Mandy, sounds like the regurgitation you're talking about has to do with your bird forming a bond with you (and the toy) and treating you like a mate. Regurgitation associated with PDD tends to occur after eating and not when the bird is feeling "sexy" (for want of a better word
). I don't think you have anything to worry about.
entrancedbymyGCC wrote:Birdvet, that was a pretty understandable article! One question I didn't find the answer to, and might have missed in the technical language, is what is the proposed mechanism by which the virus alters the proventriculus causing the enlargement? Are there therapies that might be able to interfere with that process? Also, the article brings up the question, do asymptomatic carriers exist? Is this article the most current on that subject?
I enjoyed that article to, we're all still learning about this damn disease and sometimes it gets overwhelming reading scientific article after article. The nerve damage (neuropathy) caused by the virus causes the proventricular dilation. Basically the nerves that control contraction and relaxation (peristalsis) etc. stop working so the muscle wall becomes flaccid and food builds up - hence the regurgitation. It has no where to go so heads out. This is also why there is undigested food in the droppings, because the entire gastrointestinal tract nerve supply is compromised. As for asymptomatic carriers, I'm sure there ar and now that we know what virus causes the disease work is being done to make testing easier, including testing for possible carriers.
As for possible therapies...there aren't really any drugs that prevent this unfortunately. Certain non-steroidal antiinflammatories have been used with reasonablr success to "treat" this disease. Hopefully someone will develop a vaccine...here's hoping!!!
There may be more recent articles out but this one is from the last few months so pretty recent. There is another one out that talks more about how to diagnose the disease but that's a more experimental article and not relevant clinically just yet...soon
We are REALLY lucky in NZ because we don't have this disease here...yet!!
Hope that helps