He's getting leaner, should I worry?

[WideO]

Oscar was always a bit chubby before. The vet said he had tiny love handles heheh.


Lately, I can see he's getting leaner. He's 6 now. He is absolutely happy, sweet. Strong. Alert. When I let him out, he flies a lot more, and less panting afterwards too. He's always moving, doing something when he's not napping. He eats like an elephant. A strand of cooked spaghetti (I know I know...) is handled in 5 seconds - lets it glide through one paw, it's a miracle how he does it. His normal food is always half eaten (we give way too much) every day.



Shreds wooden toys like they are made of fine paper. So his behaviour is better/more active than ever. He seems like a truly happy bird, especially since I calmed down too (see other thread...). Our latest new game is nosy nosy, where we bump nose/beak through the bars several times. He's extremely careful when he does that, shy even. I thank him and he starts to regurgitate (so I have to back off and calm him down heheh).



Should I worry? Is it just he's getting healthier instead of there something being wrong? His feathers are perfect, he is not nervous, still looks like a monster when he puffs up. But he's leaner, and probably closer to the weight that is normal for male Senegals. (he was 40 grams overweight 3 years ago)



My wife doesn't notice much difference, but I do. Can they be happy/active/funny/talking and still be ill? Am I worrying about nothing? Or would it be a good idea to take him to the vet for a checkup (and get laughed out of the consultation room...)?


Thank the heavens I never got kids, I'd be in the ER all day heheh.

 

[Jen5200]

It sounds like he is flying more than he used to, which often makes them a bit leaner. It never hurts to get a checkup if something has changed for them - if nothing else, it sets your mind at ease. I’ve taken my birds in because something felt different....haven’t been laughed at yet

 

[18WheelsOfSteel]

As a general rule, I like sleeping soundly at night whenever possible, things like worrying over pets have a bad habit of keeping me up nights, so I do whatever needs doing to ease those fears, vet visits are cheap insurance compared to tragic results, perhaps not always on the wallet, but certainly on the mind and conscience.

 

[WideO]

Yeah... I hear ya. It's that they are so good in hiding their weakness/illness. Sneaky little buggers!



I'll go to the vet. I'm lucky to live 1 mile from a vet who is specialized in birds, and gets visitors/patients from surrounding countries even as he has a stellar reputation.


He did laugh at me last time (OK, with me, it was hilarious) when I brought him in for coughing. Apparently... parrots don't cough. He was doing my wife's cough, for fun. I felt stupid, but you can't know everything, right!


Peace of mind is always worth more than a couple of thousand grand in the end...

On the phone now...

 

[Laurasea]

You need a kitchen gram scale , Walmart, Amazon , 14-2o bucks. Then get a notebook keep with the scale and track weights. Will give you a lot of piece of mind. I put a sturdy dish with seeds on scale zero it, then plop a bird on. But you should know it's normal for weight to vary from day to day by a few grams. And you should weigh at the same time every day that you weigh. You aee a good parront, I have to talk myself down worries about birdies too

 

[WideO]

Yeah, have a scale like that, but he's... a smart bird and knows how to not get on it LOL. Will try again a few times.



I have an appointment in 2 hours (30 minutes was possible too, but too early for me). What a luxury eh! It's never bad to have them checked. As you may know we just lost our cat (old age, but still...), so I'm jumpy right now, this way I can put my mind at ease. I noticed my last visit was 11 months ago, so why not.


Lab was seen by the vet last Friday, doing great for 13.5 years, had some more injections to muscle up a bit, some more stuff, he's doing just fine. So quick trip and a few bucks and (hopefully) I'll be 100% up to date pet-wise.

 

[dhraiden]

It's not a bad idea to occasionally record his weight, to keep track of as one indicator of health.

 

[WideO]

Um... um... so... yeah... he's about 110% healthy. LOL


There is absolutely nothing wrong, everything is perfect. Maintains his nails and beak on his own, all good, perfect shape/size. Heart rate good. Been looked at and prodded inside & out, squealed like a pig when he had to take him in his towel. Fresh stool sample etc, all normal. No parasites or other critters anywhere. Eyes 100% clear. Feathers perfect and actually looking beautiful. Fought very hard, tried to rip the thingy they put in his beak to pieces, he does not give in...



