An update on Goofy

[BeatriceC]

Goofy is steadfastly refusing to eat. He's acting mostly fine otherwise, just won't eat. He's maintaining weight well on formula, but we just can't find a reason for his continued refusal to eat on his own. He came home on Friday because he was taking formula from a syringe. He did well on Saturday, but Sunday he started to decline. My vet, who really is the most extraordinary person I know, messaged me on Instagram Sunday night to ask after him. I told him we'd been having some trouble getting him to swallow, but with time and patience, we were getting the required volume of formula into him. My vet asked me to call him right away, and I did. After talking for a bit, he decided to have me meet him at his office, even though it was 6:30 on a Sunday night at that point. We gave him a crop feed and additional fluids at that point and he stayed at the vet's. Yesterday we did a barium study. So far there's been a few little spots that looked questionable, but nothing he thought that could explain his symptoms. He kept him again last night and is doing another xray this morning. Sometimes things like string take a while to show up on the xray, as it blends in with the rest of the barium while the GI tract still has a fair amount in it. The next step is to send his images to a board certified avian radiologist. We may also redo some of his blood work. For now, we're immensely frustrated, because once he has a full formula feed, he acts just fine other than not wanting to eat. We're going to go visit him around 9:30 or 10 and talk with the vet about the next steps.

 

[ChristaNL]

sending positive vibes and lots of good wishes

 

[wrench13]

Sounds like you vet and you are doing everything possible for Goofy We are sending our thoughts

 

[BeatriceC]

This was yesterday at the vet's office. MrC couldn't make it yesterday, so he was happy to hang out with me for about an hour.

 

[Anita1250]

Poor little Goofy. How old is he?

 

[BeatriceC]

He’s only 34. Still pretty young for a YNA.

 

[Amsterdam]

whising the best for goofy!

 

[Scott]

Goofy is a beauty, hope you and Dr. J can find the cause of diminished appetite. Perhaps revisiting blood values will yield clues. If Dr. J is stumped, it is a mystery!

 

[Laurasea]

Goofy, I hope your team can figure out what you are hiding!!!! Best wishes for a quick recovery!

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

It can be/is so frustrating when one of our kids is ill and no one can seem to figure out why. We are sending our best wishes for a fast and positive solution for Goofy. C'mon now Goofy..ALL Amazons love to chow down!
Just ask Amy


Jim Amy and Beebs

 

[texsize]

Sending good thought to you and goofy.
It looks like you have made good progress in being able to handle him.
Texsize

 

[EllenD]

I'm not in-the-loop on what has been going on with Goofy thus far, I'm so sorry he's got something going on that isn't good...I remember you saying how great your CAV was a long time ago, it is an amazing asset to have a CAV that is not only very good, but who is also willing to go above and beyond...I also have one of these rare, hero CAV's, but unfortunately he is talking about retiring after next year, and I'm spoiled! Hang onto your CAV, and don't ever let him go!!

So Goofy is 34 years-old, and has completely stopped eating solid food on his own? Is that his only outward sign/symptom that something is wrong? Or did it start with other signs/symptoms or another illness all-together that was actually diagnosed, and his anorexia is the only problem remaining? I apologize, I'm coming into this late...

Is Goofy definitely a male? And what is Goofy's normal, regular, daily diet? Have you made any changes to his regular, daily diet recently, prior to him not wanting to eat? Have there been any other recent changes to Goofy's life, no matter how small? (Any changes to his diet, to your home/house, to the people who live in the house, to cleaners you use, any new items in your house, any changes to his cage, toys, stands, etc.? Even the smallest, most seemingly insignificant changes can cause a bird to stop eating)...

Did Goofy have any accidents, falls, injuries, or situations that could have caused an injury before he stopped eating?

*****Big question: Does Goofy show a "feeding-response" for you when you're feeding him the hand-feeding formula with the syringe? I'm assuming that he's probably being "tube-fed" at the Vet's Office/Hospital, but that you have been most-likely syringe-feeding him the hand-feeding formula at home...So while he won't show any feeding-response if being tube-fed with a crop-needle at the Vet/hospital, he should show a feeding-response to you when using a syringe (meaning a rhythmic head/neck bobbing while taking the formula from the syringe)...

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to catch-up on what's been going on...It's very good that Goofy is maintaining his weight while eating only the hand-feeding formula, that rules-out a lot of metabolic issues, and it makes things a lot easier if he doesn't start developing any nutritional deficiencies from this...

***I'm glad that your CAV is going repeat X-Rays, because whenever anorexia is the one and only sign/symptom that something is wrong with a bird, it is often due to a blockage/obstruction or even a partial obstruction in their Crop or somewhere else throughout their GI Tract...I don't know if Goofy has been vomiting at all, or regurgitating more than usual, sometimes that's also a good sign that their is either an obstruction/partial-obstruction somewhere, or that he's eaten something that is toxic, such as metal...

