by Pajarita » Tue Oct 30, 2018 10:15 am
Well, they did not do bile acids or ionized calcium so neither you nor they know if his calcium levels are OK or if his liver is working correctly and, with his age and the kind of diet he has been getting all along [eggs and human cereal - two HUGE nonos for parrots] they should have thought of liver disease because both things cause it - different diseases but both affecting the liver. Eggs are pure fat and bad cholesterol, something that parrots, which did not evolve to intake any bad cholesterol [they are herbivores and do not consume animal protein at all -the eggs are animal protein- which is the ONLY source of bad cholesterol in nature because plants don't have it] cannot eat and, when they do, they end up with hepatic lipidosis [fatty liver disease] and heart disease. Same with human cereal - it has huge levels of iron because it's meant for humans [cheerios have as much as 45% while birds can only eat 2%] and, because excess iron cannot be eliminated naturally, it's deposited in the liver for storage - too much of it and the bird ends up with hemochromatosis, a fatal and not curable condition in birds [in humans, they do blood transfusions but they cannot do it with birds]. I took in a sun conure with this condition because she had been fed cheerios for a long time [she is doing very well, has a special diet and supplements with she will need for the rest of her life].
Please ask them to run a bile acids and an ionized calcium so the 'picture' is complete for diagnosis.
As to his having chlamydiosis... well, unless he has recently being in contact or in the same room with no good ventilation and/or hygiene and with a bird sick with it, it's HIGHLY unlikely he has it because, if he does, he would have had it all along and, if that was the case, he would have shown symptoms long ago. So, the question that begs asking is: has he been with a new or strange bird recently? Aspergillosis is another story because aspergillus is everywhere and, again, because he has had a bad diet for a long time, it's entirely possible his immune system is compromised -which is the only way birds get aspergillosis unless he has been eating moldy seed for some time -which I seriously doubt. But, if to the bad diet we add a human light schedule instead of a strict solar one, then his immune system would be very severly compromised and his body a fertile ground for any type of pathogen.