Ciry - my new B&G

[Johnny]

So Ciry just started to fly on my hands, it is very nice. In 80% cases I call for her and show her my arm, she will fly to me, or at least will try :-D She even flies to me on bed from her tree :-O I think we are starting to be very good friends Still wont let me get her on back though :20:

And today we are going to visit the vet about the breathing thing I posted above. Also I wanted to ask about this "shake" she does when she does her "ara" baby sound She does that quite often, but I think that it has something to do with her getting sleepy? Or so, because her head feathers are all up, so I dont think that anything bad is going on for her

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl9fFISfaXo]Ara - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Johnny]

So the vet told us, it is prolly something she has learned to do automaticcly, like a bad habit. But we just dont know, we are not so sure about it...

Today we took some more vids, please can you watch them and tell me your opinion on this? In the next days we are taking her to another vet, recommended by my friend... so we will see.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrU8UEJfh_s]20121204 1654081 - YouTube[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1EBWief9pU]20121204 1658211 - YouTube[/ame]

Also questions:

What would you advise me to do, when she wakes up at 8:00 am every day and starts climbing around the cage doing insane noise as she wants to go out... it really annoys you after 40min she is doing it... how can we make her stay asleep longer? I think that when it gets brighter in the room, she wakes up. We wrere thinking about getting some kind of shading in from of the windows...

And also when we put her in the cage at night, she starts SCREAMING like CRAZY, she literallz hates being in the cage, but she must be in there for the night and when we are out. After a 10min she calms down and goes to sleep.

But anyways, she is being very, VERY handy and nice bird. We started to put harness on her - no problem, no problem with showering, she plays with us on bed (sometimes she even flies to me when I am there ^^ ) - but she will wont let me put her on her back thought I guess we need more time for that And she is starting to be such a good flier too !

We are just too worried about her health

 

[JerseyWendy]

Johnny, did the vet see her? Did he do a THOROUGH checkup?

I'm sorry, but the sounds she makes are worrisome to me.

The video you posted yesterday, she seems fine, just making her Macaw sounds.

 

[plax]

Johnny: I agree with Wendy! I'm very concerned that the sounds and movements Ciry is making are consistent with symptoms of a respiratory issue. I feel sure they are not sounds she's making intentionally. Are either of these vets avian vets? I think it's very important that you take Ciry to a qualified avian vet ASAP and request a thorough health evaluation!

 

[tab_xo]

I agree with plax and wendy, that sound doesn't sound normal, just get her checked by an avian vet just to be on the safe side

With regarding the sleep issue, i had the same problem with Fargo, he would climb around for 10 minutes and then went to sleep..
I just leave him out and at 6:30 every night, he climbs to his 'sleeping' perch, and will go to sleep and will not move at all until i go to bed, which is about 10:30 and he will go in his cage and fall back to sleep again
Im not sure how to get her to sleep longer or be quiet as Fargo has never made a single noise in the mornings, from what i know he is awake by 5am, and i hear him play with his toys, eat his pellets, preen, and will stay quiet all morning, and then i get up at 8am and let him out!

does she have many toys to play with while in her cage? Fargo loves his cage and will go in it just to play throughout the day

 

[Sherry]

How's city doing? Did you ever figure out what that sound was about?

 

[Johnny]

Hello! I have an update !

So we went to another VET, recommended by my friend in another city. He did RTG and some blood-tests and he found out this:

The things she does on the video is caused because her hearth is bigger then it should be, so as it is big, it pressures a little too much on her stomach, so when she is eating and the food travels tru her to the stomach, it touches the hearth and it does that muscle movement and it is somehow connected to the breathing. Thats what he showed us on the RTG picture. Then the blood tests said that her white blood-cells are very low (she has 1000, should be 8000) and something with her kidney (nothing serious).

So we got like 6 medicines (syrups, tablets etc) and he said that it should be OK in 2-3 months, that as fast as the heart grew, it should fall back. Nothing serious or life-threatening, so we are SOOOOOO happy. We should give him a call at christmas, how is she doing and stuff.

But like, WOW, I am SO ANGRY on the first VET in our town, he is a exotic bird specialist and he didnt help us at all...

 

[plax]

Hello! I have an update !

So we went to another VET, recommended by my friend in another city. He did RTG and some blood-tests and he found out this:

The things she does on the video is caused because her hearth is bigger then it should be, so as it is big, it pressures a little too much on her stomach, so when she is eating and the food travels tru her to the stomach, it touches the hearth and it does that muscle movement and it is somehow connected to the breathing. Thats what he showed us on the RTG picture. Then the blood tests said that her white blood-cells are very low (she has 1000, should be 8000) and something with her kidney (nothing serious).

