Need your good thoughts/prayers - Parker is in trouble

chris-md

chris-md

Well-known member
Feb 6, 2010
4,360
2,146
Maryland - USA
Parrots
Parker - male Eclectus

Aphrodite - red throated conure (RIP)
Parker was crawling on the floor this morning while my partner was getting ready for work. Somehow, somewhere along the line Parker found an Excedrin tablet (acetaminophen/aspirin/caffeine) and ate approximately a third of it.

We rushed him to the vet. Their back of the envelope calculations (their description "Preliminary vet version of a google search") shows he ingested a toxic dose of Tylenol. Signs are all over the place as far as how this will play out: much of the missing chunk of tablet was simply pulverized, so we aren't clear exactly how much got ingested but its clear not all of it was accounted for. But if he did in fact ingest a toxic dose of Tylenol, this could be REALLY bad. So far he's looking perfectly fine, like nothings wrong. but in humans, a toxic dose of Tylenol can result in life long dialysis. There are question marks about if overnight stay will be necessary, so that's good.

He's getting Toxiban to absorb the toxins, and subcutaneous fluids. They are going to watch him for the remainder of the day. I just can't believe this is happening. Seriously, Excedrin of all things???? I'm just trying to keep it together at work right now hoping for the best.
 
Aw hell Chris... Excedrin. You know I have a prayer headed to Parker and you.
Hope it plays out OK. One reason I dont let Salty run around the floor etc, just too many things to get into. My wife's on serious pain meds, if Salty were to get one of those...
I think he will be OK
 
Yes, serious, but you got it early! Yes, all the possible issues, but you got it early! Yes, beating yourself-up, but you got it early!

Another good point, Parrots push things though fairly quickly. And you got it early!

Prays and heartwarming hugs your way!
 
Hope all goes well for the little guy...prayers and thoughts and well wishes sent to you and Parker ...Get well Parker
 
Ugh, Chris, I hate to hear this! Thank goodness you were there, realized what happened and got him to the clinic immediately. I hope Parker didn't actually ingest enough of the tablet to cause damage. You and Parker will be in my thoughts, looking forward to a positive update.
 
Prayers your way!
May be too late, but if you have all the pulverized pieces, you could try weighing it and comparing it with a whole tablet.
 
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AWWW poor Parker! Sending love and feathered hugs and of course prayers.
 
Oh no, Parker! Here's hoping he just crunched it and didn't ingest much.

I'm terrified of something like this ever happening to me and I hope if it ever does, I take quick action like you did!
 
OMG Chris. That you noticed Parker's ingestion and rushed him to the vet swiftly is very positive. Hoping he did not absorb much and will soon be cleared by the vet. Please keep us updated!
 
Like everyone else, holding my breath until you know he's out of the woods. Glad he has your vet/staff monitoring him. Good call there. Hopefully, like most parrots, he was just playing with it and "machine gunned" it (what I call what my RB2 does to pellets he doesn't particularly care for). Tylenol probably didn't taste all that good so he likely didn't consume very much at all. I would think that would be an immediate "Bleck!" response from a parrot. I don't like those in my mouth either! Praying for an happy outcome. . . .
 
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Guys I really appreciate everything.

Got off the phone with the vet. parker is still looking really good (my interpretation: no outward signs); there's just so many unknowns because we simply don't know how much of it he actually ingested. Worst case scenario he took a heavy toxic hit: 83mg of Tylenol. 4mg is considered the toxic threshold. 20x the limit. Best case scenario: he ground up most of everything and didn't actually ingest much at all.

He may get to come home tonight depending on his overall appearance and a red blood cell count estimate they will be doing shortly. Apparently, blood cell counts will elevate very quickly based on the dose taken. So how much they increase will give us an idea of how bad this will get.

With the combination of aspirin and Tylenol, there is much concern about kidneys and liver. He will likely need to go back tomorrow for the day for a couple blood panels.

I hope we caught it early enough. It was my partner who noticed (I was at work). But from the time he ingested to the time he was brought back to the vets room was just shy of 2 hours. Thankfully it wasn't several hours later when real symptoms appear, but it was still a couple hours. I just hope it was enough.
 
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Chris I'm so sorry, but it was an accident, I know. Good news is that he is in with the vet right away, and he is not showing any outward signs.

I wouldn't think that a one time hit (although I am definitely not downplaying the seriousness of this) would cause irreversible and permanent damage. I think as you mentioned, the people who need dialysis as a direct result of too much Tylenol (?) wasn't because of a one time thing. I realize birds are sensitive, but I still doubt this will cause anything permanent Although I realize it's natural to worry.

Again, he is in good hands thank goodness and is not showing symptoms. I'm sure your vet will test blood and organ function and make sure all is good. Hugs Chris. I wish you and Parker all the best for a smooth recovery.
 
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Glad to hear that Parker may be coming home tonight and that there are no visible signs of anything wrong and hopefully when all the test results come back there will also be no need to worry about any long term effects.
 
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We might have gotten extremely lucky here. He's so far showing none of the immediate clinical/behavior signs that would be expected to accompany a serious immediate overdose (lethargy, discharge) and his red blood cell count qualitatively looked normal though she did see a couple cells that looked strange. She's sending those to a lab to be looked at.

He'll be staying overnight for "observation" (no 24 hour care) and given some meds to coat his intestinal tract. All signs are looking good, but we still have the longer term issues (kidneys/liver) that may not yet reveal themselves until tomorrow. I'm cautiously optimistic at this point.

I tell you, this is motivation to me to begin training for medical husbandry: syringe feedings, spoon feedings, etc. I almost had to give meds to him that I would have no clue how to go about giving him, and they were saying he wasn't exactly taking to them very well.
 
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Its probably just like Eddie just told me: He just wanted to teach us a $500 lesson. Lesson learned: Sweep the house!
 
I really hope Parker is going to be fine with no long term issues. Thank God it was caught early enough to try and prevent anything he may have ingested from being absorbed into his system any further. Please keep us posted.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
 
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