by Pajarita » Mon Jun 22, 2020 8:36 am
Welcome to the forum and I am so sorry your bird is sick. Now, the 'click-click' sound you hear is coming from his lungs - it's kind of like a bird's way of coughing and it always means that his respiratory system is compromised. But it doesn't necessarily mean an infection, it could be accumulation of fluids around or in the lungs or in his abdominal cavity. I don't know what you have been feeding him all along but, if you have been free-feeding protein food, the problem is his liver. When you feed them too much protein, it accumulates in the form of fatty nodules in their liver (Hepatic lipidosis - aka fatty liver) and, as the function of the liver becomes impaired by all the fat in it, the liver, trying to make up for it, starts to grow (was an XRay done or a bile acids test?) and, when it grows a lot, the body starts accumulating fluids in the abdominal cavity which, in turn, put pressure on the lungs and air sacs - thus, the labored breathing (which the video clearly shows), the diarrhea, the constipation and the click-click sound you hear.
Please do not take this the wrong way, I am not trying to make you feel bad, I am just trying to help your bird and, in order for me to do that, I need to tell you some thing that you are not going to like. For one thing, he is NOT active. He is actually quite lethargic and looks to be VERY sick. Also, the cage is not good - not good at all. It's way too small (my canaries have cages bigger than that) and it's round - a complete no-no with birds. But this is not what caused his disease. it was his diet. You need to put that bird on a special detox regime and diet ASAP or he will die. You cannot free-feed protein food, he needs a very low protein gloop and fresh greens (dandelion greens are best) and you need to give him liver cleansers and tonics for the rest of his life and you need to start this immediately.
Get liquid, non-alcoholic milk thistle extract and put one dropperful (it's not really a whole dropperful, when you squeeze the little rubber thingie and let it go to fill it up with the meds, you will get half a dropperful and that's what you need to use) in half a cup of water (use a measuring cup) but make the half a cup 3 parts spring water and 1 part organic aloe vera juice from the inner filet (not gel and not from the entire leaf) and, to this, add two drops of lactulose (you will have to get this from a vet). Make a low protein gloop for breakfast and all day eating and add a sprinkle of each of the following: milk thistle, dandelion root and SamE (the milk thistle and the dandelion should be from vegetarian capsules but the SamE comes in tablets so you will have to crush a tiny piece at a time). Keep him warm and quiet... but, my dear, he looks very sick so, although they do sometimes come back from severe liver malfunction, it's not a sure thing. But do not lose hope! I kept a bird alive with terminal liver failure for 2.5 years after the vet told me he was going to die in a month or so and that there was nothing to be done so, go out and buy the meds immediately and start today with the treatment.