But 3 minutes later in his cage he was "coughing" again, making his usual sounds, asking to be petted. Vets were pretty surprised how quickly he "came down". He didn't want to talk yet, but that would have been crazy anyway. But I talked to him the whole way up, drove very carefully, he was absolutely OK in the car - same on the trip home. Asked "ANY NEWS?"



Oh, and the kicker? He had gained 10 grams since last time (11 months ago). He's now at 180 grams (even though he looks lean, I don't get it but who's complaining!) which is quite a bit for a male Senegal. No fat though. Could be bone structure maturing, muscle...



They (vet + assistant) were impressed... I had brought one of my drum sticks. I play the drums, and the stick has always been an excellent tool to "handle" him. Asked him to step up in the cage, he stepped up in 1 sec. Wandered to the round "brush-type" thing (never seen that before) that is the scale, asked him to step off: stepped off. Waited until I asked to step up again... damn son, you did me proud heheheheh.



So yeah, I was over-sensitive. They understood completely with the cat gone, and reminded me Oscar is surely mourning too. The cat was part of his family after all, his flock.


I will sleep soundly tonight...

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Woohoo!! Always good to hear good news from the vet, especially to reassure you that he's 110% on track! Kudos to you

 

[Jen5200]

Worth every cent to know that he’s healthy and happy! Peace of mind is worth a lot of cents

 

[Laurasea]

Congratulations! Peace of mind! Sleep tight.
Maybe you should smudge your house, I do once in a while. I'm not a hocus pocus person, but I find it really does clear the negative enery, and I sleep the best after doing... Do why not?

 

[bill_e]

As said above, a food scale is a good way to keep ahead of any problems. I try to weigh Nike once a week or more. I know what her normal swing of weight is and if I ever encounter a repetitive measurements showing a drop in her weight it would be off to the Vet.

I will also say that when I think she's lost weight she hasn't and when I think she's gained she hasn't...feathers can be deceiving.

I just made a little perch for her, she goes right on it. Much to my wife's chagrin I keep the scale out on the table so I remember....takes seconds to do.

 

[WideO]

Worth every cent indeed.


Also, always a good time to ask for tips about food, treats... I admitted we sometimes give him a small piece of spaghetti, or a tiny bit of cheese or (cannibal alert) a bit of chicken.


Apparently, all good, of course, all in tiny doses. I told them: look, I weigh 100kg (6'7"), he's say 200 grams for ease of math; that means if I give him something, it's the equivalent of me eating 500 times that (!).



So half a strand of spaghetti is 250 strands for me. That would kill me LOL. And yeah, usually they are messy eaters. Well, not with spaghetti or other carbohydrates. Every molecule gets swallowed. It's a miracle he can still fly heheh.


OTOH their resting heart rate is ridiculous (couple of hundreds, don't remember at hand), so they need a lot of energy too.


Yes, I will do the weighing, put it in the routine. Now that the cat is gone, I have a lot more time to let him out without worrying (I didn't THINK the cat would do something, but cats are cats, nature is nature...), so making a stand on a scale that he can sit on for fun is a good idea.


Just to be clear: I'm usually not worried too soon. I observe a lot, a love watching their behavior (or their interaction with the world, the other pets etc). I usually *know* when something's off. This time, it may have been because of the cat situation that my spider senses were off.



Anyway: the vet said: yes (I'm Belgian, remember - we invented them, not the French :54, a small fry is OK too. I always thought potatoes could potentially be poisonous, but a small piece of a fry (we air fry BTW) is OK.



Tried it yesterday immediately when I came home. He took it like always with "new" food: in his paw, looking at it, "sniffing", as if to say "hey, boss, what's this, are you sure?". Tasted it. Hmmmm. Tasted it again... chomp chomp, he ate it very slowly, then faster, but without spilling a morsel.


Usually when he doesn't like something (which is lots, especially green stuff...), he drop-kicks it back into the living room.

 

[WideO]

I will also say that when I think she's lost weight she hasn't and when I think she's gained she hasn't...feathers can be deceiving.

Had to ponder over this. Any reason why this happens? I would have sworn on my firstborn so to speak.



I watched him like a hawk for a while now and it changes from day to day, hour to hour sometimes. And I don't mean the "fluffing up" they do where it's like they are inflated and about to explode; that's something he often does when he is jealous and wants my full attention (dog walking by, wife saing hello...). Just the feathers very stiff/sleek vs "normal" stuff.



But yes, scale, working on a contraption as we speak. With him it's always about finding a "technique" that works, and then he does it every time.