Seeking advice or ideas for cockatiel with metabolic bone disease

[Kirska]

Hello, this might be a long post so thank you for reading.

Background
My cockatiel Rey is 3 and I've had her since she was a baby. She's always eaten Harrison's with some treats. A little under a year ago, she had a big crash and I took her to the emergency vet. She was hospitalized for almost a week. They thought she would be paralyzed but she mostly recovered. She also hasn't laid eggs since then.

In the time since then, her spine has degraded gradually and she started to slump. It was very slow so I didn't notice right away. When I took her for a checkup at the vet, they noticed and didn't really have an explanation for it but figured it was a lingering effect of her crash. She goes to a board certified avian specialist.

Around a month ago, I took her to get her nails trimmed and her left femur ended up broken. They assured me she was not handled roughly. The vet did x-rays and CT scan and found that her spine and lower body all had really low bone density. Her leg bones were bowing. Her CT scan looks like her spine is just missing chunks. The vet gave her a vitamin D shot. I am giving her pain meds, calcium, and VetOmega/Procosa per vet's instructions. We also got her a UV bird lamp which is directly over the hospital fish tank I have her in, on for about 10 hours a day.

Fast forward to yesterday, and her right femur ended up breaking as well. No one handled her roughly, it just snapped. She was beginning to stand on the left leg again and seemed to be cheering up, and now we're back at square one. X-rays again, they said her left was looking better.

Prognosis
The vet has consulted with multiple other avian specialists around the country. Her CT scan was sent to Scott Echols and his opinion was that her bones had disuse atrophy. But she's always been a normal active bird. We have always taken her out of the cage and let her wander and hang out with us. He talks about that here as well https://www.avianstudios.com/metabolic-bone-disease/development-of-metabolic-bone-disease-in-birds/

Currently we are continuing current treatment and hoping for improvement. The vet thinks she will be permanently disabled by whatever serious disease she is dealing with. She thinking that in her big crash, she might've damaged her parathyroid.

The vet asked me to start doing gentle range of motion exercises with the left leg, which I started today, and Rey didn't object.

She is still eating and drinking fine. I have her tank setup so she can reach the food and water without moving around and I bring her out and give her popcorn treats. Before her left leg broke, she had cheered up and was singing at us and generally being her curious and fun self again.

Ideas/Thoughts
I am debating building her some kind of small stand/device to get her off the ground to where she can move her legs without putting all her weight on them. I've seen wheelchairs for ducks and chickens. But I am thinking more like taking an aviator harness and hanging it from a small frame so her legs touch the ground but her weight is supported by the harness. I don't know if this is a crazy idea but I'm an engineer and willing to try.

My googling hasn't turned up many other ideas for what I can do to help her. I am willing to try just about anything. I am not ready to give up on her and want to give her the best shot to get better before giving up. But I feel like I can only justify trying for maybe another month before I'd have to do what is best for her if she does not improve.

Please let me know if any of you have any thoughts, ideas, anything really.

 

[Scott]

Welcome to you and Rey, wish it were under more fortuitous circumstances. Your earnest efforts exude love for Rey, hoping for breakthrough medical and/or engineering therapies.

What you describe may be freak accident leading to chronic skeletal issues. Deep respect for nationwide outreach. Balancing quality of life with longevity a most agonizing task.

 

[Deleted member 42416]

Hello, this might be a long post so thank you for reading.

Background
My cockatiel Rey is 3 and I've had her since she was a baby. She's always eaten Harrison's with some treats. A little under a year ago, she had a big crash and I took her to the emergency vet. She was hospitalized for almost a week. They thought she would be paralyzed but she mostly recovered. She also hasn't laid eggs since then.

In the time since then, her spine has degraded gradually and she started to slump. It was very slow so I didn't notice right away. When I took her for a checkup at the vet, they noticed and didn't really have an explanation for it but figured it was a lingering effect of her crash. She goes to a board certified avian specialist.

Around a month ago, I took her to get her nails trimmed and her left femur ended up broken. They assured me she was not handled roughly. The vet did x-rays and CT scan and found that her spine and lower body all had really low bone density. Her leg bones were bowing. Her CT scan looks like her spine is just missing chunks. The vet gave her a vitamin D shot. I am giving her pain meds, calcium, and VetOmega/Procosa per vet's instructions. We also got her a UV bird lamp which is directly over the hospital fish tank I have her in, on for about 10 hours a day.

Fast forward to yesterday, and her right femur ended up breaking as well. No one handled her roughly, it just snapped. She was beginning to stand on the left leg again and seemed to be cheering up, and now we're back at square one. X-rays again, they said her left was looking better.

Prognosis
The vet has consulted with multiple other avian specialists around the country. Her CT scan was sent to Scott Echols and his opinion was that her bones had disuse atrophy. But she's always been a normal active bird. We have always taken her out of the cage and let her wander and hang out with us. He talks about that here as well https://www.avianstudios.com/metabolic-bone-disease/development-of-metabolic-bone-disease-in-birds/

Currently we are continuing current treatment and hoping for improvement. The vet thinks she will be permanently disabled by whatever serious disease she is dealing with. She thinking that in her big crash, she might've damaged her parathyroid.

