Eww! A worm?

[rebeccaturpeinen]

that looks scary!!! i sure hope you get some decent answers from your vet! they HAVE to take you serious now, that is clearly a worm!

ive never been to a vet where they dont allow me to be with my pet while they do their treatment... wonder if its just different here in europe? ive never even heard of this.

[kaylayuh]

I'd say that's definitely a worm and the vet should absolutely take you seriously now. I wasn't going to clean my cages today since I just did it Wednesday, but that picture made me want to vomit and I really feel like I should now. Definitely ask about treating the rest of the members of your flock.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

That's pretty freaky looking!

I'm not sure I'd be excited by a vet that pooh-poohed the possibility of worms without checking it out, that would kind of put me out.

As for the "in the back" scenario, both bird and cat vet have some things they tend to do in the back, with the cats it's drawing blood and urine except for one of our cats who is difficult and does better with one of us helping restrain him for blood draws. I think so many clients go all "ooh poor poopsie" that they think it's better to do anything that requires restraint out of sight. I don't usually fuss about it, because I trust my cat vet implicitly. The bird vet I'm just not sure about yet. And my horse vet doesn't have the luxury of doing anything "in the back". But I think horse people are expected to be more pragmatic than small animal owners -- when Smint had his colic surgery, they actually let me watch from an observation room.

[Vikki]

Looks almost like a hookworm. Definitely bring it to your vet and demand treatment, especially if this has happened multiple times.

[Vicki5280]

I forgot to add that in the pictures, the "fatter" part of the worm, the red part, hasn't been there on the rest of them. Given that he was eating red peppers earlier and the poop he passed at the same time was the same color, I'm inclined to believe that the wide part is poop that is adhered to the worm for some reason - but I can't be sure.

[kaylayuh]

Did you take him to the vet yet? I really want to know what that is.

After seeing those pictures, I filled my bathtub with vinegar, baking soda, dish liquid and hot water and took apart my cages to clean them super well, lol.

[TheNzJessie]

o would actually bag up the 'worm' and your bird...ok that sounds bad, dont bag up your bird but take it to the vet and show him/her the worm and your bird and see if there are any answers he/she could run form tests on the worm anf figure out what it is

[birdvet]

That looks like an ascarid. Those can be dangerous I'm afraid, they can cause intestinal obstruction and I've seen birds die from being infested with them. Do you have a bird vet nearby? Your bird will need to be treated with a dewormer called fenbendazole. This will kill the worms slowly and not in one shot as say moxidectin/ivermectin would. If you kill all the ascarids in one go they will definitely block the intestines and possibly cause a rupture resulting in coelomitis and death. The fenbendazole kills them slowly, is given once daily over 5 days and will hopefully prevent blockages.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I figure you'd want to know the truth. Good luck, let us know how you get on.

[Vicki5280]

We're back from the vet, finally!

I couldn't access the forum last night for some reason. Every time I tried to get to the site I received a message that the server wasn't responding. It was making me crazy because I SO needed to hear from you guys! I've not had an opportunity to log on today until now. It's been a flurry of cage cleaning, musical cages, transporting my little flock to the vet, getting back, medicating, re-cleaning, and settling everyone back in. But let me back up...

So all of this started Sat night, and the vet was closed on Sunday. I called early this morning to make an appointment with the "ONLY" vet I'm supposed to allow to breathe the same air as my birds (or so I've been told by "everyone"). He wasn't available, so I was forced to settle for "The Anti-christ Vet." As it turns out, this guy wasn't so bad after all, and I'll be seeing him for all my flock's needs in the future. Sue me "everyone", I make my own decisions.

I stumble into the office with two birds in cages, one harnessed on my shoulder, and a ziplock baggie labeled "WORMS??" The vet looks at me with a half-smile and asks me "what's going on?" I told him that "the big green one over there has worms."

He wrinkled his brow and asked me, "Have you seen them?"

I said, "Yep. A couple of times as he was pulling them out of his vent. I'm pretty sure they're roundworms. Here, I brought you some." and handed him the baggie.

He said, "Yep. Roundworms. We usually treat it with "jfielsietldkfjehtjd" (<--- a big name for a medication I don't recall.) "It's gentle on the birds and takes care of the worms." I said OK. (I just knew I didn't want Ivermectin... I didn't know what I DID want.)

He asked me the usual questions, ending with the statement that it's unusual to see them around here, that they pretty much only see them in birds coming from some of the big aviaries in Florida. I responded by telling him that Bucky was originally from FL, and so was JJ - and speaking of JJ, what about my other birds?

He said they weren't at risk unless they've been eating his poop. They've all been in JJ's cage, since it's the "playground" cage. And Posei, the youngest Lovebird, has a terrible wing clip and keeps falling (we started calling him the "bottom dweller"), to the point that I've padded JJ's cage with bubble wrap under the paper to keep him safe. Anyway, there's NO TELLING what he's picked up down there. Doc asked if I wanted to treat all of them? I said yes. He said OK.

He said weigh the birds and pulled out his scale. I told him how much they weighed, he weighed them and told me I was right. He was impressed. I was proud.

I asked him 45 minutes worth of questions to decide whether to keep him as my vet. He passed.

He gave me an RX for
Strongid Suspension. One dose now, repeat in 14 days.

Charged me $9 for the medicine. That's it. Told me he wouldn't charge me for an office visit because I came in and pretty much knew what was wrong with the bird, gave him the worms so he didn't have to test... He seemed knowledgable and, wow... way beyond fair. I think I'll keep seeing him.

Now, about the medicine. I brought it home and gave it to the birds, and this is where I'll need Birdvet's feedback. I know to expect dead worms, but the possibility of an obstruction secondary to the effects of the medication never occurred to me. What I've read about Pyrantel pamoate is that it is one of the medications that kills the worms quickly. I'm actually quite concerned that Bucky does have a heavy worm load, putting him at a far higher risk for obstruction than the younger birds.

What are the s/s of obstruction in parrots? What should I be looking for? How fast should I be expecting this medication to work? It's been mixed at 5mg/ml (if I read his handwriting right), with Bucky (106 gm) receiving 0.04 ml.

I WILL stay up and watch my bird all night if I need to.

Thanks for y'all's concern ... and help.

[birdvet]

Hopefully there won't be any problems. Your bird will just get the usual sick bird look (SBL) if obstructed and not pass any poos. If this does happen, there may not be much you or your vet will be able to do unfortunately. Abdominal surgery is usually the remedy however tricky in a bird this size...we'll just be hopeful that the worm burden wasn't large...fingers crossed!!

I find it strange that the worms are only found in Florida when they're found all over the rest of the world...hmmm. Anywho, in general it sounds like the vet was ok so that's a plus