Growling sounds coming from my lovebird's stomach

[liz]

Sierra - how is your lovie?

[sierra]

Thank you all for suggestions and critics. I couldn’t reply by now because I was feeling sad and didn’t know what to add. Now let me tell you what I did in the mean time.
I called the vet who told me to call back after two weeks so she can ask other doctors about this problem. She told me she attended a congress in another country where she met an doctor who seemed to have experiencewith exotic birds and Agapornis. He told her that the symptoms (vomitting) indicate the PDD syndrom (Proventricular Dilatation Disease) and that he met a family that came from far away with their Agapornis that had the same symptoms. He did an RMN and tomography to the bird and the results showed the PDD. The parrot had to be euthanised. (I don’t know why they killed him. I also had a budgie vomitting and he lived with this 3 more years.)
The vet told her that most likely my parrot has PDD and he will die. There’s no treatment and the PDD is genetic.
The vet here also told me in this country no one can do RMN or tomography or other analyses because they don’t have kits and stuff. I asked her to contact a foreign lab or something to send them some samples, but... there was no clear answer.

I did my own research and found out that PDD is caused by the Avian Borna Virus, which affects lots of cage birds allover the world. The Texas doctors researching the virus and the disease didn’t find a cure yet, but they advise us all to not get a parrot without making sure the pet shop or the breeder presents us the results of the test for ABV. The virus can cause the disease even after 7 years or more, without showing any sign, while spreading to the other birds around.
Oh, and the researchers stated that this virus is not a genetical thing. It’s a virus, an infection.

I understood that vomitting and no other signs means PDD, according to the foreign vet, but I don’t believe it’s that simple. So I managed to find the UK center of Avian Biotech International (that is present also in the US) and they are specialized in DNA sexing and disease testing for birds. They do all kinds of tests, including ABV. They asked me to send a few fresh chest feathers in a regular envelope and the test has a reasonable price of 16 GBP. I will read their instructions in detail and then send the feathers. I hope the test will be negative. If I’ll receive this good news, I will probably send blood samples for the other disease tests. Maybe my parrot is ok and it’s just an indigestion or lack of female.

[Shelby]

Have you found out what is going on with your lovebird? Please tell us how he is!

[sierra]

Have you found out what is going on with your lovebird? Please tell us how he is!

Well, the result of the test for Avian Borna Virus came out negative. Right now he is on diet, eating only food for parrots. I still can hear those sounds from his abdomen and he's regurgitating frequently. Yesterday he was trying to vomit... I don't know what to say, but I plan to do 2-3 more tests for other diseases with similar symptoms, just to make sure.

[Shelby]

Aww the poor thing! I know how scary it is to have a sick pet and not know what is wrong or how to fix it. Once our dog's eyes turned completely white, like Storm from "X-Men". The vet didn't know why, but during the tests, we found out she had almost no platelets in her blood (platelets are what give you clots to keep you from bleeding to death if you get a cut). A few weeks after we started giving her medication for the low platelets, her eyes went back to normal. Even the vets were baffled about the eye problems though!

This might be a long shot, but is there any way to check for worms?