The vet asked me to start doing gentle range of motion exercises with the left leg, which I started today, and Rey didn't object.

She is still eating and drinking fine. I have her tank setup so she can reach the food and water without moving around and I bring her out and give her popcorn treats. Before her left leg broke, she had cheered up and was singing at us and generally being her curious and fun self again.

Ideas/Thoughts
I am debating building her some kind of small stand/device to get her off the ground to where she can move her legs without putting all her weight on them. I've seen wheelchairs for ducks and chickens. But I am thinking more like taking an aviator harness and hanging it from a small frame so her legs touch the ground but her weight is supported by the harness. I don't know if this is a crazy idea but I'm an engineer and willing to try.

My googling hasn't turned up many other ideas for what I can do to help her. I am willing to try just about anything. I am not ready to give up on her and want to give her the best shot to get better before giving up. But I feel like I can only justify trying for maybe another month before I'd have to do what is best for her if she does not improve.

Please let me know if any of you have any thoughts, ideas, anything really.

Hi Kirska,

I am so sorry you and your little birdy are going through this. You have done everything you can! I am attaching a link to a scholarly article regarding osteodystrophy in birds. I’m sure the vets have already considered primary hyper-parathyroidism? This is certainly not secondary high PTH (low dietary calcium) nor “disuse” .
Many prayers to you both!

http://avianmedicine.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/cal-husbandry.pdf

 

[Laurasea]

Hi,
Thank you for sharing your journey. Wishing you all weren't going through this.

I picked up the first paragraph, now she isn't laying eggs anymore. To me that read as she is chronic egg layer , is that the case?

" Background
My cockatiel Rey is 3 and I've had her since she was a baby. She's always eaten Harrison's with some treats. A little under a year ago, she had a big crash and I took her to the emergency vet. She was hospitalized for almost a week. They thought she would be paralyzed but she mostly recovered. She also hasn't laid eggs since then."

Chronic egg layers can end up in the situation you described, disappearing bones, easy fractures.

 

[Kirska]

Hi,
Thank you for sharing your journey. Wishing you all weren't going through this.

I picked up the first paragraph, now she isn't laying eggs anymore. To me that read as she is chronic egg layer , is that the case?

" Background
My cockatiel Rey is 3 and I've had her since she was a baby. She's always eaten Harrison's with some treats. A little under a year ago, she had a big crash and I took her to the emergency vet. She was hospitalized for almost a week. They thought she would be paralyzed but she mostly recovered. She also hasn't laid eggs since then."

Chronic egg layers can end up in the situation you described, disappearing bones, easy fractures.

Hi, sort of. Several months before her crash, she did have a streak of egg laying. I think about 8 eggs in 2 months. But we started covering her cage more at the recommendation of folks online, and the egg laying stopped. She hasn't laid any eggs since then. Before the crash, she didn't have any issues, generally speaking.

 

[Kirska]

Hi Kirska,

I am so sorry you and your little birdy are going through this. You have done everything you can! I am attaching a link to a scholarly article regarding osteodystrophy in birds. I’m sure the vets have already considered primary hyper-parathyroidism? This is certainly not secondary high PTH (low dietary calcium) nor “disuse” .
Many prayers to you both!

http://avianmedicine.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/cal-husbandry.pdf

Thanks for the link. I will definitely read more into that later. The vet might have considered that, I am not sure. I am not super knowledgeable on medical terms so I don't remember everything she's said. She said she wants to send a blood sample to U of Michigan for a parathyroid test of some kind, but it requires a lot of blood, so we decided to wait until she was feeling better again. I am not sure if I will do it anyway because she said she wasn't sure there was any kind of treatment available to help, even if the test came back with an abnormal result.

 

[Kirska]

Also thinking about doing hydrotherapy with her to get her legs moving without her weight once the right leg has had some time to heal. Thinking a harness would be useful here as well to hold her with her legs in the water. I've been giving her baths in warm water almost every day anyway, to clean her up.

 

[Deleted member 42416]

Thanks for the link. I will definitely read more into that later. The vet might have considered that, I am not sure. I am not super knowledgeable on medical terms so I don't remember everything she's said. She said she wants to send a blood sample to U of Michigan for a parathyroid test of some kind, but it requires a lot of blood, so we decided to wait until she was feeling better again. I am not sure if I will do it anyway because she said she wasn't sure there was any kind of treatment available to help, even if the test came back with an abnormal result.

Hi Kirska, diagnosis in this case can be difficult, and extraordinarily expensive and invasive. In people, primary hyper-PTH is usually treated surgically. This is not realistic in a cockatiel. However, medical management in people includes a medication called cinacalcet (Sensipar). This is a type of drug called a calcimimetic: it mimics calcium, is a reversible competitive inhibitor, and thus tricks the parathyroid gland into making LESS PTH. Obviously, I cannot say anything about the safety and dosing in parrots, but it is worth asking your vet. At this point, it does not look like you would have much to lose by empirically treating this condition with a bird-safe calcimimetic.

 

[Kirska]

Just an update, someone's been doing much better this week. I am hoping we can keep up this positive trajectory

Video:

New video by Katie Patterson

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[Scott]

Lovely, hopeful video! Thanks for upbeat update!!