New Member, chronic egg laying help!

[ajpowell89]

Hi everyone!

I joined to get some advice on my cockatiel, Henrietta.

She is a chronic egg layer despite all of my efforts and research. She is even laying in January now.

She does not react well to the Lupron. It makes her crazy moody and sad, and it doesn't last very long.

I am considering a hysterectomy even though I am so scared of her not pulling through.

Has anyone been through this? Any suggestions or feedback?

Thank you!

 

[GaleriaGila]

Just so you're sure to see it... thus link is right next to yours today.
http://www.parrotforums.com/cockatiels/78563-egg-laying-have-i-exhausted-my-options.html

 

[Laurasea]

Hi welcome!;! Glad you joined! Sorry you're having egg laying issues! Very frustrating. I offered one avenue to try is to really amp up physical activities, and mental activities. Start keeping track of weights, so you know if she is carring an egg, in case egg binding. Then ask vet if you can try lowering her weight , so she is not in prime egg laying condition. Rearrange the cage, and move the cage to a new location, and change the location of the cage every few months, supposed to make them not feel comfortable in the new territory. Those are things I have read, not from personal experience.....but when members have problems I research and read up. To see what non traditional things might work. I read an article that more activities helps. I wish you luck.

 

[Scott]

Welcome to you and Henrietta. May I assume she is under the care of a certified avian vet, or equivalent? If not, I would strongly advise seeking one if able for a second opinion.

 

[Flboy]

Welcome to you both!

 

[Allee]

Hello and welcome to the forums! Could you tell us a little more about your cockatiel, her age, how long you've had her?

 

[EllenD]

I'm sorry you're going through this, but I don't recommend having your Cockatiel spayed as a solution...Not only is it risky due to the anesthesia, but it usually doesn't work...The reproductive system/organs of a bird are so tiny (especially a Cockatiel) that the Vet doing the surgery can't even tell if they are removing everything, and usually ovarian tissue is left behind, in fact it is almost all the time...And if any ovarian tissue remains, then the bird will still be hormonal and can still form egg follicles...So you go through the surgery and the LONG and DIFFICULT recovery period after, and then nothing changes because they didn't get all the ovarian tissue out...Their ovaries are literally the size of a pin-point...

****Lupron and any of the other "Depot" injections usually don't work well for most birds, or they work for a while and after a few injections they stop working...HOWEVER,
what is working very, very, very well for many pet parrots are the Deslorelin implants...I highly suggest that you talk to your CAV about trying a Deslorelin implant for your Cockatiel before you even consider spaying her...Every bird I've seen get them has improved drastically, with their reproductive systems completely shutting down.

The Deslorelin implants have little to no side-effects (unlike the Depot injections like Lupron), they last longer, they're 100% safe, and best of all if your bird has any ill-effects from them the are 100% reversible, all you have to do is remove the implant and the hormones wear-off in a couple of weeks, and their reproductive system is back to normal again...But I have yet to see any issue at all from them. They are safe and easy to inject, they are the size of a seed and they are injected right under the skin either on their back between the shoulder-blades, or on the chest/stomach area. They give the bird an injection of Lidocaine or similar to completely numb the area, they make a tiny little "incision" (just a slit in the skin) with a scalpel or a special type of syringe/needle that makes a tiny little hole under the skin, then they inject the implant with another special syringe, then they put a drop of skin-glue over the cut. It heals-over in a few days, and the bird's reproductive system starts shutting-down in the first week, with noticeable changes to their moods and hormonal phases within the first 21 days...by the 30-day mark they achieve full Chemical-Castration, with absolutely no sex hormones being produced at all after about a month and a half...And as long as you take your bird back on-time for their next implant, their reproductive system will stay inactive...There are a couple different strengths of implants, and the higher the strength the longer the implant lasts (they don't release "more" hormone into the bird, they just contain more of the hormone and it is time-released into their body for a longer period of time due to there being more hormone inside of the implant...And the nice thing is that you don't have to have the old implants removed to put the new one in, they are absorbed by the body...And the CAV that I work with at the Avian Rescue I work at doesn't ever put the birds under sedation or anesthesia to put the implants in, they simply towel them and do it. The birds don't feel anything except for the injection of the numbing-agent, the Lidocaine, and that is no worse than any other injection/shot.

***I would absolutely try a Deslorelin implant for your Cockatiel before I would even think about spaying her, because I think if you spay her you're going to be even more disappointed and frustrated...There is no reason to put your bird through a HUGE surgery where they open her abdominal wall up completely from side-to-side and staple it shut, with a recovery period of at least 6-8 weeks (which is one of the most painful surgical recoveries there is), when I'd bet that the surgery fails and is totally unsuccessful in probably 90% or higher of the birds that have it done...It's one thing if your bird is diagnosed with a reproductive/abdominal Cancer and the only chance for her is attempting to spay her, when it's life-threatening if she isn't spayed, but it's a whole other thing when you're doing it to control sex-hormones and egg-laying, for which spaying them is not successful at all...There's no reason to not try ALL MEDICAL AND BEHAVIORAL REMEDIES BEFORE EVEN THINKING ABOUT SPAYING HER...And trust me, the fact that the Lupron didn't work to shut-down her reproductive system has no-bearing at all on whether a Deslorelin implant will work for her; Lupron is effective in maybe 50% of the female birds that get it, and it's only effective for short time periods in those birds...So I'd absolutely speak to your CAV about wanting to first try a Deslorelin implant; some CAV's don't do them, so you might have to find a different CAV or Avian Specialist Vet who does the Deslorelin implants (your CAV should be able to recommend someone if they don't do them)...And if your CAV tried to tell you that you should just go ahead and spay your bird without first trying a Deslorelin implant, then you need to find a new CAV immediately....

***Also, just an FYI about the Deslorelin implants...It usually takes until after the second Deslorelin implant is injected for ALL of the sex-hormones to be gone from your bird's system. So even though the implants do completely shut-down your bird's reproductive system and achieve Chemical-Castration within the first 30 days, and even though you will notice large changes in your bird's moods and behaviors for the positive, you have to give it until after the second implant to make a determination of whether they are going to work for your bird...Even though your bird's reproductive system will be fully and completely shut-down after the first implant, the amount of sex-hormones in your bird's body/bloodstream/brain etc. is quite large, and they all need to be completely gone from her system before total shut-down and production of follicles will be achieved...A lot of people will freak-out because their bird's lay an egg after the first implant and they don't get them the second implant, so they don't ever see the actual success of the implants...The same thing tends to happen with Lupron and the other Depot injections, however they don't typically achieve total Chemical-Castration in the first place, which is the problem....

If you have any questions about the Deslorelin implants just ask, I've been doing them at the Avian Rescue for a good year now with a 100% success rate in stopping the production of follicles/eggs in the chronic layers we've had (probably done the Deslorelin implants in somewhere between 20-30 birds to-date)...My CAV is extremely good and it takes him about 10 minutes from start to finish to get the implants done, but it's an easy, simple, straight-forward procedure that any Vet can do after one training session by the pharmaceutical company that makes the implants...And you shouldn't have any problem finding an Avian Vet that does them within driving-distance to you, as they are being used regularly today...