Sick budgie, help!

[Laurasea]

I don’t know what kind of water purification you use. But I know when I had to maintain one for my lab, that maintenance was required to prevent issues in water quality, nothing is 100%, and we were processing for sterile water, it took a contractor who did monthly visits and myself who did weekly maintenance to achieve our standard...

Now I’m nit saying you have a water issue at all. Just that it’s one of the things to think about when trying to figure out how birds you’ve had for six years with no exposure to other birds are sick. I’m nit sure how likely a water issue is, just that it’s something to considering.

Birds on a seed only diet , will have low vitamin A levels amount other things. And vitamin A is linked with respiratory health and immunity. Fresh greens are good sources of vitamin. My budgie started eating them pretty easily and really enjoying them.. fresh stuff can have pesticides residue or bacteria etc .

Budgie are prone to mega bacteria / yeast.. I’ll try and find my link to budgie health issues.

Fir captive animals ( and ourselves frankly) husbandry, diet / nutrition, environment, environment contaminates, stress, have a huge impact on health. Nit saying yiu are doing something wrong, but it’s important to investigate each of these things .

It’s so difficult to help over he internet, and of course no replacement fir hands on by an avian veterinarian.

Aspergillosis is in all environments, but it build up if there isn’t good air circulation and exposure to sunlight, and cleaning . Stress and nutrition, food quality play a role in birds being susceptible to it. When we had birds held in quarantine it was a real problem for us. Especially birds that are kept in a building with no natural sunlight. We ended up modifying our quarantine produces, so they rotated through pens that had indoor outdoor enclosure...

Zinc toxicity is extremely common, it can build up slowly in the bird, and cause a wide range of chronic symptoms . Cheap bird toys and many household itealms seem to have zinc...

I myself had a batch of seeds go bad that made my bird sick. So it’s a good idea to check all food. To make sure all food dishes water dishes and cages are extra clean when dealing with a sick bird. To maybe discard any soft surfaces or breeder boxes. Those wood breeder box’s can start growing all sorts of nasty stuff in the wood even when the surface looks ok.

Never add vitamin or anything to the water. It is terrible that they sell that stuff. It starts growing bacteria and mild in the water right away.....

I’m just trying to cover as much stuff as I can think of.

I’ll look back through your thread , but if you haven’t please cover all the things you feed, where the cage is located, what the cleaning routine is, what is kept in the cage, does the bird come out of the cage, what other pets are in the house. And the people, we have had husbands, wives, roommate, parents, significant others do terrible things to birds.... like spraying hem with Lysol etc....

Ok I’ll go look fir links that might help

 

[Laurasea]

This is copied from a past post I did

“Supportive care for sick seed eaters in places without vet care

Birds that are on a seed only diet are often low in vitamin D and vitamin A. Both of those vitamins help support the immune system. And I'm going to give you some ideas to help with that.

I mentioned before that a bird with stool problem can be supporting ( not curing) with offer fresh live culture yogurt. This provide the bird with probiotics that go balance the flora of the gut. I offer mine that healthy this at least once a month. But for your sick bird I would offer every day for a week, then twice a week until well.

There is no way for me to know what is making your bird sick. But the good thing about life, is it wants to fight to stay alive. So doing good supportive care, if you can't get vet care , is important.

Vitamin D your bird can get by being outside, if it is warm were you are. And if you think your bird is healthy enough, and won't be stressed to much by spending a short time outside in a secure cage. You must stay right with your bird, light shade is best, don't stick your bird in full sunshine. 15 miniuts a day is good to start.

Also you can sprout seeds, most birds love them! It changes the seed and activities some good nutrition. You can sprout pumpkin seeds, lentils, quinoa, millit, sunflower, safflower oat groats and many others. We have a forum talking about this. Hopefully a good member can add a link or weigh in here...

To get some good vitamin A , you can make bird bread. You want to add some cooked and puree pumpkin, add some diced red, yellow or orange bell peppers, hot red chilli peppers, those all have good amount of vitamin A. You can also add some of the millit , and fresh corn to the bread to be more tempting. Use a muffin, cornbread, or bread recipe. We have bread recipe under the diet thread too. Many birds are willing to nibble this, even seed eaters.

I don't know what kind of seeds your bird eats? But we can try mixing in some healthy seeds to the mix. Raw pumpkin or squash seeds, or human grade dried with no added salt pumpkin seeds. Quinoa, pistachio, flax, there are others but I can t this m of them. Also if you cut up a fresh cucumber and fish out those seeds to offer, any seeds from fresh bell pepper, or hot pepper many birds love these, and cut up the fresh peppers and offer those to. Any fresh squash like zucchini, yellow squash have seeds that might temp your bird. Mine love to eat zucchini cubed to.