I'm assuming his Blood-Work didn't show much the first time around if you still don't have any answers, and I assume your CAV ran his Lead and Zinc levels (metal doesn't always show-up very clearly on an X-Ray, especially if it's tiny little flakes, which are enough to cause toxicity in a bird)...

 

[BeatriceC]

I'm not in-the-loop on what has been going on with Goofy thus far, I'm so sorry he's got something going on that isn't good...I remember you saying how great your CAV was a long time ago, it is an amazing asset to have a CAV that is not only very good, but who is also willing to go above and beyond...I also have one of these rare, hero CAV's, but unfortunately he is talking about retiring after next year, and I'm spoiled! Hang onto your CAV, and don't ever let him go!!

So Goofy is 34 years-old, and has completely stopped eating solid food on his own? Is that his only outward sign/symptom that something is wrong? Or did it start with other signs/symptoms or another illness all-together that was actually diagnosed, and his anorexia is the only problem remaining? I apologize, I'm coming into this late...

Is Goofy definitely a male? And what is Goofy's normal, regular, daily diet? Have you made any changes to his regular, daily diet recently, prior to him not wanting to eat? Have there been any other recent changes to Goofy's life, no matter how small? (Any changes to his diet, to your home/house, to the people who live in the house, to cleaners you use, any new items in your house, any changes to his cage, toys, stands, etc.? Even the smallest, most seemingly insignificant changes can cause a bird to stop eating)...

Did Goofy have any accidents, falls, injuries, or situations that could have caused an injury before he stopped eating?

*****Big question: Does Goofy show a "feeding-response" for you when you're feeding him the hand-feeding formula with the syringe? I'm assuming that he's probably being "tube-fed" at the Vet's Office/Hospital, but that you have been most-likely syringe-feeding him the hand-feeding formula at home...So while he won't show any feeding-response if being tube-fed with a crop-needle at the Vet/hospital, he should show a feeding-response to you when using a syringe (meaning a rhythmic head/neck bobbing while taking the formula from the syringe)...

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to catch-up on what's been going on...It's very good that Goofy is maintaining his weight while eating only the hand-feeding formula, that rules-out a lot of metabolic issues, and it makes things a lot easier if he doesn't start developing any nutritional deficiencies from this...

***I'm glad that your CAV is going repeat X-Rays, because whenever anorexia is the one and only sign/symptom that something is wrong with a bird, it is often due to a blockage/obstruction or even a partial obstruction in their Crop or somewhere else throughout their GI Tract...I don't know if Goofy has been vomiting at all, or regurgitating more than usual, sometimes that's also a good sign that their is either an obstruction/partial-obstruction somewhere, or that he's eaten something that is toxic, such as metal...

I'm assuming his Blood-Work didn't show much the first time around if you still don't have any answers, and I assume your CAV ran his Lead and Zinc levels (metal doesn't always show-up very clearly on an X-Ray, especially if it's tiny little flakes, which are enough to cause toxicity in a bird)...

To try to answer all your questions:

-He's definitely 34 and definitely male. MrC's brother in law bought him from a breeder while he was still an egg (1984) and then brought him home when he was weaned. He was surgically sexed when he was a juvenile. He's definitely male. MrC's BIL gave Goofy to him in 1998, after he got super nasty to him and years of working with him just wasn't making any progress. Goofy loved MrC, so it was the right choice. They've been best friends ever since.

-He showed no outward symptoms until he refused to eat on his own last Tuesday. We did get him to eat a little bit Tuesday night. It was treat type food, and not much. We set him up with a heat lamp and then called the vet Wednesday morning. By the time of the vet appointment he was refusing to eat even cheese and ice cream and peanut butter (bad, I know, but any calorie is a good calorie in emergencies). We crop fed him and gave him fluids at the vet, started him on a broad spectrum antibiotic and anti-inflammatory, and brought him home, but by Thursday he was still refusing to eat so we admitted him. Friday evening he started taking formula from a syringe. He doesn't display any sort of baby bird feeding reflex, but he was okay swallowing what we gave him. The vet thought he'd be okay to go home Friday night. Saturday was good but he deteriorated again Sunday, and was resistant to swallowing. Our vet met us at his office Sunday night to give him fluids and crop feeds and admitted him again.

-In the interim he's had a whole bunch of blood work and imaging exams. His blood chemistries and CBC are completely normal. No metal toxicity. Regular xrays are normal. He's ABV negative. The barium study is mostly normal with some small questionable spots, but he doesn't think that explains what's going on. We just sent the images to a board certified avian radiologist.

-We started going through pictures from the last few weeks to see if we could pin point a time frame that he stopped looking normal. Honestly, the first picture that's questionable is from last Monday, and he just looked a little grumpy, not sick. He ate fine on Monday.

