PDD

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Is it possible your cage isn't as heavy-metal-free as you think? What's the material?

[ptuga72]

Is it possible your cage isn't as heavy-metal-free as you think? What's the material?

Or maybe the protective coating chipped in a spot?

You'd be really surprised what has zinc, aluminum, lead, even mercury. He may have gotten into something that you didn't know of, or thought was safe. I recently found out that many of the links I use to hang toys are not as safe as I had thought (contain zinc). I wish I could remember where I got them so I could warn you guys...

From the reading room section of our local rescue:

If you are unsure whether your cage is safe or not, you can test powder coated cages for zinc:

* Please use a STAINLESS STEEL blade to take sample from the cage
* Be sure to include UNDERCOATING ---Sample should be dime sized (about 20mm)
* Ship regular mail in a plastic bag (baggie) or plastic wrap to the address below:

Dr. Peter Jowett
LA VET MED DIAGNOSTIC LAB
1909 SKIP BERTMAN DR
ROOM #1519
BATON ROUGE, LA 70803
Phone 225-578-9777

Please include a check for $20 payable to: LAVMDL; also include your name, address, phone or fax. Turnaround time is 1 day and results will be faxed or mailed to you directly.

[birdvet]

Lets hope for heavy metal toxicity, and the others are right, its bizarre how many ways our birds can get hold of heavy metals. Places we wouldn't ever think posed a risk...we always laugh at work and say, if there is ANY lead in your house, your parrot will find it .

I forgot to say in my other post that the low albumin is because she's not absorbing nutrients very well. The calcium is coupled with that because calcium is bound to albumin in the blood so if albumin is low calcium is also low. This does not include the ionised calcium so likely her overall calcium levels are ok, just the bound up fraction is lower than normal. Ionised calcium is the important one to know what the levels are if you're worried about hypocalcaemia. So basically, don't worry about the calcium at this stage

Cheers

[kathis]

Just got another call from the vet. The Beak and Feather Disease test was negative.

Tomorrow we are going in to test for heavy metals as that test was not done last time after all. I asked the vet about doing a crop biopsy, but she says she wants to do the barium swallow first, so that is going to be done tomorrow as well.

OG seems to be doing okay today. She still cannot grip, but she is eating a bit better and seems to be happy.

[Mr.Darcy]

Thats great new!! Hopefully it will be something treatable!! fingers crossed!

[kathis]

We just returned from OGs visit with the vet. She has lost another 3 grams in just a week, down to 106 grams. She had her barium swallow, which showed some enlargement of her proventriculus. They also drew some blood to test for metals. We will get the results of that this weekend. If metals are negative, they will do a crop biopsy.

[Kim S]

I'll be keeping the little bugger in mind, poor thing.
I hope you find out what it is soon.

[GooseBlossom]

I guess the original bloodwork and observations ruled out B vitamin deficiencies?

[birdvet]

I'm hoping for heavy metals, well, obviously we'd prefer she wasn't sick at all but she is so I'd choose HM over PDD anyday! Thanks for the update .

[kathis]

We are actually hoping for heavy metals too, as at least it is treatable. The lab work didn't come in yet, so we have to wait until Monday to get the results of the heavy metals tests. Poor OG can barely perch at all. It is so sad to see her this way.