Allergies

[WaywardFlock]

I have been fighting so hard to try and remedy my poor recently adopted pi's feather plucking. The poor girls at the front desk of my vet know me by phone voice I call so often to ask my vet questions
I just know in my gut she has not been doing it behaviorally, but my vet was stuck on that as her blood work and xrays all came out normal. He said we could do a skin biopsy but that just sound painful so I looked for help elsewhere first leaving that as a last resort.
When I first adopted her, her feathers were waterproof...now they are not, she is always dry, dusty, itchy, and looks just generally uncomfortable in her own skin. She is a different happy playful bird right after a nice long shower, but back to uncomfortable when she dries. I was told it was just hormonal but I just never fully accepted that was the only reason. I know it is very common, but it just seemed different.
Today I stopped in at a bird store on my way home and told the lady working there my Pi's whole story and she said it sounds like she has food allergies!
She said it could be corn, which is a big ingredient in her Harrisons pellet she is on. She recommended RoudyBush's rice pellet. She super kindly gave me a small bag for FREE to try to see if my pi would eat them and then recommended the switch if she would.
Now as excited as I got at the thought that this could all be remedied by a pellet change, I always air on the side of caution.
Is this a common and possible thing or just another trendy gimmick?
Are there tests a vet can run to look for food allergies? Or is it just a diet elimination process?
This is not an organic pellet, but I believe roudybush is a common good pellet?
IS rice even good for birds?
I specifically remembering asking my vet the first visit if it could be the pellet causing this and he said no. I don't know who to believe :headscratch:
Any opinions greatly appreciated

 

[WaywardFlock]

and is it ok to instantly change her pellet over or do I need to do it slowly?

 

[4dugnlee]

I would definitely try to switch to a different brand. Yes it should be done slowly. It can't hurt anything by switching and hopefully it will help!

 

[WaywardFlock]

I switched her from harrisons to roudybush rice formula. Pictures speak louder than words!
Just after a few weeks the results are drastic

 

[RavensGryf]

WOW!! I'm so happy for you! must feel so good to have discovered the correct root to the plucking.

So it was an allergy to CORN?! In your original post, sounds like this bird store employee knew what she was talking about!

 

[Selestine]

Wow, thank you for the follow-up post! It is so uplifting to see that she has made such an amazing recovery. Your heart must feel so warm and fluttery.

 

[getwozzy]

Wow!!! What amazing results!!!

I started looking into food allergies recently, and the little bit of reading that I did do said that there weren't really any tests vets could do to determine food allergies- mainly just elimination diets after everything else was ruled out.

Although it's not very common, your situation does (IMHO) prove for a fact that yes, birds can have food allergies.

I have been suspecting a food allergy lately as the root of my galah's pin-feather-picking issue and was going to schedule another vet appointment, but for now I'm going to eliminate corn from her diet to see what happens....

 

[Selestine]

Now I'm curious if a willing human lab could run a blood test for it. My son, for example, is allergic to corn which we found out via blood test..

 

[WaywardFlock]

My heart feels warm and fuzzy but only for a moment. Once I see how easy this was to remedy and how miserable she has been I get angry. I feel I could have helped her so much earlier, and thousands of dollars less.
The fact I specifically asked him, if it could be her pellets....he told me absolutely not like it was a dumb question.
I realize that a lot of plucking situations do come from boredom, but when vets seem to take the easy road out and blame the owner for not paying enough attention to a bird instead of listening to the other symptoms is just not right. I felt SO incredibly awful the entire time and actually cried after leaving the vet because I felt like such a bad owner and that I made a mistake adopting her. I actually had started plans to return her to the rescue because I thought she was just still so unhappy living with me.
A kind bird store lady has done more for me and my bird than words can express for free, and my vet (who is super highly recommended by everyone here) has a big F for fail for $$$$
I hope my story can give people hope to never give up on a situation and don't always trust one person's opinion no matter how qualified they are

 

[WaywardFlock]

It wasn't necessarily the corn. There are several things in harrison's that is not in roudybush rice.
Peanuts were another main ingredient that is no longer in her diet.
My vet always told me not to feed peanuts, so I question why he would recommend a pellet that has that in it

 

[Selestine]

Just try to hang onto those happy feelings. It isn't worth it to let yourself be upset about what could have been. It is crappy and it sucks that things happened the way that they did, but you two are past it and you both deserve to be happy and enjoy it without the spectre of what was hanging over you. Don't let small minded people get to you.

 

[WaywardFlock]

You are very right.
All sunshine and lollipops for me and my sweet piepie from here on out! ^_^

 

[Kalidasa]

It wasn't necessarily the corn. There are several things in harrison's that is not in roudybush rice.
Peanuts were another main ingredient that is no longer in her diet.
My vet always told me not to feed peanuts, so I question why he would recommend a pellet that has that in it

If he carries the brand he was recommending, then he was more concerned about making a sale and a buying customer than anything you had to say. I would say ditch that vet and find another. Glad to hear your bird is on the mend.

 

[getwozzy]

Don't kick yourself for it- not everyone knows everything, even if they happened to be the professionals that we rely on for advice- they're still human, and can misdiagnose things...especially if they're not familiar with the case at hand.

The peanut issue is that when they're in the shell and not stored properly, they can grow and harbor fungus -which can affect our fids when they crack the shells open and disturb the aspergillus spores- Aspergillosis to be exact...which is the respiratory infection caused by these spores.

But still- peanuts are like junk food and should be used/eaten sparingly...

Chili was eating pellets (TOPs) but I took her off of them because her diet is varied enough to where I feel it's unnecessary for her to eat them.... Plus, some of the ingredients were high in protein (according to my vet- alfalfa, quinoa, and spinach). It doesn't have corn, but she does eat corn in her diet....

Also, I read somewhere that when they're plucking, if they're eating chili peppers that it can "burn them up from inside out" and irritate/inflame their skin- so I've also stopped giving her chili peppers of any kind as well....she seems less aggravated, but I'm still searching for the cause....

 

[RavensGryf]

I'm sorry the vet placed the blame on you. The problem wasn't looked into any further, made you feel bad, AND you paid money for nothing . Time to search for a different avian vet

When my avian vet has done all he knows how to do, and there still is a problem, I go to another vet who is one of 10 exclusively avian only vets in the US and is known across the country. Anyway, everytime I see him I come away with a bit of valuable or interesting info. He once told me that boredom is NOT the number one reason for plucking, but it is usually from a medical issue (or metal poisoning). People just like to say "boredom" because it's the easiest thing to say, and easy fix.