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Senegal not eating and sneezing a lot

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Senegal not eating and sneezing a lot

Postby Valo » Sat Apr 01, 2017 9:20 am

Hi,

As above, I have an 18 year old Senegal whos suddenly began sneezing an awful lot and has also gone off eating much of her food.

The sneezing seems to be after or during her cleaning her feathers... I've noticed a lot of dander coming off her lately and I think thats whats causing her to sneeze more than anything else. Ive had a close look at her and I cant see much else wrong with her, I shielded her eyes and had a good look into her nostrils and beak with a small torch and everything looks good. No mucus or anything. I dont believe shes sick.

As for the dander, is there anything I can do to help her? Shes showered daily, I just give her a good misty low pressure spray from a bottle each morning as I have for the last 18 years.

Food wise, shes completely gone off eating. This isnt new, she does go in phases of eating everything to eating little. Each morning I give her freshly chopped carrots, apples, grapes and bananas. Usually she would dice up every single carrot and apple in the bowl, now im finding it relatively untouched the next day. Seed wise, she'll eat a bit.. but she used to pull it all out of feeder onto the floor and have root through it all eating her favorites from the mix. Not so much now.

I think my family may have her spoiled with treats now, and this may be the cause of her not eating her own food. She'll go crazy any time I come down and make breakfast looking for food, now and again id give her a corner off my toast or perhaps flake from my breakfast cereal and she'll devour it. Like wise with dinner, occasionally id give her some spaghetti or single baked bean as a treat and she'll devour it and then cry for more. I think shes gotten a taste for it more than her own food and i suspect my family are easily giving into feeding her more treats than they should. Equally she will take broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes etc.. too off our plates, but not if I put it in her cage in the morning.

Any advice or insight would be great guys.
Valo
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 5
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Types of Birds Owned: Senegal
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Re: Senegal not eating and sneezing a lot

Postby Bird woman » Sat Apr 01, 2017 10:25 am

Welcome valoe and bird , depending where you are it's probably hormonal season for birds and that can be one of the problems to start with depending what kind of a light schedule your bird is keeping and if artificial , or natural light is provided. I would sure bump up the fresh or frozen veggies and beans if your bird loves them. I personally think a bath everyday is to excessive , you don't want to strip feathers of natural oils and I hope your using cool water. Your bird is getting older and could be getting a cold , are you making sure the bird is dry completely before going to bed? Do you remove the food at night ? Lots of questions , tell us about light and food schedule, all the info you can give even if it seems insignificant can help everyone trouble shoot for you. :D pajirta will be on in a bit with better info as she has more experience with this type of bird. Honestly with my birds when in doubt we're off for a checkup. Doesn't hurt for birdie to have an annual just to make sure. :thumbsup: tell everyone to back off the goodies until you make sure daily intake is healthy foods first. Give more info please. BW. OH ONE MORE THING , ITS A PARROTS GREAT PLEASURE TO EAT WITH THE FLOCK . And I'm assuming that's you and your family! Set an extra plate :lol:
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Re: Senegal not eating and sneezing a lot

Postby Valo » Sat Apr 01, 2017 8:45 pm

Bird woman wrote:Welcome valoe and bird , depending where you are it's probably hormonal season for birds and that can be one of the problems to start with depending what kind of a light schedule your bird is keeping and if artificial , or natural light is provided. I would sure bump up the fresh or frozen veggies and beans if your bird loves them. I personally think a bath everyday is to excessive , you don't want to strip feathers of natural oils and I hope your using cool water. Your bird is getting older and could be getting a cold , are you making sure the bird is dry completely before going to bed? Do you remove the food at night ? Lots of questions , tell us about light and food schedule, all the info you can give even if it seems insignificant can help everyone trouble shoot for you. :D pajirta will be on in a bit with better info as she has more experience with this type of bird. Honestly with my birds when in doubt we're off for a checkup. Doesn't hurt for birdie to have an annual just to make sure. :thumbsup: tell everyone to back off the goodies until you make sure daily intake is healthy foods first. Give more info please. BW. OH ONE MORE THING , ITS A PARROTS GREAT PLEASURE TO EAT WITH THE FLOCK . And I'm assuming that's you and your family! Set an extra plate :lol:


Hi, many thanks for the reply.

Im in Europe (Ireland) and it is indeed hormonal season (or there abouts). Every year without fail you can tell when it kicks in ...and while shes not in full swing yet, she is somewhat hormonal. She gets quite destructfull of her cage biting her bars/chipping away at the paint and pulling up her trays. She usually destroys the base of cage shredding paper / nesting and digging like a dog with her foot. All on top of being a bit nippy. She hasnt got there just yet, but her ive noticed all her new wing/tail feathers starting to come through when checking her out and its usually about now.

Anyway! ...Light wise, she generally gets nothing but natural light. Her cage is in the living room beside a large window shes loves to look out. At the moment here, sunrise is approx 7am which is after the household gets up. So the living room curtains are opened as sunlight is coming up and i'll usually remove her blanket I use to cover her cage around then too.

Sunset is approx 8pm here now and she'll usually be settling down in the living room with everybody else after dinner and playtime. I generally pull the curtains just as its gotten dark and leave her beside me in the darkroom lit by the tv for another hour or so until I fully cover her with blanket.

As for baths, I just use a bottle sprayer with a fine light mist nozzle using room temp water. I do it every morning because she usually gets quite dirty from fooling around plus the fact she loves me doing it! She doesnt like to bath herself either, unless its really warm outside. Ive always sprayed her in the morning time before ive cleaned out her cage, shes dry by the time im done as I dont fully soak her. So shes never going asleep / bed wet.

