Fatty liver disease in my amazon

[Dots]

My yellow nape Amazon has been diagnosed with fatty liver disease. Taking a few meds from vet, milk thistle, omega oil and another I can’t think of at the moment. Wondering if anyone has given their bird thistle seeds. I heard they can possibly be given too much milk thistle and I would like to look into getting away from having to stick a syringe of milk thistle into her beak twice a day. She has be o e really quiet and not moving around much but better since on the medication. I. Guilty of having let her eat seed for21 years, even though she has always gotten fresh food in addition. I’m really concerned about her. Not her old self st all. Any advice is really appreciated!

 

[noodles123]

When I got mine, she had a severe liver condition (unknown to the people re-homing her--I am #4).
I took her to the vet, and as soon as we had blood-work, we were able to assess how bad things were.
I religiously gave her a significant amount of lactulose and liquid milk-thistle and I limited her seeds/junk (which were already minimal). It worked---the lactulose is important though (it is NOT LACTOSE). It prevents seizures due to excess ammonia in the brain. Anyway, mine is "cured" according to blood-work, but it took a lot of devotion. Good luck!

EDIT---I did all of this under the supervision of a vet (who also wrote me prescriptions for both substances and mixed them for me at the office). Obviously you will want to speak to a vet before undertaking any treatments.

 

[Scott]

Welcome to you, Ollie, and Caymey!

I've heard great reviews of homeopathic measures such as milk thistle, etc to supplement traditional medical care. Is Ollie's under care of a certified avian vet? Very important to accurately diagnose and treat based on highly specialized training. Many "exotic" vets treat birds and lack specific education and equipment. (not suggesting this is the case, but for a diagnosis of FLD, expert help needed)

 

[plumsmum2005]

Echo Scotts comment above hun as someone with experience of FLD. Seed should be withdrawn IMHO. Feed a varied diet of veggies, incorporating cleansing foods such as beetroot. A chop gives the best options for feeding many different types of veg. MT seed can be soaked and fed. Again in moderation as I heard it is a fatty seed in itself. FLD causes infection in the liver, is your AV addressing this? What are the blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels like? Please remain realistic, throwing all sorts of supposed miracles at this is not effective. Is Ollie definitely a 'he', hen birds can have elevated levels due to hormones adding to the numbers. Lactulose is prescribed to flush the poorly liver and stop build ups as stated. You need a good AV with experience of this disease and then to have a plan of action so you work together. If Ollie is very poorly then possibily being admitted and given meds would be a good option? From experience giving meds at home on foods is rather hit and miss.

 

[Dots]

Thank you all so much for your responses. Have spent a lot of time medicating and observing Ollie the last week. Hoping I don’t get to lengthy but no sure where to go for advice and you all seem pretty knowledgeable. Ollie has always been pretty active climbing around her cage and on her playground. Always a good eater but has eaten a fair amount of sunflower her whole life too. I guess her activity seemed to slow a little but I didn’t notice until one day she seemed very unbalanced and very unsteady. Took her to an avian vet where they ended up doing a full blood work up and xrays. Keep her for two days giving her fluids and sent her home with an antibiotic, milk thistle mixed with lactulose, omega oil and another med, dvm something. It’s been a week and a half. She is definitely better, making a little more noise and climbing around more. I have limited her seed a lot and put pellets into her cage, which she is completely ignoring. She’s getting a lot of blueberries, chicken, some papaya, romaine, scrambled eggs. Hardly eating anything else. I am completely unable to give her the meds. My brother lives with me. She has attached herself to him and he gives meds to her through syringes. She has chewed 12 of them up in a week. I don’t want to continue the syringes. And I am supposed to travel by car with her and my other bird to my summer house where it will be just me there, no brother to give her meds. I don’t know what to do really. I am planning on calling vet this week. He wanted to weigh her again and I want to know what his plan for the future for her is. Another weird thing. He asked if I ever had her sexed. I did yeRs ago. She was a girl. This vet said oh, she appears to be a boy. I didn’t even ask why then because I was just concerned about her present condition. Again, if you have made it to the end of this very long response, I so appreciate your attention and any advice at all you can give me. Thank you so much!!!

 

[plumsmum2005]

Hun I lost my boy last year with liver related issues. The meds are important and Ollie needs to be given them as prescribed. I would cut the seeds tbh. Have you tried making a chop? It worked with a fussy 'too. You can get loads of good stuff in there all chopped up. You could even crush pellets into the chop? Most vets suggest Harrison's and they do several mashes * if a sloppy food is liked more and would hide the meds. Can you ask about Ollie's heart to check it is working well? No murmur. Probably too early to say very much, if Ollie is fit enough and can fly then exercise is good, even walking the stairs. Inactivity plus lots of fatty seeds have caused this. IMHO the future depends on how long this has been in progress. Interested what caused the unsteadiness. During one bad spell with my boy he was perching with his head lower than his body.