-We've gone through our memories with a fine tooth comb. There's nothing we can think of that would pin point an injury. There's nothing on the xrays either, and the blood chemistries would have shown some markers if there was a muscle injury. We put him on anti-inflammatories anyway, because they can't hurt, and might help.

-We've also looked at possible environmental factors, but nothing makes sense because we've got four other perfectly healthy birds in the same room. He hasn't gotten into anything that he shouldn't have, and we take great care to keep the bird room safe for birds, so he shouldn't have been able to get into anything without us knowing.

 

[BeatriceC]

Sending good thought to you and goofy.
It looks like you have made good progress in being able to handle him.
Texsize

Well, sort of. He's feeling bad and MrC couldn't make it last night, so I was better than those evil people at the vet's. He wanted nothing to do with me this morning because MrC was there.

 

[Laurasea]

I can tell you one thing! It's just plain not fair,when a careing owner like you, responds so quickly, with every test under the sun, and you still don't get answer!!! Not fair! Does your vets office look at the blood slides themselves? There are some blood parasites birds can get.....They did a fecal culture, and grame stain too right, can't remember after seeing blood work x-rays barium series.. Just not fair. I hope the mystery is solved, or he just gets better pronto.

 

[BeatriceC]

I can tell you one thing! It's just plain not fair,when a careing owner like you, responds so quickly, with every test under the sun, and you still don't get answer!!! Not fair! Does your vets office look at the blood slides themselves? There are some blood parasites birds can get.....They did a fecal culture, and grame stain too right, can't remember after seeing blood work x-rays barium series.. Just not fair. I hope the mystery is solved, or he just gets better pronto.

Yeah, all that was done at the initial visit last week. Everything is negative. And we talked about parasites too, but that doesn't make sense because he maintains his weight with normal amounts of formula. He'd expect to see weight loss in spite of a full calorie load if there was a parasite.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Oh, for goodness' sake. Goofy, for crying out loud, EAT.
Beatrice, I'm so sorry you're all going through this.
Don't be a stranger. I miss you when you're away for too long.

 

[Laurasea]

I'm talking hemoparasites , like plasmodium, they are parasites that live in the blood. Birds that spend time outside can get these, even indoor only birds can as they ate spread by biting insects... So they don't usually cause weight loss, they just make the bird sick....does your bird spend time in an Avairy?

 

[BeatriceC]

No. He sometimes goes outside but stays on MrC’s shoulder or on our bird stroller, like when we go for a walk. And I’d have assumed his lab tech would have spotted something like that when she did all her tests. He’s got an in house tech. I watched him make slides, so that’s part of what she does.

 

[Laurasea]

Didn't read the whole thing, but talks about hemoparasites..
Mixed Species Flock, Nest Height, and Elevation Partially Explain Avian Haemoparasite Prevalence in Colombia
Angie D. González, Nubia E. Matta, Vincenzo A. Ellis, Eliot T. Miller, Robert E. Ricklefs, H. Rafael Gutiérrez

Abstract
The high avian biodiversity present in the Neotropical region offers a great opportunity to explore the ecology of host-parasite relationships. We present a survey of avian haemoparasites in a megadiverse country and explore how parasite prevalences are related to physical and ecological host characteristics. Using light microscopy, we documented the presence of haemoparasites in over 2000 individuals belonging to 246 species of wild birds, from nine localities and several ecosystems of Colombia. We analysed the prevalence of six avian haemoparasite taxa in relation to elevation and the following host traits: nest height, nest type, foraging strata, primary diet, sociality, migratory behaviour, and participation in mixed species flocks. Our analyses indicate significant associations between both mixed species flocks and nest height and Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon prevalence. The prevalence of Leucocytozoon increased with elevation, whereas the prevalence of Trypanosoma and microfilariae decreased. Plasmodium and Haemoproteus prevalence did not vary significantly with elevation; in fact, both parasites were found up to 3300m above sea level. The distribution of parasite prevalence across the phylogeny of bird species included in this study showed little host phylogenetic signal indicating that infection rates in this system are evolutionarily labile. Vector distribution as well as the biology of transmission and the maintenance of populations of avian haemoparasites deserve more detailed study in this system.

Citation: González AD, Matta NE, Ellis VA, Miller ET, Ricklefs RE, Gutiérrez HR (2014) Mixed Species Flock, Nest Height, and Elevation Partially Explain Avian Haemoparasite Prevalence in Colombia. PLoS ONE 9(6): e100695. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100695

Editor: Érika Martins Braga, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil

Received: January 30, 2014; Accepted: May 29, 2014; Published: June 20, 2014

Copyright: © 2014 González, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: This work was partially supported by Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovacion COLCIENCIAS contract no. 359, División de Investigación Sede Bogotá of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia project no. 7509 and no.14456, and Jardín Botánico José Celestino Mutis Bogota with the program Estímulos a la investigación Thomas van der Hammen. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
Supporting Information
Acknowledgments
Author Contributions
References