Sleepy and unhappy gcc after first vet visit

[gizemgokce]

Hello everyone! I am a green cheek conure -Mango- owner for about 6 months . We visited an avian vet -which we know that it was a good one-, Mango got her first basic avian exam (fecal, throat cultures, bloodwork, nail & beak trimming) and sexting test. Right after we came back from the vet, Mango was unhappy, a little bit fluffy and sleepy. Today is the day after our visit, Mango is still pretty sleepy (she is actually even a little bit nippy in her normal days). She is eating and drinking well though. But I am very worried , I called the doctor and he said it is not normal after a basic exam and I should monitor her overnight and take her back if things do not change. I rented a car to go there and now I returned it (definitely will rent again of I will have to though) Could it be any behavioral problem? The weather was hot, I opened air conditioner in the car (but not directly to her and she was in the carrier). Maybe she was scared to see any other people and kind of traumatized because of her first experience? Please let me know if you experienced it before or have any idea. Sorry for my long post, and thank you so much!

[Pajarita]

Hi, Giz and Mango, welcome to the forum. Hmmmm, to tell you the truth, if I had a bird that was fluffed up and lethargic after taking it to the vet, I would blame the vet for it and would never even consider taking it back to the same vet. Were you with the bird all the time or did they take it to the back on their own and later returned it to you? Because, personally, I do not allow anything done to any of my animals unless I am present -well, obviously not surgeries or any procedure that requires anesthesia -like dentals, for example. Another reason why I would not be too sure about this vet is that it performed and charged you for something that was completely unnecessary: a beak trim.
A healthy bird does not need beak trimming - AT ALL! Beaks only need to be trimmed when there is deformation that does not allow the upper and bottom to grind as it should OR when there is advanced liver malfunction. Otherwise, the beak is always (and I do mean ALWAYS) fine. And as long as the appetite, weight and poop are normal, fecals and choanal swabs are completely unnecessary.

Wait a couple of days, keep the bird extra warm and offer it soft food and, if it's still down, look for another vet.

[gizemgokce]

Hi Pajarita, thank you for replying! This was an avian certified vet and we chose it based on a recommendation from a bird specialist. I couldn't blame the vet at first but as you said, I cannot trust anymore, she came to that point right after our visit. Unfortunately, I was not with Mango because they do not permit owners into the building because of the covid-19 restrictions. I thought that maybe they handled her tightly or maybe she is traumatized because of the trimming. She still eats and drinks well, her poop is a little watery (but she sometimes has this kind of poop in normal), but still she wants to sleep much more than she does. And she generally screams when she wants to go out of her cage, but no screaming at all. I am keeping her warm, letting her to sleep on me and we cuddle, I try to make her feel safe, but this stress really sucks. I will keep monitoring her for a few days. I hope this is just caused by a little trauma and she will get it over soon.

[Pajarita]

You know, when it comes to avian vets, it's the same as it is with every other avenue in life: there are excellent, good, mediocre and bad ones. I've been using avian vets since 1994 when I had to travel to NYC to the Animal Medical Center which was the only place where there were some and, of all the avian vets I have dealt with, there were only two that had parrots and a third had a single cockatiel (a sure sign that she did not know enough about parrots!). The rest never had any and I suspect they only became avian vets so they could make more money. What other explanation could there be? Because, if they became avian vets from a love or even an affinity for birds, they would have some, right? Also, I am going to tell you a secret: there are no parrot experts. There are chicken experts but no parrot ones. Nobody knows enough about them because we have only started studying them in the last 20 years or so.

I don't know what they did to your little bird but, if you ask me, they did something they shouldn't have because although no bird likes to go to the doctor and they all suffer an enormous amount of stress from the visit, they all bounce back in a few hours. At least, all of mine have. They might be a bit mad at me for a day or so when they give me the cold shoulder but they are fine in all their behaviors: eating, drinking, pooping, flying, preening, etc.

Have you checked her body for bruises? You can do this by gently blowing on her feathers so you can see the skin under them - look under her wings too because that is one of the two places where they draw blood from -the other one is on the jugular which is on the right side of her neck. Maybe they used a needle too large which created a small hemorrhage as well soft tissue damage (needles are real bad for little birds... or maybe they took too much blood because you can only take 10% max and GCCs are so small that they might have taken too much... or maybe they hurt her throat when they did the choanal swab? Because she should have been OK by now and the fact that two whole days after the visit she is still not herself is worrisome...

[florasmith]

thank you so much for your words and tips, you really made my day