Help Please

[Xander]

I have a problem with Lobo (my YNA), I first saw yesterday that she made a poop with bubbles,today all day the same, I called and emailed my vet and he told me that he will call but after 4 h nothing, I called him twice..his assistant told me that they can’t see me until Tuesday..
She is eating roudybush pellets and in the last 2 days she got like 5 blueberries nothing else..
I did all the tests last Friday , visual and blood and he told me she is in perfect health..
I took couple pictures with the poops .. should I be worry?? And what can I do until Tuesday??
Thanks.

 

[Laurasea]

Great pictures. One f
Does look like diarrhea, and I do see the bubbles. Unfortunately I don't feel equipped to give you a good answer... different foods can make different poops. After fruits and vegetables mine will have runny poops sometimes.. I hope you do plan on offering a lot more veggies daily though. I hope others have a better answer. And that the vet calls, stressful with long weekend.

 

[Xander]

She doesn’t like vegetables, I was thinking that the Roudybush pellets have everything that she needes..

 

[Laurasea]

It's a good pellet. But you gotta work with them in the veggies. You can hit the jackpot with some veggies, others take time for them to eat... But yes veggies veggies every day. Eat them in front of the bird then offer, make toys out of them offer them cooked and warm, have her share a plate with you. It's good for them to have veggies!!! It's also good for their mind to have new stuff and to forage. Check out the foods thread page. You can cook corn muffins and have the veggies in that too. You can offer whole, chopped, lots if tempting ways. They can reject them because they are new and weird then turn around and love them!!! I offered bok choy for the first time. The first time they saw it nobody took a bite. The second time they all dug in, weird birds Right?!

 

[Xander]

The assistant called me back and she told me that the doctor looked at the pictures and that the stools are small and watery maybe because I changed her diet .. but that’s boll shift because she is eating a lot of roudybush..and the diet change was like 1.5 weeks ago.
She told me to call her after the weekend, you expect another answer after I paid 250 $ 1 week ago..sucks because he is the best around me..

 

[Laurasea]

Amazon peeps talk look at stool please , so Xander can have piece of mind!! Stress from vet vidit can cause an episode or two. Keep checking them. At least you did have her checked with a clean bill of health with blood work and gram stain if stool right? So maybe this is just an episode. I would still offer veggies, and I'm surprised the vet didn't discuss diet more with you. I feel your worries.....I think it's going to be ok, but once more people get off work they can weigh in.

 

[lplummer52]

Calm down. Sounds like Lobo is doing fine. If you’re feeding him fresh fruits and veg, his poops will be loose from the water in the food. Birdie’s poops are loose after she takes a bath. Because she ingests a lot of water. Think about it. What is your bird ingesting? Lots of fruits and veg? Then poops are going to be loose too. Nothing to worry about. Take away fruit and veg after noon. Then offer good quality pellets and water the rest of the day.

 

[Laurasea]

LPlummer52
He doesn't offer veggies......but the water bath and all good ideas....I do think will be ok .

 

[noodles123]

I wouldn't be too panicked if all else is well. Can you bring in a fecal sample for a gram-stain? A lot of times (but not always) bubbles can mean yeast.

I will say mine sometimes has weird poo, but when tested, it came back normal.

I would get her poop checked as soon as you can, but currently, it doesn't sound like a severe emergency.

 

[Xander]

The poops are still watery but she was pretty active today, she was pretty active today so I will wait until Tuesday and if she is not feeling better we will go at the vet..
Her feathers are clean and no sign of diarrhea.

And she took a bath like 4 days ago,I didn’t knew that can be a reason..

 

[Xander]

I’m starting to be worried, yesterday she was feeling better, but today she didn’t wanna eat to much, and still a lot of water in her poops.
It’s strange that all of this happened after we went to the wet.. everything was ok before..
Now I need to wait until Tuesday to go with a stool Sample because everything is close...

 

[EllenD]

Okay, deep breath. She's fine right now.

It looks to be either just some runny droppings due to the blueberries and/or a lot of water that she drank, or she may have a bacterial or fungal infection in her GI Tract. As already mentioned, if she is acting normally and eating normally, isn't lethargic, sleeping a lot, vomiting, constantly fluffed-up, at the bottom of her cage, etc. then she's doing just fine for right now. Be sure to take a fresh sample of her droppings in with you on Tuesday, as your Avian Vet should do both a Culture and microscopy on it.

