cockatiel with watery poop

[Comment]

My cockatiel (female, 10 months old) is having watery poop since friday afternoon. On saturday my husband went to the vet and showed her a picture, she said it could be anything or nothing, we have an appointment for tomorrow in case she doesn't improve. Yesterday afternoon and today the poop was still watery but not so much, it is almost like her regular poop, so we will wait and see. I really don't like taking her to the vet because is very stressful for her, I guess we will decide it tomorrow.
She is acting normal, very active and playful, and we don't think she is drinking more tan usual. Yesterday she lost a few grams but today she recovered some of them. So I try not to be very worried but it's difficult, I would love to be able to ask her hey what's wrong with you?
So if any of you have some experience with this problem I would appreciate advice or opinions.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Sorry to hear your cockatiel has you worried.

What does her diet consist of? Watery stools can be caused by foods high in water content (fruits mostly).

If her watery poop came on suddenly, with no changes in her diet having been made, I think it's a good idea to keep your vet appointment, especially because they can go downhill rather quickly if not treated in a timely manner.

 

[Comment]

Thank you for your answer. The diet didn't change, she usually eats mostly pellets, in the cage she has two bowls with Zupreem and Zeigler, she eats more of the Zupreem pellets. When she is out of the cage I give her seed mixture, some millet and the ocassional nutriberry or dried blueberry. Everyday we give her some veggies too. On friday, when this problem started, I gave her escarole and lamb's lettuce (I think they are the names in english) but she didn't eat much of them. We haven't feed her any veggie during the weekend.
We are worried about one thing, during the weekend we decided to clean and dissinfect all her stuff just in case, and then we found some kind of algae or something like that in the water bottle (a little of greenish substance on the glass). We threw it right away because we were not sure we could clean it and bought a new one. I don't know if it is related, but she is better since that.

 

[Piasa]

I'd keep your vet appointment. The algae scum in the water bottle probably had bacteria or fungi of some sort in it.

 

[MonicaMc]

What kind of Zupreem are you feeding?


Water bottles need to be cleaned every day since bacteria can still grow inside of them. You may want to consider having 2 or 3 water bottles on hand, so while one is in use, the other one could be soaked and/or cleaned.

 

[Comment]

We are using zupreem natural. This one: Natural With Added Vitamins & Minerals | S | ZuPreem She doesn't like colored pellets.
We will be more careful with the water bottle and we are taking her to the vet this afternoon just in case, although yesterday she was better I think, only some slightly watery droppings and most were perfectly normal. But better safe than sorry. We'll show the vet the dirty water bottle in case they have seen that problem before.

 

[MonicaMc]

Let us know what the vet says!

 

[Comment]

Well it seems everything is ok with Maya. We went to the vet and he was a little worried that the bird could have diabetes because she is very young. But he did a blood test and urine test, and did not found any sign of diabetes, kidney failure or infection. The vet said it could be hormonal and that maybe Maya is thinking of laying an egg, although she doesn't have any "ready" yet.
He said that in the last few days he has seen several cockatiels with the same problem because a couple of weeks ago it rained "a lot" (not really a lot but pretty much for Madrid) and cockatiels like laying eggs after a rainy season because they feel there will be a lot of food for their chicks. So he told us some things we can do to try to disuade her out of laying eggs, and what to do if she finally decides to lay some eggs.
I am happy that we finally took the bird to the vet although she doesn't like it a bit and when we came back home she looked like she was feeling miserable, poor thing. We had to cuddle and pet her for a long time!

 

[MonicaMc]

Glad she checked out well! Hopefully it's just a "one off" kind of thing and there really isn't anything wrong.



And yes, vet visits can be stressful on birds.