BIRD SEVERELY ILL - Last Hope

[ruo42]

Hmm... I suppose she's not really cold then, and her shaking probably has more to do with balance.

Every symptom she is known to have is very atypical and is stumping everyone, including the vets.
What makes me the most upset to see is how hard she struggles just to move from one end of her perch to the other because of her balance. Has anyone had a problem with their birds perching properly affected by their balance?

how is her blood sugar? I have a feeling that cataract holds the key maybe.

The other possibility is something is up with her kidneys, maybe.

Her blood sugar levels are normal, and vet ruled out kidney failure.

Good news is that over the past two days since the last vet she's been eating very well, she just guzzled down two portions of this soft food mixture prescribed by vet.

I do hope your bird recovers from all this soon. Please keep us posted.

And sorry, for snapping on you last night. I was very tired and very upset, shouldn't have reacted the way I did. Again, sorry.

[ruo42]

Looks like it may be the end for my bird soon.. I still hope this is not the case but more evidence is pointing towards it than not...

After doing some more reading on PDD, (her known symptoms are bolded)



A bird carrying PDD may or may not show outward signs before the disease becomes critical. Dr. Hannis Stoddard cites reports of incubation lasting as long as eight years before clinical signs are exhibited, but some cases of acute outbreaks suggest that a shorter incubation period may be at play.

There are several common signs of PDD in a bird. Your veterinarian will be looking for signs of weight loss despite normal or excessive appetite, the passage of undigested food, vomiting, feather loss, abdominal distention, and impaction of the crop. The doctor will also look for neurological signs such as erratic and unusual head movements, spasms and seizures, lack of balance/excessive falling, and unusual apathy or sleepiness.

Note that clinical signs like these may also indicate other diseases or conditions than PDD, and that some infected birds show no outward signs whatsoever.

The most common clinical signs of PDD include depression, weight loss (with or without decreased appetite), constant or intermittent regurgitation, and/or passage of undigested food in the feces indicating a malabsorptive or maldigestive disorder.- Dr Branson W. Ritchie, 2000 AAV presentation

Proventricular impaction, muscle atrophy, abdominal enlargement, lethargy, weakness, polyuria, diarrhea, scant feces or hypotension have also been reported in some birds. When the central nervous system is involved, signs may include ataxia (bird may fall from the perch), abnormal head movements or seizures. Some affected birds may develop central nervous system signs in the absence of gastrointestinal abnormalities.

[pfinarffle]

What an awful situation to be in. I can't imagine.

Our adopted Sennie came to us with occasional falls from perches. I noticed that his play gym had wooden rungs chewed off, and here he was just sitting around his cage all day doing nothing. That's when we took him to the vet. It took a couple vet visits, but they actually found the cause to be a fungal GI tract infection. His balance was off because the infection was apparently messing with his liver function. With a few weeks of the right antibiotic, he was good as new. Now I don't know if your vet tested your bird's poop for fungus or bacteria, but it's imperative that that's done because not all antibiotics kill fungus.

I know the toxin bloodwork was negative, but were there any xrays done to make sure your guy didn't swallow something toxic?

I am in the medical field, so I'm curious what your bird's entire work-up was. Without seeing the full list, it's hard for me to speculate on everything that's possible. And in the end, it may well be PDD despite the negative test. I hope it's not, though.

[ruo42]

^ My bird is on antibiotics and I'm hoping that the infection is the case, as for the blood work, blood work came back mostly normal although CK (creatine kinase) is up 73 points above standard, and uric acid up ~100 points above standard. Heterophils are up (1.5 units, I'm guessing, i can't really decipher what the up arrow beside 1.5 means)

Cliff notes:
- Bird has exceeded vets expectations on life span, and hasn't seemed to have gotten any worse since my last post. Vet was very surprised to hear that he was still alive.
- Has been eating better, and stool is less runny and seemingly more normal
- Still wildly off balance
- All blood tests are normal except for what was outlined in OP
- My vets and breeder are in a heated argument for some reason

Here's my birdy and cat



edit: *in before* "that's so dangerous!!! niahniahniahniah!!!" It's pretty amazing how well my bird and cat get along actually, there have been times when bird was healthier and would get out of the cage, and when I would get home he'd be on my living room floor with my cat right beside him almost like a body guard :p

[Rokisha]

Thats sweet and all that those two get along so well but beings as how your bird looks pretty ill I would recommend keeping them apart. Not only for your birds safety but for your cats. I'm not trying to nag or anything but you could very well get your cat sick if your bird is as well.

[pfinarffle]

Glad to hear your guy is hanging on!

With ongoing antibiotic treatment, you should supplement with a probiotic such as:

http://www.avitec.com/AviBios-Lactobacillus-and-Probiotics-p/avb.htm

or

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=5059+5992+6015&pcatid=6015

Will no doubt further help normalize his stool.

[ruo42]

Thats sweet and all that those two get along so well but beings as how your bird looks pretty ill I would recommend keeping them apart. Not only for your birds safety but for your cats. I'm not trying to nag or anything but you could very well get your cat sick if your bird is as well.

Haha ya, I don't let them do it anymore, really. The photo was taken when he just started getting sick.

Glad to hear your guy is hanging on!

With ongoing antibiotic treatment, you should supplement with a probiotic such as:

http://www.avitec.com/AviBios-Lactobacillus-and-Probiotics-p/avb.htm

or

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=5059+5992+6015&pcatid=6015

Will no doubt further help normalize his stool.

Will do some reading on this, thanks

[Shelby]

Here's my birdy and cat

edit: *in before* "that's so dangerous!!! niahniahniahniah!!!" It's pretty amazing how well my bird and cat get along actually, there have been times when bird was healthier and would get out of the cage, and when I would get home he'd be on my living room floor with my cat right beside him almost like a body guard :p

All mammals have a bacteria in their body and saliva that birds don't have. If it comes in contact with your bird, it is poisonous and deadly.

I keep getting this nagging feeling in the back of my head about white blood cell count... Did your vet check that during the blood tests?

A few years ago, our dog got sick suddenly. She had little appetite, was clumsy while walking about, and kind of seemed cold. She did shake a little once in a while too. The scariest part was, her eyes turned white (like Storm from X-Men)!!! The vet thought her eyes were white because of cataracts (not sure how they could have formed within about a week, though...) or an infection. It turned out that most of her white blood cells had died and they weren't being replaced. They gave us a few medications and antibiotics and in a few weeks she got better. I don't know if low white blood cell counts show up that way in birds, but for some reason I have a feeling you should look into it.

Best of luck, and keep us updated!

[ruo42]

All mammals have a bacteria in their body and saliva that birds don't have. If it comes in contact with your bird, it is poisonous and deadly.

I keep getting this nagging feeling in the back of my head about white blood cell count... Did your vet check that during the blood tests?

Would this not include human contact as well? What's the story behind this then? Is it dangerous to just touch our birds or are we an exception?

And with the blood test, everything was normal (regarding blood cell counts) except for heterophils which were elevated 1.5 points.

Today was the worst I've seen my bird, I woke up and saw him sitting on the bottom of the cage, probably a terrible sign.

If he doesn't start to improve soon, do we think it's ethical to euthanize him? I'm starting to feel that letting him go at peace may be the best thing, as it's painful to watch him constantly off balance and shaking, and then when I hold him beside me all he wants to do is lie down If he started to show signs of improvement I would obviously not do this, but as far as I see there's no notable improvement..

[Rokisha]

Thats terrible that you have to go through this. I really hope things get better for you and your friend and I hope you won't have to put her to sleep.