You can offer scrambled eggs cooked so they are a little dry and crumble, or a boiled egg you duce up. Eggs have some good nutrition.

Also birds that are sick do better if kept a little warmer. If you can keep your home warmer, keep your bird out of drafts, and not under an air vent. Also you can cover one corner of the cage with a sheet, and then place a lamp with a high watage bulb bear that corner. Lamp can add some heat. But make sure bright light isn't disturbing your bird.

Lastly you might find help a d support from farms or people product birds like chickens for human food. They often have access to antibiotics or vets that treat the farm birds. I don't know if your bird needs antibiotics, there is no way for me to know this...your bird could have a virus or fungal or yeast infection. In that case antibiotics would make your bird worse.......
But a more common type of infection in birds is a bacteria called Chlamydia psittaci. This bacteria, ( a VERY BIG If, ) can be treated by antibiotics called doxycycline. There is doxycycline that is available without a veterinarian prescription, and us made to add to the birds water. It is often used on poultry farms. Or you might be able to order it online. You hav to follow the directions that come with it very carefully andv keep the water very clean. It's best to add to filtered purified water, as it can react to impurities.

Lastly it's a good idea especially with a sick bird to do an extra big clean of the cage, food and water dishes. I use newspaper on the bottom of the cage, change every day. Also clean the tray. You can use a tablespoon of white vinegar in a bowl of cold water ( do not use hot water or the vinegar will off gass fumes that are bad for your bird) while down every cage bar a d every inch of the cage. Wipe off perches. You can go back a d use a damp water only cloth to remove the vinegar residue. You don't want to have a vinegar smell when you are done. Try to do everyday or every other day while your bird is sick so it won't reinfect its self. You should still clean good and water dishes and change the paper every day all the time.

And if you think your drinking water isn't good quality, then use filtered or bottles water for your bird. Sometimes even good water can have traces of lead, or copper from old pipes, or increase coliform ( bacteria) count in it.

Ok these are all the things I can think of to help your bird. I want you to know we all care about your bird. Sometimes a topic or thread doesn't get a lot of responses just because some people aren't sure they have any advice that might help, or haven't encountered that problems before. Many people read a thread but may not say anything.
Please keep posting, updating us and asking questions.

Pictures might offer insights...

All of the above helps provide supporting care, and helps your bird try to fight this off. Real avain vet care is the best. Good luck!!!!”

 

[Laurasea]

This link might be helpful
https://www.littlecrittersvet.com/sick-birds.pml

This one covers some common health issues, if you have problems following the link let me know I will copy paste
https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/common-conditions-of-birds

http://freedomflightsparrotrescue.ca/diseases/

 

[Zazu_and_Iago]

Thank you for all that, I’m gonna try pretty much all you suggested.
Her nails seem to be a lot long Ed than normal and today her left foot had a lot of black on it. Is that part of whatever illness she has or could it have been from standing on a hot surface? Yesterday she was perched on top of my lizard cage probably to warm up under the heat lamp.

 

[Scott]

Wonder if there is zoonotic transmission of organisms or illnesses from reptiles to parrots?

 

[Zazu_and_Iago]

I’m not sure. She has been kept near lizards for years, but it is e first time she ever sat on the cage.
There are a number of diseases I read about that have blackening feet as a symptom.

 

[Zazu_and_Iago]

Now she is looking and acting a lot better, but still appears sick. Her foot is looking much better too.
She now looks very thin, even though she is eating (I’ve watched her and she isn’t faking eating), and seems to be eating more than usual.
Is there anything I can try to feed her that may help her put on some weight?

 

[Zazu_and_Iago]

Figured I would post an update.
Zazu has fluctuated between looking good and bad to the point of seeming like she was about to die. She gradually improved from there. A few days ago, she started becoming more active, playing, singing, and gaining back weight. She still is lethargic sometimes and occasionally shakes, but seems so much better. Hopefully she will continue to improve and makes full recovery. Thank you everyone for your help!

 

[Scott]

Thanks for an encouraging update, hope Zazu continues to improve and regain health.

Sorry to have missed your prior post regarding weight gain. Increasing the volume of food may help, supplementing with high energy foods such as juvenile bird formula or baby food might help.

 

[Zazu_and_Iago]

Been a year and a half - and Zazu is still with me! She is quieter and sleeps more often than before and has gotten quite ornery (bites the hand that feeds her). I think she’s just getting old - she otherwise acts well, still eating and drinking well. Hoping to have her still with me for many more years!