Aspergillosis

[Catlady53]

Hi, I haven’t been on here awhile, but I don’t know where else to turn. I’m pretty sure my white fronted amazon has aspergillosis. He been to avian vet but I’m still waiting on blood test results, she said I won’t hear from her until next week. She took an X-ray and still don’t know results to that, she wants another doctor to look at it. In the meantime my poor little Sonny has all of a sudden lost his voice and whistles no more. He is a free flighted parrot and all of a sudden won’t come out of his cage. He was fine one day and now our world is falling apart. This waiting is driving me crazy and I’m so afraid of something happening over the weekend. He is eating and drinking fine. I do not see him struggling to breathe but he basically sits in his cage. I can’t even believe this is happening. I rescued Sonny about four years ago and he has been the best little man with the most loving personality. I have read countless articles on this dreaded fungus and I don’t know how I’m going to cope til his doctor will decide to start treatment. Can anyone shed some sort of hope for me.

 

[Catlady53]

I’m pretty sure my white fronted amazon has aspergillosis. He has been to avian vet but still waiting on blood test results. She took X-ray but she wants another doctor to look at it. Sonny has lost his voice and whistles no more. He is free flight and now won’t come out of his cage. He was fine one day and now our world is falling apart. He is eating and drinking. He seems to be sleeping a lot. He is scratching and feather preening/picking nonstop. Sonny is approximately 24 years old. Can you give me some sort of hope about this dreadful fungus.

 

[wrench13]

Most common vector for parrots is from eating peanuts that are contaminated.
If he eats those, STOP. Also start weighing, daily, him with a kitchen scale that reads out in grams. A loss of 3-5% of his weight is a sign of illness.

 

[Catlady53]

Most common vector for parrots is from eating peanuts that are contaminated.
If he eats those, STOP. Also start weighing, daily, him with a kitchen scale that reads out in grams. A loss of 3-5% of his weight is a sign of illness.

Hi wrench, thanks for your response. Sonny does not eat peanuts but does eat lots of senior nutriberries. He will only eat celery or peppers as far as veggies are concerned. He eats most all fruits. He is a very picky eater and even shrugs off most parrot treats. So I do have a hard time keeping him on a healthy parrot diet. He went to the vet approximately four weeks ago because of a change in voice and no longer whistling. Vet could not see anything wrong with him and did not do blood work at that time as he was due for his annual in October. He was weighed then and over the past year his weight was the same. I took him again this past Wednesday and it was the same from the few weeks before so no weight loss. When I brought him home in a day or two he was almost back to normal where he was able to do a few screeches and even a whistle here and there. He was still flying from room to room and I thought he was getting better. Then over the holiday I had a cookout at my home with a houseful of friends. I kept him in his cage as I know many people are uncomfortable with a bird flying around. When everybody left I let him out of his cage and the next morning he was not vocalizing at all. No one was near his cage and he seemed ok although I don’t think he liked being locked up. The vet just called me and said I could pick up some gabapentin and some sort of pain med for his constant itching. I don’t think he is feather plucking per se, he is just very itchy. I asked about the X-ray and she and another doc did not see anything out of ordinary except for some arthritis in one of his feet. But she is having a radiologist do the final reading. I also asked if their practice is able to do a MiDOG DNA test as I’ve heard they are able to test for asper and other hard to test diseases. I guess I need to settle down and try and remain positive until I get results. I am definitely not someone who should have pets because I don’t do well with sickness when I can’t make it better. Thank you for letting me cry on your shoulder, it feels a little better to voice my concerns.