Senegal parrot horrible story

[WideO]

I have posted this already on another forum, but I assure you this is not spam. I wish it was. Here goes:

We bought 2 Senegal parrots 14 days ago.

I wanted a parrot since I was 20 - now 31 years ago. We own two labradors, 3 cats, 50 fish, 3 turtles..., so you could say we quite like animals, and know how to care for them. For my 51st birthday, my wife bought me these two beautiful creatures.

Ollie and Nadi - it didn't take long to build up a bond and become fascinated by these two clowns. They had been in the shop for 3 months, together in a cage, and while I know it is a bit much to buy two birds as a beginner, I didn't have the heart to separate them.

I read 3 books and a lot of posts on this forum. I took great care to follow all the advice to give them a safe & enjoyable home. I studied on the food they need. We made sure the cage was both large enough and parrot-safe. We stopped smoking (yeah, I know) inside the house. We housed them in a large room (8 x 5 x 2.5 meters) where we also have our meals and watch TV.

All of this to say that yesterday evening, they both died within an hour of each other. We tried emergency vets, to no avail. We finally found one and drove there, but Nadi was already dead, and while Ollie was still moving, he was very weak, in a lot of pain, and the vet proposed to euthanize him. Which we allowed.

We were in shock, and I'm still in shock. I feel massively guilty, as this happened under my watch. This is NOT about the money; this is about 2 seemingly healthy animals who now no longer have a future.

The vet did an autopsy on one bird (Nadi) and found that she had massive internal bleedings, and her bowels were delaminating. He could not find any strange bacteria. His first diagnose was that we did not feed the birds for 2 weeks, and that they died of anemia. This added insult to injury, as we took great care to both provide them with top quality pellets, augmented with fresh fruits and nuts. We tried carrots, grapes, cucumber, pistaccio nuts, macademia nuts, strawberries from our own garden. They loved it all. We took great care to wash everything before giving it to the birds. We cleaned their cage every evening, and gave them fresh water 2 times a day.

This was taken 5 days ago: does he look unhealthy to you?

There were no fumes (we first thought about poisoning) in the well ventilated area. They were not allowed out of their cage without supervision. There were no poisonous plants in the area. We knew all about non-stick material, avocado, etc. They were not cold, there was no draft.

Quite frankly, we have picked each others brains for hours now, and we can not find a cause. We had noticed Ollie eating a lot (hence the name...), but apart from that they were healthy, alert, clear eyes, beautiful feathers, sleeping on one leg. We made sure they had 12 hours sleep each night. We covered the cage. No other animals had access to the birds. We had no visitors in those 14 days. They were active until Saturday 3 PM. 3 hours later, they were dying. We were and are baffled and stunned.

We will now have to wait for the autopsy and blood test results which will be done by a university. I do hope that maybe some of you could suggest easy mistakes we might have made. Please believe me when I say that undernourishment is simply out of the question.

The shop where we got them was known by us for 8 years. They furnished us the special dog food that originates from the US. They are absolutely trustworthy, and I'm sure they took great care for the birds.

Anyway...

Gutted, and feeling massively guilty, and infinitely sad. I so wanted this first post to be different. Any tips or theories as to what happened would be appreciated.

 

[Captsteve]

I'm so sorry to hear this. I hope you find a reason, if for nothing else, closure...

 

[JerseyWendy]

Oh my gosh! I am SO sorry! I don't even know what to say because none of this makes sense, really.

I agree with Steve, I hope you find out what happened.

My deepest condolences to you.

 

[ruffledfeathers]

All i can offer is that i am SO sorry and i had a 'strange' loss of my sun conure after having her for 11 years (just last year i lost her). While her necropsy was not clear, i also had the histopathology done by another lab and their conclusion was also very odd. It haunts me a little, the strangeness of it, but i needed to AT LEAST know it was not something in our environment that killed her because i planned to get another bird (which i now have and he is healthy).
Hopefully the full lab reports give you a little more information.

 

[crimson]

It unfortunate you joined us on such sad terms

I am very sorry to hear what has happened. How heart breaking it must be for you!

hopefully you will have some answers soon.

 

[BillsBirds]

So sorry for your loss. I don't have any idea what could have gone wrong. It sounds like you did everything right. Hopefully the necropsies will shed some light on this catastrophe. Unfortunately birds are delicate creatures, and the simplest thing can have disastrous effects. Do not beat yourselves up. God needed two of His angels back, and sadly, He chose yours.

 

[Blancaej]

I am so so sorry for your loss. Try not to beat yourself up. It sounds like you took very good care of them both.

