Cockatiel Sneezing

[rev]

Hi all.

That time of year again when my cockatiel gives me a heart attack.

If you see my previous posts I changed vets and took him for his annual check up a few weeks back. She was very kind and asked a lot of questions to which she wrote down everything. She did a physical and said that my Peeky was one of the healthiest cockatiels she's ever seen.

Here comes the but. She asked me if he sneezes. I said yes because he does. She asked how often. I didn't have a response because out of all the information I record about him sneezes is not one. Anyway she asked me to record how often he sneezes in a day and let her know in a week. So that's what I did.

He sneezed 16, 6, 8, 7, 35, 15, 26 times in a week. Each number is the amount of times per day. She wasn't comfortable with this and asked questions about the temperature and humidity in his room. I told her and since keeping the tempertature at 25c and the humidity above 50% he sneezes are as follows. 4, 13, 7, 4, 26, 10 and 25 so far today. So not particularly any improvement.

90% of the time when he sneezes he itches his nares with his toe nail and this is what causes him to sneeze. When he does sneeze there is no discharge. Increased bathing hasn't helped at all either. She suggested that if things didn't improve then xrays/blood work would be the starting point to try and see if there is any underlying conditions.

So here I am asking if anyone has had experiences like this before.

I plan on ringing tomorrow morning to discuss options.

His personality hasn't changed a bit. Still a pain in the arse. He's molting so a bit of weight fluctuation but that's all. Oh and she did give me an antiparasitic to rule out mites which also had no effect.

Thanks for reading

 

[Laurasea]

Too me way to much sneezing. If me I'd treat for chlamydia ..a common chronic ( sometimes low grade infection , sometimes much more serious one )

 

[rev]

Too me way to much sneezing. If me I'd treat for chlamydia ..a common chronic ( sometimes low grade infection , sometimes much more serious one )

I'm assuming that this would be diagnosed via having blood work done?

 

[Laurasea]

It can be difficult to diagnose. So many times veterinarian will treat based on clinical symptoms. Doxy is a broad spectrum antibiotic great for many common respiratory infections , and pretty mild on their body. Rarely leads to yeast infection unlike baytril that almost always causes them, and baytril misses many common causes of respiratory infections

 

[rev]

It can be difficult to diagnose. So many times veterinarian will treat based on clinical symptoms. Doxy is a broad spectrum antibiotic great for many common respiratory infections , and pretty mild on their body. Rarely leads to yeast infection unlike baytril that almost always causes them, and baytril misses many common causes of respiratory infections

I'll mention it on the phone tomorrow.

My current plan of action was to get blood work done as he hasn't had it done before so I don't have a baseline for him currently.

Anything else I should ask?

 

[Laurasea]

bloodwork sounds great. I don't know if they try and culture chlamydia from poop or do essays (?) My experience is they treat fir symptoms.
Sometimes swab mouth or nose for other stuff
Sometimes nasal flush its up to vets and you for what might be worth or what's likely to be helpful

 

[HeatherG]

I would swab the choana or sinus flush and culture, but I think chlamydia is very difficult to do culture and srnsitivity.

 

[rev]

I would swab the choana or sinus flush and culture, but I think chlamydia is very difficult to do culture and srnsitivity.

bloodwork sounds great. I don't know if they try and culture chlamydia from poop or do essays (?) My experience is they treat fir symptoms.
Sometimes swab mouth or nose for other stuff
Sometimes nasal flush its up to vets and you for what might be worth or what's likely to be helpful

Thought I'd give an update.

Just got off the phone and got him booked in for his blood work/xray this coming wednesday.

But I'm in a right state worried sick.

I was under the impression that I would take him in at a certain time and I would be there during the procedures. Turns out this isn't the case.

I have to be there at 8:30am, 2 hours before his wake up time so he's not gonna be happy, and then I have to leave him there until the evening. The reasoning for this was because the xray is shared across each ward so they have to wait and emergencies take priority etc.

He took terribly to being handled during his health check up to the point where I had to hold him because even with him being in his cage he still put up a fight and wouldn't let the vet get a good hold on him.

So now I'm worried sick. He's going to be in a strange place without me making him even more stressed out. Then he has to be restrained and sedated. I've read on here that sedation is rarely used however with my experience of vets in the UK a light sedation is always used for blood work. I think its something to do with the vets insurance. Anyway and then obviously the risks that come with sedation.

I'm so upset and can't get it out my head that this coming wednesday is going to be the last time I ever see him. Sorry if it sound dramatic but I've never had his blood work done before and I'm so worried. It was bad enough if I was going to be there but now I'm not its just made it even worse.

But at the same time I can't ignore it and there potentially be something wrong and have it get worse.

Just very worried and upset right now