Blue and Gold Macaw Beak Problems

[NKJIncognito]

Hi All,

I am new to this forum, and would like to extend greetings to all members.

I have an issue with my Blue and Gold Macaw, that I am hoping someone may be able to shed some light on. About a year now, we noticed his beak starting to erode, with the "decay" not proceeding further than the midpoint of a usual healthy beak. We promptly carried him by an Avian Veterinarian, who was not able to precisely diagnose what was causing this, but prescribed a general purpose antibiotic (Enrofloxacin) to be administered for 1 week.

After the first round of treatment, his beak gradually healed and returned to normal looking (after 3 months) only for it to start eroding again. We carried him back to the vet, who took a swab of the beak (for culturing purposes) and prescribed another rounds of the antibiotic. The culture did not identify any pathogens, and his beak healed once more. However, it has started again to degenerate. I cannot find any similar account of this occurrence anywhere.

Please see pictures attached.

Some general points to note:

(i) Other than his beak, he is an overall quite healthy fellow
(ii) There has not been any change to his behaviour (loud and misbehaving as always), appetite, appearance, stool consistency and appearance.
(iii) He is housed in a large aviary, with his wings never clipped. He has a variety of perches, some smooth, some rough.
(iv) He is fed a diet of seeds, pellets, fruits and vegetables (apples, grapes, banana, strawberry, boiled brown rice)
(v) He is given vitamins on a daily basis (Prime Concentrated Vitamin, Mineral and Amino Acid Supplement)
(vi) We live in the tropics
(vii) He is "visited" daily by wild birds (Columbina talpacoti)
(viii) He receives daily attention and care.
(ix) He is turning 15 years old on 8th April 2016

I would appreciate any advice and comments, before I carry him back for a probable third round of antibiotic treatment. Please let me know if any additional information is required.

Thank you,

Nigel

[NKJIncognito]

Additional Pics

[Wolf]

I have never seen anything like this, nor have I heard of this type of thing. I will start looking into it and see if I can find anything that might be of use to you, but I am not a vet and can't promise anything.

This may be a new or mutated bacteria given that it has been responding to am antibiotic and there has not been any specific pathogen identified. Still it sounds as if the first time that the vet found something even if not specific and that could be a starting point. So if you don't mind what did he find in that first set of cultures?

[NKJIncognito]

Hi Wolf,

Thank you very much for your quick response and interest! I was told that they did not find anything in the cultures. I'll call them tomorrow and ask if they found any general bacteria at all, that was ignored. The first time, they swabbed the beak, and in the 2nd occurrence, they cut off piece of the beak and analyzed it.

Its befuddling that after the antibiotic treatment, it heals fully, and then almost instantly starts to degrade again. Its not affecting his ability to eat, and the normal portion of the beak is firm.

I really hope this can be treated - I'll do whatever I have to do. He is my mother's first grandchild. My one (and major) comfort is that it does not appear to be systemic - he is as lively as he has always been.

Nigel

[JessiMuse]

Calcium deficiency, possibly? I heard that can cause beak problems, but I've never seen it happen myself. You say he's getting his vitamins, but there's one vitamin, can't remember what it's called (vitamin D, maybe?), that hinders the absorbing of calcium. Someone might have to confirm this for me though.

[Wolf]

Vitamin D increases the absorption of calcium as does phosphorous and magnesium.

There is not very much to go on in my medical texts in reference to beaks but I did find this which might prove helpful. It is not much and I am continuing to look for possible answers.

Cryptococcus neoformans var. neoformans has a
worldwide distribution, grows poorly at temperatures
over 40° C and hence rarely causes problems in birds. It is
commonly found in pigeon droppings. C. neoformans
var. gattii is restricted to river red gums (Eucalyptus
camaldulensis) and forest red gums (E. tereticornis) and
grows poorly above 37° C and is most commonly identified
in avian infections.63 Treatments such as fluconazole
orally at 8 mg/kg/day for at least two months, ketoconazole
at 2 mg/kg BID per os gradually increased to 25
mg/kg bid per os and surgery to debulk the proliferative
masses have all been suggested.63-65 However, recurrence
of lesions weeks to months after treatment is common,
with early detection and aggressive therapy most likely to
yield favorable results. Cryptococcosis is a potential
zoonotic infection so public health issues need to be considered
before treatment is instituted.

There are also references to beak issues other than overgrowth in conjunction with liver malfunction. Although I am not expecting this to produce any useful information in regards to your birds issue, I will still follow up on it to see if there is anything useful.

[NKJIncognito]

Hi Wolf,

Thank you for this detailed research that you undertook! I also received a suggestion today that it may be due to Fatty Liver Disease, Starting from tomorrow, I am going to gradually change his diet, and schedule an appointment with my vet to do a full blood works analysis. I'll keep you posted when I get the results.

Nigel

[Wolf]

As far as I know fatty liver disease may result in an overgrown beak and nails but nothing like what I see in these pictures. I have a budgie with fatty liver disease which I am treating wit 100% alcohol free milk thistle extract.

Jessemuse mentioned a calcium deficiency as a possibility and while that might be , I would have the vet to check to see if he might have a vitamin A deficiency, which would be more likely and if the bird is deficient in vitamin A then it would affect the calcium absorption and could cause the bird to have a deficit of calcium even if the bird is getting enough calcium.

Still researching for answers.

[Pajarita]

I doesn't look like fatty liver to me (it would grow longer, not erode). And it looks more like a fungal infection than a bacterial one but, if it was bacterial, one week worth of antibiotics is way too short a treatment. In my personal experience, birds require longer antibiotic treatments than other animals so I always do three weeks worth. As to the sample they took and found no infection, did they do a fungal culture? Because it needs to be done separately from the bacterial test and it takes longer (minimum 5 days).

[NKJIncognito]

Hi Pajarita,

No fungal test previously, but I will request one this time.