*****Now, about her diet...First of all, regardless of what the main staple of her diet is (in this case it's the Roudybush pellets), she still needs to eat a lot of other things to get not only her complete physical nutrition every day, but also her MENTAL nutrition. "Pellets" are great, but they tend to give bird owners a feeling of "Great, that's all my bird needs", like they're a superfood or something, and that is just not the case at all, in fact it's far from it.

***Pellets do not exist in nature!!! Think about that for a minute...Birds bodies are built, designed, were created so that they can eat a huge variety of foods, which include seeds, grains, legumes, nuts, fresh veggies, etc. Their bodies nor their minds were created to be satisfied or fulfilled by pellets...So yes, the pellets should be the main staple of her regular, daily diet...However, she still needs to get a small amount of a healthy, fortified, low-fat and non-sunflower seed, varied seed-mix every day, as they absolutely need to eat seeds to keep their GI Tracts healthy. In addition, this will help to fulfill her foraging instincts. Pellets do neither of these. Pellets do nothing to keep their GI Tracts functioning properly, nor do they have to forage or use their beaks to "shell" pellets...We are getting so worried about seed-mixes being "bad" for our birds that we're all forgetting that birds are designed to eat seeds on a daily basis. They just can't be eating fatty seeds every day.

In addition, you absolutely need to find some fresh veggies that she will eat, and keep giving them to her until she starts eating them, because she needs to be eating them every single day. There are a massive TON of fresh veggies and dark, leafy greens that you can try to give her, I mean dozens and dozens of them, and you need to keep trying until you find some that she likes.

*****Now, here's the real problem...You should not be feeding her fruit every day, as all fruit is just filled with sugar, as much sugar as candy is! The reason that she's readily eating fresh fruit and not veggies is because of the sugar. Sure she'll eat fruit, we like ice cream and cookies more than veggies too, but look what happens to us if we eat them every day. Fresh fruit is quite often though of by bird owners as being the SAME as fresh veggies, like an either-or situation, and this is one of the reasons that so many pet birds die so young or suffer their entire lives with conditions like Fatty Liver Disease, Diabetes, Arthritis due to being overweight, etc. And the larger Amazons have a tendency to put on weight quickly and suffer from severe arthritis in their joints due to being overweight. Also, Amazons also have a tendency to develop a lot of very large Lipoma's all over their bodies, which are simply fatty tumors due to them eating too much sugar and fat. So you need to start replacing the fresh fruit with fresh veggies every single day, and only give her fresh fruit 3-4 times a week, and in small portions so that these things don't start happening to her. If you take away the fruit as a regular part of her diet, she'll be much more open to eating some fresh veggies daily, as well as adding a healthy, low-fat and non-sunflower seed-mix to her diet daily. There are a lot of really great seed-mixes that are low-fat and very healthy for them, like Roudybush for one...

***As far as fresh veggies to try, you can start your list by trying all of the Squashes (Butternut, Acorn, Spaghetti, Yellow, etc.), Eggplant (my guys love eggplant), of course Green Beans, Sugar Snap Peas and Sweet Peas in the pods (these are usually favorites), any of the Bell Peppers (Green, Red, Orange, Yellow) or other Peppers, as birds love Peppers and have no receptors for the heat they emit, Sweet Potatoes (she'll probably love these because they are sweeter), Carrots, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Okra (my Senegal loves Okra), and any other fresh veggies you can find EXCEPT for Onions/Leeks, as they are toxic to birds.

***Dark, leafy greens that you can give them fresh and that are just as good as the "veggies" include Bok Choy and Pak Choy (they usually really like Bok Choy), Swiss Chard, Arugula/Rocket (they usually love Arugula because it is peppery tasting), Mustard Greens, Turnip Greens, Collard Greens, Dandelion Greens, Kale (occasionally), Spinach (occasionally), any of the Romaine lettuces, and basically any other dark, leafy greens...Never feed any Iceburg lettuce or any other "watery" lettuces, as they have little to no nutritional value and are all water.

That should give you a good place to start. Luckily fresh veggies and greens are very cheap to buy, and there are just so many of them. They really tend to love the "meaty" veggies, of course the sweeter veggies, and then the peppers.