I really do hope you get some better answers from the blood results. My deepest condolences to you and your wife.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

I'm so sorry this happened Birds capture our heart so quickly, loosing one of my fids is a terrible fear of mine.

The photo could be a sick bird, the way she is fluffed up and huddled down into the perch. But it's possible you just took this photo when she was sleepy.

 

[Kalidasa]

What an awful thing. so sorry about your loss, and the ridiculous statement about them being starved...it will all come to light. Most likely the blame lies with the breeder. Hope the results reveal that it was nothing you did.

 

[sonja]

What a sad story. I'm sorry. Have you contacted the shop you got them from to let them know what happened and to see if they've had any problems among their other birds?

 

[faeryphoebe1]

WideO, I'm so sorry for this horrible loss. Your story brought tears to my eyes. It sounds like these beautiful birds had the best owners they could have wished for. It's good that they were together til the end. I hope you get some answers soon.

 

[kq_fan]

Oh my gosh im so so so sorry! They were cute little birds! Good luck on the diagnosis!

 

[Mayden]

They look like such sweet babies. I'm so sorry for your loss. Hope you get some answers and manage to get some peace with it.

 

[MonicaMc]

So sorry for their loss!


If they starved to death, I wouldn't think they wouldn't have lasted 14 days.... nor would I think they would have died near the same time. Same goes for being sick.


Considering the circumstances, I would say a household toxin. Here's a short list...


Household cleaners
Air fresheners (Febreeze?)
Carpet fresheners/cleaners
Oven cleaner
PTFE (nonstick pans, bakeware, oven, toaster oven, hair dryer, heating coil on a dryer)
Pesticides
Self cleaning oven feature
Candles


I can't think of much else atm... unless it was something that they both ate at the same time (dangerous food? avocado? chocolate? caffeine? rhubarb? onion? garlic? uncooked grains/legumes? kidney beans?)



The biggest question... what was happening within the past hour prior to their deaths?

 

[WideO]

Thank you all very much for the kind words. I half expected a roasting ("what? you didn't think of xyz??"), probably because I'm roasting myself about all this.

The photo could be a sick bird, the way she is fluffed up and huddled down into the perch. But it's possible you just took this photo when she was sleepy.

Yes. In hindsight, we do both agree that they were more sleepy in the last 2 days prior to their death. We just thought it was the weather that had changed (after a long sunny spell it had turned dark & rainy), and was normal behaviour - especially as they both exhibited the same behaviour. Still, they were also active enough and making themselves heard when we entered the room (or the dogs...) so that it did not seem worrying at the time.

What a sad story. I'm sorry. Have you contacted the shop you got them from to let them know what happened and to see if they've had any problems among their other birds?

I have an appointment with them today - indeed, if only to see/prevent if other birds there have a similar problem.

If they starved to death, I wouldn't think they wouldn't have lasted 14 days.... nor would I think they would have died near the same time. Same goes for being sick.


Considering the circumstances, I would say a household toxin. Here's a short list...


Household cleaners
Air fresheners (Febreeze?)
Carpet fresheners/cleaners
Oven cleaner
PTFE (nonstick pans, bakeware, oven, toaster oven, hair dryer, heating coil on a dryer)
Pesticides
Self cleaning oven feature
Candles

To all of those I can categorically say: no. We did obviously use a hair dryer in the bathroom, but that is 3 rooms/20 meters removed from their cage, which is/was in a house extension and pretty much has its own ventilation.

This pic gives you an idea of where they were located:

Note that you can see them eating... We also closed the curtains a bit more shortly after that picture, to make sure they had one "protected" side.

Also: the plant on the bottom (we asked about that a couple of times) is suited for consumption for turtles, rabbits, birds etc. They had ignored it in the beginning, but then only took an hour or so to demolish it. I still suspect it might have been something in the soil? This was 4 days before they got sick.

I can't think of much else atm... unless it was something that they both ate at the same time (dangerous food? avocado? chocolate? caffeine? rhubarb? onion? garlic? uncooked grains/legumes? kidney beans?)

Chocolate & caffeine are deadly to many animals, so no, none of the above. We only gave food that was specifically mentioned as "safe" in "Senegal Parrots" (Tammy Gagne), "Parrots For Dummies" (Nikki Moustaki), and a Dutch book about parrot behaviour & health. I do appreciate the thinking though, as I've been going over everything we have given them in those 12 days.

