ddobs
New member
I just lost a young parakeet suddenly that we got from a rescue over a year ago. The cause was not determined with certainty, although the vet identified blackened lower intestines when she performed a necropsy. She thinks the intestine twisted due to stress or movement, causing a blockage of blood flow. There was no evidence of the bird having ingested anything that caused the blockage. (She said German Shepherds are prone to a similar problem.) The bird otherwise appeared healthy and had been eating well before bedtime the night before we found him on the cage floor beneath his perch. My question for this group is whether it is more common for rescue birds to have underlying health problems than for birds acquired from (responsible) breeding programs. I ask this not because I wouldn't rescue another bird - we are planning to get another - but because I feel like I somehow should have/could have prevented this. We had transitioned all our birds to Harrisons weeks before, and they were all eating I have one toy with natural fiber that the birds tear apart, but again, the vet saw nothing to suggest the bird ingested anything that didn't pass.