And you can either look in the Food/Diet forum here or Google search for different veggie "Chop" recipes, which are really great because you can make them in very large batches and then put a day's portion in baggies, freeze the baggies, and then just take out one baggie at night or first thing in the morning and put it in the fridge to thaw. That way you're only making-up the Chop's once a week, maybe less depending on how much you make.

 

[noodles123]

Sometimes stress can cause watery poop- if the vet was a stressful experience...Also, if other birds go there, she could have picked up a bug at the vet. I always sanitize the travel cage (with F10 SC) and dump all food post-vet.
Is there an emergency vet nearby that can provide fluids etc in the event of an emergency? I am not saying it is, but if you have to wait until Tuesday, you might start considering back-up plans in the event that something really alarming occurs between now and then.

 

[Xander]

I looked online and Monday is Labor Day so everything is close... I will try to give her some veggie today..
I was thinking the same , that maybe she picked up something from the vet , the only time she wasn’t near me was when they took her blood..
I’m worried because we are leaving Saturday for 2 weeks and somebody will come everyday and feed her so I want to be in perfect health, because that person doesn’t know anything about birds..
Thanks for everything.

 

[Xander]

So if she has an infection or a bacteria they will find that in the poop no??

 

[noodles123]

Keep an eye on her, but often fruit and veg will make watery poop. My bird's poop is so darn weird--I was quite concerned, but gram stains and blood-work show that she is fine...I know that technically she could have some other problem that would need to be detected by an x-ray or ultra-sound (or more specific testing), but based on behavior and test-results thus far, I am thinking it is just the water-content of her food. Like I said, you should get your bird checked, but as long as she is acting somewhat normal, I would try not to panic too much.

Side-note: I have already tested my bird for polyoma, psittacosis and chlamydia.

In most cases, based on poop, they will be able to figure out if there is yeast of a bacterial infection. They look at the ratio of gram positive to gram negative bacteria. Gram negative is not good, and if they find a lot of that, they will give an antibiotic. If they see budding yeast, they may give you a systemic anti-fungal, or they may just tell you to mix bird probiotics into her food---depends on the severity. You should also get blood-work done if you have no done so within the past year or so, as certain conditions of the liver etc can impact poop quality. If, for instance, your bird turned out to have a liver problem, this would also impact your selection when medicating (As certain drugs are hard on the liver). I don't think your bird has liver issues---that was just an example to illustrate the importance of semi-current blood work in conjunction with a gran-stain.

There are a few fungal situations that wouldn't necessarily show up in poop (or blood) and they are very hard to test for. These are things like aspergilosis (sp?) but if she isn't showing signs of respiratory distress, then you can probably rule that out. Also, viruses like ABV (to name 1) require specific testing, but the testing they conduct is not definitive, as an infected bird can test negative if not actively shedding the virus.

 

[Xander]

I just did the blood and visual check and everything one week and everything was perfect..
The only thing I didn’t do was a poop sample or gram stain how is that called, for sure I will watch her closely..

 

[noodles123]

Okay good- so ignoring more obscure possibilities that wouldn't be detected in blood, it could be stress, diet, or bacteria and/or yeast. It is unlikely that your bird is currently in serious danger unless you start to see a lot of other concerning symptoms between now and Tuesday. It is good that you are paying attention and concerned, but it is also easier than ever to worry about natural changes in poop when you have Google at your fingertips lol. DO take in the sample, and DO watch her, but know that it is quite possible that they will run the stain and find nothing. Better safe than sorry, but if you can help it, don't worry yourself into a dither, or she will pick up on that. I have worked myself up a million times, only to find that the poop sample was normal. I hope that makes you feel a little better----now that you are hyper-fixated on the possible problem, it may be easy to over-think things that you normally would ignore. That having been said, it is better to overthink than to under-think lol.

 

[Xander]

I went today with a sample and they told me that she doesn’t have any bacteria or problems �� and today the poop was the same ...
They told me if I want to go an get a probiotic to put in the water maybe that will help her, she didn’t told my the name just they order that from Australia and it’s 24 $ ��
I was expecting a bad news so I can fix this ��

 

[noodles123]

I use powdered Bene-Bac (sp?)--it is about $20 something for me when I get it at the vet----I mix it with a tiny bit of wet food (like plain oatmeal or fruit/veg if I know she will eat it). My bird rarely drinks water it seems, so adding it to that would be a waste for me---plus, then it is really hard to tell how much they are getting.