Hello. I have a sick lovebird. No, I cannot take him to the vet because we are in unexpected financial hardship for the next couple of weeks and unless there is a vet out there with a payment plan that requires absolutely no initial payment and no payments for several weeks, I cannot take my bird to the vet.
Kiwi is about 3 months old and has virtually stopped eating over the last couple of days. I had him on a zupreem/seed combo diet, now he won't eat that or even any of his usual favorites like eggs or potatoes, he will barely even touch millet. He is looking very thin now and the bone in his chest is very sharp. He droops his wings often and his feathers are starting to look tattered. Today I noticed the feathers above his nostrils looked wet -I've read rhinitis can be from a vitamin deficiency which is probably from not eating. He is not showing any signs of respiratory distress that I can tell, and he is still pretty active although his behavior has gotten erratic. He does not fluff up much but he often shivers/tremors. He will pace quickly around his cage sometimes making abnormal, loud and rapid squawks, doing backflips etc and just acting strange and hyper. He also also gotten more bitey and difficult. I called the pet store I got him from and they said I could come pick up a bird antibiotic, which it turns out is just doxycycline hyclate which I already have. I read up on dosing it for birds and mixed about 0.5 mg into 5 ml of warm mixed bird formula I have had since hand-feeding him as a baby, and sort of force-fed him and was able to get the majority of the syringe in him. I plan on doing this twice a day. He did swallow slowly while I was feeding him, athough not in the standard baby-being-fed way and I had to hold his head still because he would try to refuse the syringe. I am hoping to keep him from getting too malnourished and get some medicine in him. So far he has not regurgitated. I plan on doing this twice a day.
I know his problem could be a number of things... bacterial, viral, fungal, or parasitic, but I am taking a stab at it in case it is bacterial because I don't know what else to do. Please don't bash me for being an inadequate bird owner, like I said this sudden financial difficulty was unexpected and is temporary and it is unfortunate the bird got sick during this time. I am unable to get a cash advance or any funding to pay for a vet. If anyone has any constructive feedback, like ideas about what might be the cause or what else I can do, please reply.
Kiwi is about 3 months old and has virtually stopped eating over the last couple of days. I had him on a zupreem/seed combo diet, now he won't eat that or even any of his usual favorites like eggs or potatoes, he will barely even touch millet. He is looking very thin now and the bone in his chest is very sharp. He droops his wings often and his feathers are starting to look tattered. Today I noticed the feathers above his nostrils looked wet -I've read rhinitis can be from a vitamin deficiency which is probably from not eating. He is not showing any signs of respiratory distress that I can tell, and he is still pretty active although his behavior has gotten erratic. He does not fluff up much but he often shivers/tremors. He will pace quickly around his cage sometimes making abnormal, loud and rapid squawks, doing backflips etc and just acting strange and hyper. He also also gotten more bitey and difficult. I called the pet store I got him from and they said I could come pick up a bird antibiotic, which it turns out is just doxycycline hyclate which I already have. I read up on dosing it for birds and mixed about 0.5 mg into 5 ml of warm mixed bird formula I have had since hand-feeding him as a baby, and sort of force-fed him and was able to get the majority of the syringe in him. I plan on doing this twice a day. He did swallow slowly while I was feeding him, athough not in the standard baby-being-fed way and I had to hold his head still because he would try to refuse the syringe. I am hoping to keep him from getting too malnourished and get some medicine in him. So far he has not regurgitated. I plan on doing this twice a day.
I know his problem could be a number of things... bacterial, viral, fungal, or parasitic, but I am taking a stab at it in case it is bacterial because I don't know what else to do. Please don't bash me for being an inadequate bird owner, like I said this sudden financial difficulty was unexpected and is temporary and it is unfortunate the bird got sick during this time. I am unable to get a cash advance or any funding to pay for a vet. If anyone has any constructive feedback, like ideas about what might be the cause or what else I can do, please reply.