* including one for poorly birds I think?


Ask for the bloods report and then check what the levels of cholesterol and triglycerides are, this will tell you how much of an uphill challenge you have.



My girl's were sky high and they have halved in a year. More work to do!

 

[Dots]

Thank you for your responseI don’t have a huge amount of information about specifics of blood work right now. I honestly didn’t like this vet much. He went through everything so fast when I picked her up, I hardly knew what I was doing when I left the office, but he is the only game in town. The other issue, and I HATE to have this matter, is that all this initial blood work has cost me 1000 dollars already. This is just a year after I spent 12,000 with emergency surgery and one chemo treatment to try and save my beloved dog, only to lose him in three weeks. So that hurt my heart and my pocketbook. My husband is being understanding but he said you know, we can’t do that again. And I don’t want to either. Just trying to get Ollie over this without doing extraordinary vet bills and the least stress to her. I must ask, what is a mash? I bought her kale the other day, sweet potato, a quinoa mix. Doesn’t want any of it and if I do take her out of town , I cannot get ahold of her to give her these meds through a syringe. Also, she always was active in her cage or playground climbing around, but never a flyer. I used to clip her wings slightly, but haven’t done that in years and she really never tries to fly. Certainly not doing it now because of this, but she is climbing around a little more the last few days, chewing her toys and things . Thanks again for any advice!

 

[Dots]

I’m looking up Harrison’s bird food now on amazon. I also have what my bird store where I got Ollie calls monkey chow, little biscuits I soften in water. I don’t even know what’s in them but that’s what they fed her when she was a baby before I brought her home. She likes them. And I purchased bird bread at the vet that I have to cook up with eggs and palm oil. Good for her? I don’t know. I’m sorry. I should be way more knowledgeable after having three birds for 21 years. I’m mad at myself. I guess the most important thing to me all these years was making sure they got enough time with me. I didn’t worry so much about proper food, as long as they liked whatever food I gave them, and what they like the most was seeds and yogurt treats, and fresh corn for Ollie, which I’ve taken away too

 

[plumsmum2005]

I’m looking up Harrison’s bird food now on amazon. I also have what my bird store where I got Ollie calls monkey chow, little biscuits I soften in water. I don’t even know what’s in them but that’s what they fed her when she was a baby before I brought her home. She likes them. And I purchased bird bread at the vet that I have to cook up with eggs and palm oil. Good for her? I don’t know. I’m sorry. I should be way more knowledgeable after having three birds for 21 years. I’m mad at myself. I guess the most important thing to me all these years was making sure they got enough time with me. I didn’t worry so much about proper food, as long as they liked whatever food I gave them, and what they like the most was seeds and yogurt treats, and fresh corn for Ollie, which I’ve taken away too

Hun you need to feed Ollie foods that are not fatty, the liver is like a sponge and when these kinds of problems hit it becomes a fat saoked sponge. All this fat effectively kills off healthy Liver. The eggs in moderation and I would not give palm oil. My boy was short of B vitamins and the vet gave him shots as a quick fix. No monkey chow please? Unless you have expereinced something why would you have the knowledge. I am sorry re the AV, take a friend or record him on a phone? They can be a strange breed can AV's. Gonna try an PM you?


I am guessing that Ollie with so little exercise is going to be 'heavy' so weight loss and fat levels in the blood need to be reduced. This will need a strict diet hun, it is hard, was on me to get a better diet taken to.

 

[Scott]

My flock's favorite medium for taking liquid/powdered meds is plain cooked oatmeal. Most but not all meds can be mixed with a small amount, so please check with the vet before trying this method. You can make a small batch (oatmeal flakes + water, microwaved) and refrigerate for a few days, warm to room temp before dosing. Thoroughly mix sufficient quantity to disguise and serve via spoon, fingers, however appropriate. Alternatively, most any cereal such as cream of wheat, cream of rice, can be tried. My flock loves oatmeal so much it is served as treat one or two times weekly, also to keep a conduit open should they require meds.

Applesauce is like by many birds, preference is for "natural" with just a bit of ascorbic acid added as preservative. Avoid the sweetened variety, just extra sugar, typically high fructose corn syrup.

It can be difficult to distinguish between a skilled vet with sub-par people skills vs mediocre and dazzling gift of gab. You have the right to approach the office and receive clarification of notes, test results, etc.