Not again :(

[terri]

Sunday again she wasnt doing good [Somethings up with her liver]which the vet knows.Her droppings are yellow and her green feathers are turning yellow.[I read up on this ] I asked the vet monday if any of her medications were for treating her liver.Also I asked him if he thought she might have Macaws wasting disease.All he can tell me is what the medications shes on is all he can do maybe increase them.[Which we did].Im disgusted by his lack of knowledge on parrot diseases[why say your a bird vet?] I have on more vet to try .I have a call in with every thing about Harlow and what shes on .To see if the can do anything different.I told them shes to weak to travel[Im not going to do that to her] if theres nothing different they can do.[waiting to hear]Today shes perked right up almost bugging me What I wouldnt do for her!! Thank you for asking

[marie83]

Aww well fingers crossed this new vet can help or at least give you some other ideas.
For my liking things aren't moving quick enough with this new vet, although that is mostly my fault for not doing what I should have done myself. I asked my boyfriend to post the questionaire back to the vet ages ago and found it whilst looking for something else... needless to say it caused a massive row. He has gone to bed sulking and I have stayed up fuming lol. I like the new vet alot though, he is much more interested in helping Ollie and not just sticking him on antibiotics without knowing what it is for (I'm sure he would if he felt like it was a needed precaution though). He is confident handling him so Ollie co-operates with him more than the other vet instead of trying to bite him to pieces. He is also very open to my ideas and suggestions. Whilst he isn't the best bird vet in the country I would rather see him as he is close enough to hopefully deal with an emergancy situation where as the more experienced bird vets are too far away. Whilst I don't like not having the most experienced person for my vet I'm hoping the middle ground is best.

Our first bird vet was hopeless though, he did rock bottom basic tests and promptly dismissed Ollie as having behaviour issues not an illness, he basicly told us to stop making a fuss of him and do more training with him. That was not the only reason I didn't like him, he seemed scared or nervous of Ollie but also told me to administer the antibiotics by making him bite the end of the syringe and just squirting it in really quickly!! Luckily I knew of better ways to do it and didn't risk choking my parrot.


Sorry I'm rambling on. Anyway my message was going to say will your vet be open to the idea of taking instructions from another more experienced vet but performing any necessary tests if needed?

[terri]

Hows Ollie doing today?

[marie83]

He has perked up loads today, yesterday he spent a hell of alot of time in his hut again though, this morning he was raring to come out.
He is trying to drag his bath tub (cat litter tray, only ever been used for bathing) out from under the cages at the moment so you really wouldn't think there was anything wrong. I'm tempted to let him have one but Ollie doesn't do light mists he is usually only happy if he is soaked through. I may let him have one then wrap him in a towel to get the worst off, it is a warm day and he usually dries pretty quickly.

He has started losing weight again- 2 grams in 2 days so I'm waiting to see what happens with that tomorrow. I normally only weigh twice a week so im not sure if a 2g fluctuation is normal for him but for a bird so small it is a big difference.

Is there any more improvements with Harlow? Have you heard from the vet yet?

[terri]

Harlows the same.The new potential vet needed the bloodwork info.So I was able to get it and fax it there[waiting to hear].Im pleased though that I didnt have to do a second draw on Harlow and drive all that way for that.

[cml]

He has perked up loads today, yesterday he spent a hell of alot of time in his hut again though, this morning he was raring to come out.
He is trying to drag his bath tub (cat litter tray, only ever been used for bathing) out from under the cages at the moment so you really wouldn't think there was anything wrong. I'm tempted to let him have one but Ollie doesn't do light mists he is usually only happy if he is soaked through. I may let him have one then wrap him in a towel to get the worst off, it is a warm day and he usually dries pretty quickly.

He has started losing weight again- 2 grams in 2 days so I'm waiting to see what happens with that tomorrow. I normally only weigh twice a week so im not sure if a 2g fluctuation is normal for him but for a bird so small it is a big difference.

Is there any more improvements with Harlow? Have you heard from the vet yet?

Great to hear he seems to be doing better !
I would let him bathe, mine always seem to feel better afterwards, they really love showering.

About the weight, how much does ollie weigh (im guessing about 70grams?)? A 10% fluctuation is a lot, but even humans go up and down about 3% on a daily basis.
I wouldnt worry unless he KEEPS losing weight, it might be worth starting to weigh him daily to see if its a normal fluctuation or if he is indeed losing weight!

Reminds me I should weigh my birds more often...I do it about every two weeks now, used to do it once or twice every week.

[marie83]

Well when he first got sick back last October/november time he was about 73g and dropped down to 69g but he looked good at that weight (73g).
Since then he put weight on again and seemed to settle at 75g for a while but has slowly increased up to 79g the past few weeks although he looks skinnier than ever and feels it too.

He weighed at 79g on Tuesday morning and is 77g today. I weigh after he has done his big morning poop but before feeding so its not an issue with him having just eaten plus I always use the same scales so its not a difference between sets.
I'm wondering if my scales are playing up because he has never looked 79g at all and he certainly isn't the biggest GCC I have seen, I think I will try new batteries and/or borrow my mums scales for a while.

[marie83]

Well my little ol-bol (dont ask) is 78g today with new batteries in my scales. My mum wont allow me to borrow her scales so I'll need to get another set to see if mine are broken, as I said before he feels really underweight.

Ollie was in ''bed'' most of this morning, there is an increase to his bald spots but nothing too dramatic thankfully. He came out this afternoon, had a good bath and has spent most of this evening playing on the tree we made for them. He usually plays on it a bit but tonight he has been particuarly interested in it which is good that he wants to play.

Harlie seems pretty much the same as she has since all this started. No changes at all, no more bubbles in her poop or anything. Shes still screaming alot when preening under her wings but theres no bald patches.

[marie83]

Really I have had enough now. I'm considering changing vets again as I'm getting less and less happy with the one we currently have. Maybe I'm being unreasonable because I'm desperate to find out whats wrong with my babies.

A week last tuesday when I looking through some paperwork whilst waiting for the vets appointment I found the form/questionaire my boyfriend was supposed to have posted back to him ages ago. So I took it to the vet at that appointment, he seemed understanding as to why it had taken so long for him to get it and told me he would look over it in the next couple of days and get back to me. I gave him double that and still hadn't heard back so I started ringing, the receptionists keep putting notes on his files to call him back and still nothing.

Today Ollie is much the same as ever. Harlie has been pretty much the same as she has been since the start of this thread but she's more or less stopped eating the past two days. Thursday I thought I had weighed her food wrong as she had only taken a couple of grams. Yesterday evening it became apparent she had only eaten about 2g again of her pellets for her entire meals. She has of course left all her f&v and sprouted seed but then she always does so thats no different.
I've given her seeds today with the rest of her meal to try to tempt her into eating something. She has only eaten 2g again this morning. I've left her food in with her today rather than feeding meals so she can go and get a bit if she wishes.
I'm trying to get hold of the vet but no luck so far... Whats the chances of me being able to get an appointment with a vet she isn't registered with on a weekend?

[liz]

Look for an emergency clinic that has an avian vet. Or look for an emergency clinic that will find you an avian vet.

Do you have a parrot group where you are? How close are you to another member who can share their avian vet?

I personally would travel hundreds of miles to get what I need for my birds. I was lucky that I did not have to search. My son, Chuck, takes his snakes to a vet about 25 miles away. While there he asked for an avian trained vet because my little Charleen started loosing feathers. She had jeardia which I know I must have spelled wrong. The vet knew on sight but tested her anyway. I am so glad she was a people bird. I had to give her medacine for a long time.