Sneezing/Runny Nose

[henpecked]

Pedro's advice seems pretty right on to me, i don't give probotics until after i'm done with the antibiotics.

 

[Tikazoo]

Thanks Pedro and Henpecked. I will try just pellets. The hard part is she sooo looks forward to that vege/fruit meal, but what you are thinking is probably spot on. I will do. Her stools are weird because they are so back and forth. I will do probiotics after the droxy, she hates getting the meds- and so it's gonna be a long 45 days of treatment... She isn't sneezing as much today so think it might be staring to help.

 

[roxynoodle]

45 days is a long time for meds, I feel for you. Do you have to give them by syringe or can you put them on some kind of food? For Pete, putting them on toast and then putting a very thin layer of peanut butter on it made him happily gobble it all up.

 

[Tikazoo]

Hey Roxie, just posted to you about Merlin. So glad he's better but keep us posted, so scary for you. Yeah 45 days, argh. I tried on bread smeared it really thin, she gobbled it up the first two days, then figured it out. I'll try the peanut butter, after a few days too good suggestion - thanks. I decided it was best just to give it to her as intended at least for the first 14 days as perscribed, just to make sure she totally gets it. Then I will go back to trying other ways. She just is getting less trusting over it. She tells me no several times now when I try to get her out of her cage, so I've been asking her to come out tons, giving her treats and putting her back in so she knows it's not always the syringe coming. Good luck with Merlin, thinking about you guys....

 

[roxynoodle]

Yes, Pete could see the medicine on the toast, so the peanut butter not only hid it, but made him go nuts for it. He also decided a few days in that he doesn't like crust, lol! And by toasting the bread first it didn't get all soggy. So I would toast half a piece or so, cut off the crust, make some additional holes (lightly) with a fork to get the meds in it better, put on meds, cut off any part that didnt have meds, put on peanut butter and cut it into smaller pieces. He literally ate up every crumb and got his meds easily.

 

[Pedro]

Tikazoo, If i ever need to medicate my aviary birds i use a half passionfruit. Most parrots love passionfruit. With my pets i either use hand rearing formula or buy the little jars of human baby food. Mix up a small amount, no more than a level teaspoon full, with the meds & feed from a spoon. You just need enough to put the meds on so they will eat it all. There are so many ways to administer meds to birds without all the stress just have to find out what their favourite is.

 

[Tikazoo]

Wow you guys rock!!! That sounds great, she is so aggressive most of the time anyway I really didn't want to stress her either. Now she backs up about coming out instead of stepping up. So we've got work to do. She's still sneezing some. No discharge and sneezing is less, so I am hopeful that meds are working . At least she has never seemed sick and has pet eating throughout the process of healing, time will tell. Thanks to both of you for the great ideas, will keep u posted

 

[Pedro]

You can also put the meds in a warm mash of sweet potato. Only offer a small amount first, enough that you know he will eat. Also you can use birdie bread. The list of ideas is endless. You don't have to use the same foods each time, you can change it every day. Even fresh squeezed fruits.

 

[Tikazoo]

Ok great ideas thanks! Did the peanut butter toast this am and she got most but not all. Tonight I'm doing the formula figure we can use the bonding!!

 

[roxynoodle]

I should add that Pete is a very neat eater. When I tried the same with Merlin we ended up with her beak caked in peanut butter. It took me nearly 20 minutes to clean her up, lol! When I told the vet about it she said, "Yes, peanut butter works very well for amazons, but not so much Greys." Not sure what the difference is except Pete is neater at eating than Merlin.

Try to get all the meds into the smallest possible amount of food. Let it soak in some before you add more.

 

[Spiritbird]

I am currently mediating a conure with antibiotics and use a syringe for accuracy and to be sure he gets the full amt. I tried the food way but he does not always eat all the food. The syringe takes on a second and he accepts it.

 

[roxynoodle]

Younger birds will often take a syringe easily as they may remember their hand feeding days. My birds I guess are all considered "senior" birds. And we don't know if Pete ever was fed from one being wild caught. Boy, when he saw that thing he went completely crazy. He's also about 29 years old; he wouldn't remember hand feeding by now no matter what.