With her food, its probably a bad habbit, but ive always put everything into her cage after ive cleaned it early morning and leave it there. I top up her seed feeder and a mix of fresh fruit and veg, usually apples, grapes, carrots, bananas etc.. Throughout the day i'll drop in other bits and pieces, if im making lunch i'll give her in some tomatoes ..or dinner, some broccoli or cauliflower. Whatever im having thats good for her ill give her in some. I try to keep treats to a minimum, maybe once a day, I dont like to spoil her but I think others have been! For treats, its basically the likes of breakfast cereals, spaghetti/pasta, toast/cracker, pizza, fries, baked beans.. and I mean the tiniest of portions.

On the checkup front, she would actually die from the stress of that alone. Shes a very nervous bird and doesnt like to leave her comfort zone at all. She cant deal with most new people in her vicinity nevermind handling her! Im the only family member that can handle her out of the 4 shes known for 18 years of her life. And all thats beside, there isnt too many vets that deal with parrots here. Not one id trust anyway given that parrots arent a common pet and thus the vets have very little dealings with. There is one good specialist a county over, but id only take her if absolutely necessary.
Valo
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 5
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal
Flight: No

Re: Senegal not eating and sneezing a lot

Postby Pajarita » Sat Apr 01, 2017 8:59 pm

Welcome to the forum! I am concerned about your bird and think you should not waste any time making an appointment at an avian vet. I know you say that you didn't see anything wrong with her when you checked her with the light but, my dear, you would not have seen anything even if she was very sick. Birds don't have the same symptoms mammals get when they have a respiratory infection and they don't sneeze because of dander. Sneezes mean respiratory infection, acute lack of vitamin A or some sort of obstruction (like a seed that got stuck in a nare, a rhinolith or something like that). Senegals are not 'dusty' birds but even high dander birds like cockatoos don't sneeze from it so something else is going on. And the fact that she is not eating is VERY worrisome whether she has been getting more treats than she should or not. And please do not bathe her! Not until you know for a fact that she is not sick. Senegals are not good or frequent bathers... at least, none of the ones I've had (3 females and 1 male) were.

Their breeding season is in the fall so, unless her endocrine system is not 100% attuned to the seasons, I doubt this is the problem but, even if she was, it wouldn't make her sneeze or stop eating. Please take her to a vet. Birds 'go down' real fast once they start showing symptoms (and she is!) and, at her age, she should be getting a complete check up annually. Mind you, I am not trying to imply that you don't take good care of her (I am sure you do!) but captivity is extremely stressful and unhealthy for parrots even when we give them the best of care so, by the time they are middle-aged, as yours is, they need to be closely monitored. You also do not mention any kind of supplements - as vit D3, for example.
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Re: Senegal not eating and sneezing a lot

Postby Bird woman » Sat Apr 01, 2017 9:04 pm

I don't know if your familiar with solar schedule for birds but pajirta will explain it if your interested , all my birds have artificial lighting for the winter and outside time daily in the summer and are on a strict schedule as I have many. If your bird is chipping the paint off the cage that would be cause for concern as injesting it can cause toxic poisoning that builds up in there system . Maybe time to get a better one with a grate in the bottom so she can't play around in poopy paper. Just a thought. I took in a macaw that I had to do a detox on from that very thing and vet bills were quite pricey . I would defiantly cut out all garbage food , feed more leafy greens and veggies and get her in the sunshine when you can , making sure there's a shady spot to retreat too if she gets to hot. Never underestimate the power of fresh air and sunshine for mental and physical well being. Hope this helps BW. I GUESS PAJIRTA WAS POSTING WHEN I WAS } :thumbsup:
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Re: Senegal not eating and sneezing a lot

Postby liz » Sun Apr 02, 2017 8:15 am

I fully agree with Paj and BW.

My Amazons only sneeze if we get into something dusty which makes me sneeze too.

Cockatiels some times sneeze when they are scratching through their seed plate but it is not often and it is usually more than one doing it at a time. These little ones scratch like chickens so that is what is causing their sneezing.

It does sound like a respiratory infection. Birds like other prey animals do not show when they are sick. The sick ones get picked off by preditors.
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Re: Senegal not eating and sneezing a lot

Postby ParrotsForLife » Sun Apr 02, 2017 8:17 am

Welcome Im in Ireland too :) Dublin, I think the Vet your talking about is Bairbre O' Malley in Bray shes very good.
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Re: Senegal not eating and sneezing a lot

Postby Valo88 » Fri Jun 22, 2018 8:21 am

This is the OP here again, forget my original account/email details so had to create a new account.

Just to follow up, all was fine with her last year. Vet gave her a once over and couldn't find anything wrong with her, just suggested giving her vitamins & supplements. Tried her on a few different types mixed in with her food and water and she just wasn't buying it. Too set in her ways ...but I have managed to slightly mix up her fruit and veg intake somewhat. Shes now eating a lot more varity in plums, pears, mangoes among other things. Just had to tease her a lot, eating it myself in front of her before eventually sharing :lol: Also, I find if I hand her the fruit and veg she has access to in her cage all day, she'll eat it but sometimes wont touch it otherwise :lol:

Anyway... a year on, shes showing the exact same behavior. Well not the not eating part. But the sneezing, molting/dander as well as trying to nest. This goes on anywhere from April to June/July each year.

However I have now noticed one of her nares is now larger than the other from her constantly poking at it. She keeps getting her dander/tiny feathers caught in it and its agitating her causing her to poke it and sneeze. Its not swollen or anything, just ever so slightly larger. Would this be normal? Anything I can do to help her? Dont want to have to put through the trauma of another visit if I dont have to, especially over something minor.
Valo88
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Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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Re: Senegal not eating and sneezing a lot

Postby Pajarita » Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:08 am

Is it possible that you live in a very dry area and you don't have a humidifier and an air purifier on all the time?
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