So we got like 6 medicines (syrups, tablets etc) and he said that it should be OK in 2-3 months, that as fast as the heart grew, it should fall back. Nothing serious or life-threatening, so we are SOOOOOO happy. We should give him a call at christmas, how is she doing and stuff.

But like, WOW, I am SO ANGRY on the first VET in our town, he is a exotic bird specialist and he didnt help us at all...

Johnny: I'm very glad to hear that the second vet gave Ciry a positive prognosis. But did he tell you why he believes Ciry's heart is enlarged? It's my understanding that an enlarged heart can result from any of a few causes. One of those causes is heart valve leakage, and another is prolonged hypertension (high blood pressure), and yet a third cause is a bacterial infection. So I'm guessing that your vet thinks Ciry's enlarged heart is the symptom of a bacterial infection. Is that correct? If that is in fact the cause and the infection is successfully cleared, it would be the best situation I think.

Please continue to follow the vet's instructions and please continue to update us...

Thanks for posting back!

 

[Johnny]

Hello plax,

vet told us, that it is quite normall for baby parrots to have slightly bigger hearth, and he said that the cause may be the handfeeding, I didnt clearly understand him, but he said something about missing ingredient in the formula and some other stuff I really did not understand, but I think it has something to do with the bacteria as you said, because of the blood-tests. But the hand-feeding formula I am using is Kaytee, so I am a little bit confused, I will try to send him an e-mail and ask him about that hearth if you are interested.

I will keep you informed

 

[Sherry]

Wow! I'm really glad you ended up taking her to another vet. I would take the time and go back to the first vet and tell them what vet 2 said. Then I would ask for a refund, nicely though. I bet you you'd get it. Keep us posted and I'm happy she's on the mend.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Thank you SO much for the update, Johnny! I know a whole lot of us were quite worried about Ciry.

I truly hope she makes a full and speedy recovery. Best of luck, and yes, please do keep us posted.

 

[ladypurple]

what a lovely looking macaw baby wish you well with her

 

[Johnny]

Hello again, I am a little bit worried about Ciry's weight. Last week it was around 900g, but today I weighted her AFTER I fed her, and it was ONLY 790g... That is a really big difference in one week. I think I may have something to do with her health problems, but I wonder how to get her weight up. I think I will start feeding her 3 times a day, not two times like now, and maybe I will start mixing some nuts into the formula? What do you think would help? She also doesn't eat that much from her bowls, sometimes she bits here and there, mostly banana.

Also one completly different question. When we put her to sleep (around 21:00) she always screams for 5-10 minutes like crazy, I know she does not like being in her cage, because she is used to be out all the time we are home.

But she is starting to trust me more and more, she is SOOOO playful, she would just turn on her back by herself and do all kinds of crazy stuff when we play, it is awesome

 

[JerseyWendy]

Johnny, Ciry should be GAINING weight, not losing - UNLESS she is in the weaning process, THEN birds usually lose a bit of weight.

You should always weigh her first thing in the morning, BEFORE feeding her, that way you can keep a fairly accurate account of her process.

The screaming sounds as if it's for attention. But she could possibly still be hungry, and/or not feeling well.

I've never heard of adding nuts to the formula though. You could add organic baby food.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Johnny, this link may be helpful to you:

Hand-Feeding 101

And this:
Avitech Formula One Quick Weight Gain Mixture 16oz - SUPPLEMENTS/HEALTH AIDS by MY SAFE BIRD STORE

 

[Johnny]

Well, I guess I will feed her every time her crop is empty, because it really worries me, i know she should be gaining weight, she is not weaning because like I said, she wont eat by herself to the fullest, she just plays with the food and sometimes eats a little bit. Maybe I will do the nuts mix with mixed pellets and the siringe, that's what our friend recommended us, mix the pellets and make it like the formula and add mixed nuts. I was really shocked today

 

[JerseyWendy]

Which formula is Ciry on???

How much do you give her at each feeding? Rule of thumb is to feed about 10% of body weight, which means a bird that weights 900g should eat about 90ml at each feeding.

 

[Johnny]

She is on Kaytee, I feed her 60-70ml as our breeder suggested

 

[JerseyWendy]

That is not enough, IMO. Have you checked out the links I added? Especially the second one, it may come in quite handy.

 

[Johnny]

Yup I did, I have already checked that hand-feeding site before. I will order and try the Formula One as you suggest, hope it helps

Also will do 85~ml feedings now, well I just dont understand, why did our breeder told us that she will be OK with ~60ml. Maybe it would be enough if she wasn't ill (that heart problem and white cells).

BTW, I am checking her poo-poo every day, and it looks just fine, also she doesnt look hungry at all, simetimes she eats like 50ml and she doesnt want anymore