Congo African Grey Ill... Help Required

[benb]

Hi I've just signed up to the forum on behalf of my girlfriend who owns a congo african grey parrot, Henry.
He's about 10 years old and has recently fallen very ill. We have had him at the local vets 3 times in 2 days and the vet doesnt seem to know what the problem is.
Basically, last night he collapsed off one of his perches and was very shaken up, he then went on to collapse twice more within an hour or so and really struggled to get back to his feet and when he did so he was very wobbly and seemed almost drunk.
We decided to call the vet out and the vet gave him two small injections...(not sure what they were) and told us to bring him in again this morning.
He did perk up a little but still seemed very unsteady on his feet and proceeded to collapse off the side of his cage a couple of times in the night.
Today he has had a small calcium injection and again he seemed to perk up after that but has since collapsed from the top of his cage to the floor which obvciously shook him up.
I'm just wondering if anyone knows what is causing Henry to be like this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[lzver]

Sorry to hear that Henry is ill.

Is your vet a certified avian vet. From what you have mentioned I have my doubts. You really need to get him to see a certified avian vet. With balance issues it could be any number of things. The vet should be doing blood work and doing various tests to help figure out what is wrong.

Where are you located? We might be able to help you find a certified avian vet in your area.

[benb]

Thanks very much for your reply, I live in the UK and have found a list of certified avian vets and was considering giving the closest one a call tomorrow if the vets visit tomorrow morning in inconclusive.
We are hesitant to do so though, as we are assuming that a specialist avian vet would be a very expensive option.
I will update tomorrow as appropriate.
Thanks again for the reply.

[lzver]

Good luck and let us know how he's doing.

It may be a bit on the expensive side, but an avian vet is the most qualified to diagnose what is wrong.

[benb]

Well he perked up alot last night and today he seems better still. We've had him at the vets again for another calcium shot.
He's still not quite 100% but he's an awful lot better than he was and he's even talking again now.
Thnings definitely seem to be looking up, we've just got to keep monitoring him and fingers crossed he wont deteriorate again.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I have heard Greys are prone to hypocalcemia -- is that what the vet suspects is going on? Apparently it is common to try administering calcium when a Grey has a siezure as a diagnostic. It seems to be common with seed-based diets. If you google " hypocalcemia parrot" there are a ton of articles online, from the lay level to the very technical.

I don't know how it goes in the UK, but here specialist vets aren't necessarily more expensive, just a bit harder to find and get to. It may in the end save money to get correct treatment up front.

If he has responded to the calcium, have you plans to change the diet to make sure he's getting enough calcium? Is he on a seed diet?