years, give or take a couple of months. After Kiki showed up on her own one cold spring morning starving and freezing and needing a home, things sort of snowballed for a short time and I took in two more birds locally and one from NJ which is about a 10 or 12 hour drive from my home, then I took in a pair of budgies for a friend who ended up giving them back to me as they would not take proper care of them, my last bird was a mate for the bird from up north in NJ. Filled up my space and time rather quickly, although I don't regret getting any of them, I should have gone much slower and known more about these different birds and their needs before I got so many of them as I now have seven bird and care very deeply about them, but can't take any more birds in as I am full up. among these birds, I have Kookooloo who is my CAG. She is a very special bird who came to me self mutilating and plucking too. She didn't like the people that she was with and the only interaction with them that she had was to bite them, so I agreed to take her in and she loved me right from the start. Of course it was a mutual thing as I fell for her instantly as well. While I love all of my birds and could not say that I loved any one of them more or less than another, Greys seem to hold a special place in my heart and mind that extends to other Greys more than the other birds do. It is kind of hard to explain. Any way I am looking forward to hearing more about your Grey and will be happy to share what ever I have learned with you.

[Bunchy]

Thank you so much. It's great to know there are people here that really care. Hope to share more here as time goes on!!

[Pajarita]

The vet must have done a choanal or cloacal swab and had it tested for aspergillosis based on clinical signs of the disease (the most common form is respiratory) plus blood work that does not show bacterial infection (if the bird looks and acts sick but the white blood cell count is normal or very slightly elevated, a fungal infection is suspected). The severity of the infection is determined by the elevation of titers (the higher the number, the worse the infection) BUT one needs to be careful with aspergillomas because they kind of screw up the diagnostic tools (did the vet take XRays?).

Now, healthy and happy birds do not get aspergillosis. Aspergillus is everywhere in nature; it's one of the most ubiquitous fungi there is... it's in the air, on our clothes, on the floor, the walls, everywhere. But a healthy immune system will prevent people and animals from getting the infection so only birds that have a depressed immune system do - and a depressed immune system means stress which can be physical (chronic liver or kidney problems, subclinical bacterial infections, depletion from overbreeding, bad diet, etc) or emotional (a bird that is not kept to a strict solar schedule, is alone and neglected, over trained -the famous Alex lived with the chronic form of it from the stress of training, etc.)

I don't know whether the vet gave you an antifungal or not, most vets would (the most common been itraconazole) along with some wide spectrum antibiotics (for secondary infections that might crop up so the immune system doesn't have to put 'any effort' into fighting them) but the most important thing is to keep the bird as stress-free as possible and, personally, I would give it some immune system boosters, too -because, what the heck, they can't hurt and they might help a bit, right? So, a good fresh food diet, a strict solar schedule, good quality full spectrum light, peace and quiet (grays are very high-strung birds and do not benefit from hullabaloo), lots and lots of out of cage time as well as one-on-one time, no training (I would NOT do any training whatsoever until the titers are down to zero), no outings, no strangers, no nothing that might upset or startled him in any way because the chronic form of the disease is quite deadly so your goal right now should be to eradicate it. Plenty of time for all the 'goodies' after he is healthy.

[Bunchy]

Again, thank you for this wealth of information!! We will "digest" all this info and set a plan. But until then we will take the advice and continue to love and take the best care of Bunchy. As I said in my earlier post, he is adjusting well and seems alot better than when we brought him home.

[Bunchy]

Just a little more info about Bunchy.....at the time i wasn't sure of the test my vet did so here it is....a avian culture,aspergillus titer,super chem/cbc serum,electrophoresis. was wondering if there should have been more test done still??

[Pajarita]

That's actually a VERY good and comprehensive array of tests he's done! You got yourself a winning vet there, my friend! Few vets would do so many and often just give the owners a 'clean bill of health' with little testing done. The only other test I would have done is a bile acids and I'll tell you why. Aspergillosis affects the liver (same as bad diet, metal poisoning, chlyamydiosis, etc would, too for the simple reason that the liver is one of the two filtering systems of the body -the other one been the kidneys) and, when you have a skinny bird that tests positive for it, an older bird that has been on a bad diet, one that has overgrown beak or nails, greasy plumage, etc you want to know how the liver is doing. Now, the avian biochemistry panel does have a couple of results (AST and ALT) that do indicate liver problems but neither are liver specific and the biggest problem with them is that the liver needs to be performing at only 25% of capacity BEFORE it shows abnormal levels - while the bile acids tests is not only liver specific but, as it measures liver function and not outright damage, it tells you right away if things are even beginning to get bad. The good news is that the liver is a wonderful organ that heals itself and, when we find out early enough that there is something wrong, we can actually reverse the damage through diet and supplements. Wolf has a budgie with advanced liver disease he has been treating with supplements and recently shared with us that his beak trimmings are becoming more and more seldom, a sure sign that his liver is working better.

[Bunchy]

Thank you for the information that really makes us feel better that we have a good vet he came highly recommended so again thank you and will keep you informed thanks again