It would help if I had a 2 person house hold. The bigger birds kind of need 2 hands to hold onto and I really would need a third to get the meds in them. Merlin is on 5 meds right now so it's especially difficult. With her I put them on Nutriberries broken in half. Let them all dry well, and refuse to give her anything else until she has eaten every little crumble, but it takes awhile.

The peanut butter toast worked very well for Petey. For the first few days though he made me hand feed him each piece, lol! He was only on 2 med though so I could get it on a pretty small piece of toast, and cut it into 4 small pieces.

 

[Tikazoo]

Thanks again guys. She's taking the meds now in little peanut butter balls made of bread with peanut butter and her meds. I use a tiny piece of bread. Put her peanut butter &meds in it, squash it together for a minute, then (okay realize this sounds silly) I roll off pinky size pieces of it into balls ... Then I toss the balls with some hand feeding formula for familiarity flavor. Don't laugh it's working today, next week I'll probably need a new method!! Ha. She's silly loves the cockatiel size zoopreme pellets, I like that she eats the whole pellet - no mess. Anyway that's why I ended up balling the meds. Morning dose goes great nothing left -she's hungry then. Evening she still eats them well, anything left goes in with her veges. I'm only giving her a limited quantity now to keep her stools super consistant, but she screams in the eve if she doesn't get some veges. Good thing Amazons tend to be little piggys, it's easier to hid the meds in something. The whole syringe thing was killing our relationship which is still work in progress. Trusting me seems easier for her than when I was medicating her with the syringe, go figure- ha! She goes back to vet Tues for a white count draw, she's still sneezing quite a bit but no more snottys. We'll see in a week or so if this med is working....

 

[roxynoodle]

Good to hear she is taking her meds and I hope the vet finds no infection when you go back. With Merlin she has to eat all her morning meds before she gets anything else. Then she has to eat all her evening ones before she gets veggies and pellets back.

 

[Tikazoo]

Yep that's what I'm doing too, except for the crumbs which I toss into the veges

 

[roxynoodle]

Yep that's what I'm doing too, except for the crumbs which I toss into the veges

That's a good idea. The more time I give the meds to dry on the Nutriberries, the less crumbles Merlin leaves. But, that is hard to do with refrigerated meds. As of yesterday though she finished all that kind and guess what? No crumbs whatsoever with this morning's meds.

 

[Tikazoo]

Argh... So white count unchanged. Dr says its not psudemonas like she suspected. No positive growth on any cultures, and yet white count is now 18,000. Was approx 20,000 before vet says its basically the same cant really say it decreased. Her yeast count was sky high so I was scolded for the bread intake - vet said no bread is good. Did I say argh yet... So now she's mailing me an anti fungal to start on. I did get a probiotic for her too. Oh and on the "HER" front - she is a "HE" we are renaming to Tiko.... What a week....

 

[roxynoodle]

My vets have always prescribed an anti-fungal along with the anti-biotic. It's not so much the bread that is the problem, it's that the anti-biotic kills off good bacteria that then allows yeast to grow. Merlin also still had a little yeast when she was in a week ago and now she's taking vitamin C for that. I, too, have this problem if I take an anti-biotic now that I'm somewhat immune compromised by not being able to process certain vitamins and minerals well due to my digestive disease and I get thrush every few months, ugh!

I think your vet may need to consider changing the anti-biotic or adding a second one. However, this puts Tiko at increased risk for getting aspergillious. We also ran another white blood count on Merlin to see if the anti-biotic was working while she was taking it before considering adding a second anti-biotic for that reason. Thankfully in her case, it was working, she was in the 3000 range on the white blood cell count. But, when she had that first seizure we did have to rule out infection first.

I would discuss this with your vet and if you aren't happy, consider a different vet (if one is available).

 

[Tikazoo]

Thanks Roxy. Started anti fungal voriconazole today. 2 weeks on this twice a day, he hates it - really hates it. He spent 1/2 hour after I gave it rubbing his beak on the cage - grinding his beak madly and drinking her water. He took food and you could just tell he was soooo trying to get the taste out of his mouth. Finally he ate some orange peel and seemed a bit more comfortable.

 

[roxynoodle]

The one my vets have always given me was actually rather tasty (yes, I sampled them all, lol!). However, the Celebrex and the anti-seizure meds taste absolutely awful, and I must put them on Nutriberries for Merlin. They are also both runny like water and I had too much dribbling out of the syringe. So I put them on the berries and let them dry for a few hours.