Egg yolk peritonitis (Arie's diagnosis tonight)

[Lunalie]

Found out tonight at the vet (apparently this one has late hour appts made without a larger charge!) I made the appt this morning..

On the 19th I noticed two pairs of mine had a bit of a belly and while one female has been laying eggs my other budgie hadn't been. At first I thought egg bound, but felt nothing! Her belly looks awful, feathers kinda ruffled, rapid breathing and even her beak looked a bit discolored. Other than that she can perch, tonight even eating. Her mate had been feeding her other wise. I also have been giving her water and vitamins with a syringe.

Tonight the vet said she had it. These people were kind and said the sweetest things, but their demeanor told me what they really thought the outcome would be.

The nurse said she is so sweet and tamed. Would get on and off her finger for xray, exam, etc. It made me bawl. She is so sweet and is the first one I brought home. (As an adult) she brought my 8 year old out of his shell to the point he has two of my old pair I adopted in his room and even when my friend askes me if I would take her hedgehog because she couldn't care for it at the time, I said yeah and I'd put him in my daughter's room. My 8 year old son chimed in saying he wanted him. He gets him out to get his play time and all that. Mind you this is a SPIKY hedgehog.
He was teary eyed watching me walk out the door to go to the vet telling Aries bye...
I'm so sad.
Sad for my son, myself... also that Aries basically sees her friend having eggs with no issues and she got sick.

My heart hurts for her mate who loves her so much.

I told the nurse we are beating this. I don't care if I'm buying formula to hand feed and then I asked if they had that and they did. So I got it.

So she's on antibiotics and anti inflammatory meds. I'll continue to give her, her vitamins to make sure she is getting them and as long as Astraeus (her mate) doesn't try to mate with her and continues to just help feed he can stay with her.

Hope that is the case because I think he has helped her a lot when it comes to eating.

We got this, we got this, we got this....

Apparently the internet says it's common, but the nurse said they don't ever see parakeets with it. Only big birds. Only thing I could think of was our poop luck or others just don't realize it and don't make it to the vet in time or they don't want to spend the money on exam, xray, meds...

Anyone with experience with this in their budgie?

 

[LaManuka]

I'm so sorry, I'm not going to be of any help to you, having never experienced anything like this myself. I just wanted to say I understand how scared you are, I am DESPERATELY trying to prevent my Lilly the lorikeet from presenting me with another clutch of (infertile) eggs this year in case something like this happens to her.

It sounds like you are doing pretty much everything that you possibly can do for Aries in this situation and I hope you are able to take some comfort in that. I hope your little hen will be ok

 

[Lunalie]

Thank you! Determined to do our best. I was up most of the night. Slept on the couch. I checked on her a couple times till I fell asleep. However she still hasn't left the same spot. Hoping taking the cover off will get her moving and eating.

 

[Lunalie]

So with meds and I've been hand feeding her not just her meds, vitamins and all that, but food as well to fatten her up because she was becoming too thin. Her belly is down. She is starting to eat some here and there. Does just sit there a lot.. but will talk to her mate when I have her far away and even attempt to fly there (twice).
She seems a little weak... but like the get better kind. I hope this is all working!!

 

[Scott]

Sending you and Aries positive energies and wishes for complete recovery. Honestly was not familiar with egg yolk peritonitis until researching. Hopefully she was not septic or at least minimally infected. With a good vet and your love/supportive care she has the best chance of recovery.

Hang in there Aries, please keep us updated.

 

[Lunalie]

Just wanted to let everyone know Aries did make a full recovery!

However, my house was sprayed and instead of killing bugs it was meant to "make them go away" No... it made MITES come in.

So I had sterlings nesting in my vent not to long ago and when we got them out they had mites BAD. Mom wasn't haven't it with us though so despite that I did put them outside on the fence with a home made nest.

Well, we ended up getting mites in here and most of my birds ended up with mites (We were infested with all kinds! It was crazy! We had them come back out the following week to kill. That is the soonest they would!) By that time I spent more money getting rid of them and helping my birds than I did paying these people. Since they warned that we may see "More activity" we had to expect it.

UMMMM... No. Didn't see MITES at all till that. Thankfully my birds are fine now after vigorously being consistent with helping them. Cleaning this place and what not.

So when that happen I honestly thought Aries wouldn't make it because she JUST went through something bad. However, she is here. I did really worry about my runt there and one night even thought he would pass.

Everyone is okay though and back to normal. Took some adjusting, but after a week or so... they are in their normal cages again.

It's been a looooong road. However I wouldn't trade them for anything! My husband however. >.< All though he'd never admit it. lol

 

[Lunalie]

I do have a question though. Since I had to give Aries meds and hand feed her and what not she has lost trust with me because obviously a lot of the time she didn't want to do it.

Do you think she will ever trust me again? Any advice?

 

[chris-md]

Yes, she will. Will just take time. Unfortunately it’s a reality of these situation: it can damage the bond. but survival first, bonding a distant second.

 

[Lunalie]

You're most definitely right!

 

[LaManuka]

So wonderful that Aries has recovered so well! I hope she is able to avoid any future egg-related complications in future.

 

[Lunalie]

Sorry so long. I ended up with skin stuff myself.... also found my old couple still had mites that were hidden and I caught it too late.