Is my senegal sick?

[messesb52]

Hi friends,
I'm trying to determine what's going on with my 8-year old senegal. I first became concerned because he kept flying into my bed frame last month, and I was worried he was going to get hurt. Last week, I started to get worried because I noticed he was falling off his perch at night, which is relatively unusual behavior for him. I notice he does this several times during the day... he sleeps standing on one leg, and then he starts to drift off into a snooze, and begins to loose his balance, and next thing you know he's flapping around, and sometimes falls off what he's standing on. Although he's still eating and all (although not foraging and moving around as much as he normally does), he also hasn't been talking or vocalizing at all over the past year (although I have other hypothesis for why this could be). To be safe, I decided to take him to the vet last week, because I was afraid he got concussed or something flying into my bed. Here's what she said...

I know she's a professional, but I'm unsure how well she assessed the situation. She said he had no symptoms of a concussion, nonetheless, she said she did think something was wrong based on the behavior I described. She also said he was dehydrated and lost a little weight since his last checkup. Again, I'm skeptical that he lost this weight because his diet has changed to more fruits and veggies than it used to be, not necessarily because he's sick... in fact last time the vet said she didn't want him to gain anymore weight, so it seems like he's probably at a healthy weight now. She suspected that he might have heart disease, or atherosclerosis, or bornavirus, or maybe kidney disease. I'm definitely no expert, but based on my research, all these sound unlikley considering hes a young bird who lives an active lifestyle. She gave me some neurological relaxing medication to give him, which was a bad idea because it just made him super drowsy, and he was falling off the perch even more at night. I changed the setup in the cage, so lately he's been sleeping on a flat piece of cardboard, and I haven't been hearing much commotion at night. Although, I did find him sleeping on the bottom of the cage early last night.

The vet reccommended doing blood tests and other things, which I didn't want to do, but I'm considering taking him to another vet for another perspective if you guys think that would be a good idea. Although all in all, his behavior hasn't changed that much over the past year, I know birds are good at hiding illnesses, so I don't want to wait until things potentially get worse to take this seriously. I would appreciate any thoughts that you might have

 

[Laurasea]

Most birds loose weight when sick eben if eating the same. As they burn almost 3 times the calories to fight infection than normal.

Burds hide being sick until they can't. Sby symptoms usually indicate something serious. If you track your birds weight on digital kitchen scale you can often pick up problems much earlier. Therfir easier to treat. When you have a sick bird I recommend weigh it every day.

I would do blood work on your burd. I would chr k heavy metals to. Because birds love shiny thi has and the symptoms you mention csn go with chronic metal like zinc toxicity.

I will link my sick bird article. Duck burd should have extra warmth, not a heat ls.p rho! Extra bump in foods.

 

[messesb52]

Most birds loose weight when sick eben if eating the same. As they burn almost 3 times the calories to fight infection than normal.

Burds hide being sick until they can't. Sby symptoms usually indicate something serious. If you track your birds weight on digital kitchen scale you can often pick up problems much earlier. Therfir easier to treat. When you have a sick bird I recommend weigh it every day.

I would do blood work on your burd. I would chr k heavy metals to. Because birds love shiny thi has and the symptoms you mention csn go with chronic metal like zinc toxicity.

I will link my sick bird article. Duck burd should have extra warmth, not a heat ls.p rho! Extra bump in foods.

Thanks for the advice! It sounds like getting blood work done would be a good idea.

 

[Laurasea]

Here is sick burd link.
Also symptoms could go with low calcium. Many other things im sure, as I am not a vet.
What does the bird eat?

https://www.littlecrittersvet.com/sick-birds.pml

 

[Laurasea]

I just read about bottom of cage sleeping thats very serious. Even if he had a vision problem i myself wouldn't think he would be on bottom of cage.

You need a scale. You need a vet to determine whsts going on. You might need baby bird formula to offer by spoon or syringe ( usually a little thicker than you would for baby burd) adult burds crop do nit stretch like a baby. Start with very low amount. For my 100 gram burd that was just 2 ml, then she started taking 7ml on average, about 4 feedings a day. I leather sleep at night. I weighed before abd afterwards feeding. My formula weighed about a gram per ml, before next support feeding i made sure season come across coue if grams, to make sure food was moving. I never forced, just encourage. I had a very critical burd that had stoped eating. I had seen. By vet snd on antibiotics. My other burdsgit sick, they would take a few mks once a day but were still eating. A scale us so important.

Also what do poops look like? Little fecal matter? Or normal? Creamy white urates are normal ad onky small amount if liquid. If stringy urates usually indicates an issue, if green urine usually infection, or nit eating enough, or liver issues. Furst morning poops always look a little green normal as they fasted over night. Lots of liquid is abnormal, kidney. Or infection.
If yiu start bsby burd formula yiu might have a little more liquid but fecal part should still be formed. Yellow urine usually nit drinking enough, or infection.

 

[messesb52]

I just read about bottom of cage sleeping thats very serious. Even if he had a vision problem i myself wouldn't think he would be on bottom of cage.

You need a scale. You need a vet to determine whsts going on. You might need baby bird formula to offer by spoon or syringe ( usually a little thicker than you would for baby burd) adult burds crop do nit stretch like a baby. Start with very low amount. For my 100 gram burd that was just 2 ml, then she started taking 7ml on average, about 4 feedings a day. I leather sleep at night. I weighed before abd afterwards feeding. My formula weighed about a gram per ml, before next support feeding i made sure season come across coue if grams, to make sure food was moving. I never forced, just encourage. I had a very critical burd that had stoped eating. I had seen. By vet snd on antibiotics. My other burdsgit sick, they would take a few mks once a day but were still eating. A scale us so important.

Also what do poops look like? Little fecal matter? Or normal? Creamy white urates are normal ad onky small amount if liquid. If stringy urates usually indicates an issue, if green urine usually infection, or nit eating enough, or liver issues. Furst morning poops always look a little green normal as they fasted over night. Lots of liquid is abnormal, kidney. Or infection.
If yiu start bsby burd formula yiu might have a little more liquid but fecal part should still be formed. Yellow urine usually nit drinking enough, or infection.

Thanks for the advice. His poops are usually green or brown. But I think the green is because he normally eats some spinach as part of his food. I feed him pretty bird pellets mixed with another brand that is more "natural", and feed him fruit everyday also. I'm taking him to the vet again tomorrow to get blood work done.