I forgot to mention that they were underweight. They weighed only 90 grams, where 125 was expected. I suppose that was what made the vet think we were not giving them any food. My current theory is that they had an infection to their digestive system that prevented them to use the nutrients in their food. Still, that wouldn't explain the close time of their deaths, unless the shock of seeing its mate fall off the perch stressed out the other (also weakened) parrot.

Also: their lungs seemed normal to the vet, and didn't exhibit the "blood red" signs you normally see with airborne toxins.

The biggest question... what was happening within the past hour prior to their deaths?

To that I admit I don't have a detailed answer. I had been working in the garden for most of the day, and although I had passed them (and said hello) at least 20 times, I did not pay close (enough) attention. My wife was doing shopping, laundry etc. Not cleaning - we went over that many times, and it was the first thing I suspected. We did however do the normal routine of changing their sand paper/water bowls - again making sure to thoroughly cleaning the bowls under scalding water, drying them, and filling them again - about an hour before things went south. We then mentioned to each other that they were quite calm, but we weren't overly alarmed yet. It was only an hour later that I started to suspect that something was horribly wrong, as they had stopped reacting to my voice.

There is more irony in the fact that 2 days prior, I had gone and visit a local bird clinic/vet practice that has an excellent reputation, visited by bird enthousiasts all over the country, and happens to be only 5 minutes from where I live. I wanted to have the birds examined and chipped. I had bought a transportation cage. Sadly, they were on low staff because of vacation, so I was going to go back this week to make acquaintance (and have an emergency contact...).

Anyway, I'm not trying to absolve myself from any mistakes. I would prefer it to be something I/we did - as long as we can find out *what*. I do hope the autopsy will bring us answers, although the emergency vet didn't seem to be very hopeful (which was not encouraging to say the least).

I will also ask the local vet clinic to take over the case and follow up on the autopsy.

Those two birds only needed a couple of days to totally get under our skin. They were much more communicative than I would have ever imagined. When you see a tail happy labrador nose-to-beak with a parrot (through the cage obviously) without any of them being overly worried, with no sign of aggression at all, it does something to you. I was looking forward to the clicker training (I still had the clickers from our dogs!), not expecting something like this to happen. :31:

Thank you again for the kind answers, I will keep you posted about the shop visit and the autopsy results.

 

[DallyTsuka]

possible, the soil from the plant... if they had gotten into it, it could have possibly been a fungal problem, such as aspergillosis? soil often is contaminated with mould spores.

just a thought.


i'm so sorry to hear that they both passed away, it's never easy to deal with the loss of a family member

 

[WideO]

To give a complete picture of the food we gave them:

1) a parrot seed/pellet mixture "Deli Nature", containing seeds, cereals, apple, mountain ash berries, egg (3%), herbs, vegetable proteins, minerals, 2% grit, sugars, oils, fat, yeast. Expiry date 11/2014. This was also the food they got at the shop, and although we know it's probably not enough in the long term, we don't think it harmed them

2) walnuts (halves)

3) pistachio nuts

4) macademia nuts

5) strawberries (halves, washed, own garden)

6) grapes (halves, washed)

7) fresh carrot sticks (sliced, washed)

8) cucumber sticks (sliced, from our own garden)

I will update if I think of anything more. My wife only gave them the same food stuffs, and would not experiment without passing it by me. No kids, so no surprises there either. We do not use any pesticides on our own produce.

 

[Seagulls]

They look awfully fluffy in the first two pictures. Were they like that those 2 days they were sleepy? It's possible that they got an infection of the digestive tract, or had been sick and only showed signs (the sleepiness, fluffing) the last 2 days. Birds try really hard to hide that they're sick. If they were underweight already suggests they might have been sick all along, but no one knew.

Were they hanging out at the bottom of their cage any? Sick birds will often wander around on the bottom of their cage more than usual.

Very sorry for your loss.

 

[WideO]

Were they hanging out at the bottom of their cage any? Sick birds will often wander around on the bottom of their cage more than usual.

Yes, absolutely. It surprised us, as I thought they are not the foraging kind. This happened specifically in the last 2-3 days. Before that, they almost never ventured there. We mistakenly thought they were feeling more confident.

The fluffiness was there from day one though.

Edit: Nadi, who died first, was wandering around on the bottom a lot more than Ollie, whom I saw there only once or twice.

 

[MikeyTN]

Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear about your loss!!!!

Just wait for the autopsy to give you the results, it might not be anything you've done. They might be carriers to begin with. Virus that might of been dormid and appeared when they were stressed from moving into a new location. Hope you get some answers soon!!!