Sun conure can’t use beak, been to vet

[Olivia12348]

I have a 6 year old sun conure who is my whole world. About a week ago, I woke up and noticed she wasn’t screaming. I took her out and she couldn’t open her beak. She was lethargic and couldn’t eat. Keeping one eye half closed. We rushed her to the ER vet in Boston and 3 days overnight and $1600 later they sent her home acting normal with antibiotics and pain meds. They said they thought it was maybe an ear infection. They did full body sedated X-rays, a blood test (that only showed white blood cells elevated to 20,000 to 24,000 but nothing else) and did an aspergillosis test I’m waiting for. Respiratory looked normal. Heart rate was slow. Nothing on the X-rays at all. Suddenly she’s doing it again a week later but not as bad. Her current symptoms are
-Slight locking of the beak but can partially eat. Seems like it hurts to use?
-a tiny bit less active but seems almost normal
-was squinting earlier but now seems okay
It’s been about 10 hours and she’s pooped 6 times that I know of. I’ve seen her eat some dried papaya. She’s eaten some pellets but doesn’t want to rip at my pant stings like she usually does (this is VERY unusual). It sounds like bordetalla avium but I guess that is EXTREMELY rare for conures and the vet doesn’t even have a test. My question is has anyone seen this before? I was told it could just be a flare up of the infection? She still has 6 more doses of antibiotics (3 days). I don’t know why her beak is acting up. It almost seems like it hurts to open and to grip things with (she was struggling to climb the cage bars today). If I’m being honest taking her to the vet again is the absolute last thing I want to do but I will do it. I never saw any trauma happen to her beak and it looks normal. She’s also not wheezing or sneezing (she sneezes maybe 2 times a day which I know is normal). I’m pretty desperate here. Does anyone have any similar experiences?

 

[ravvlet]

That sounds terrifying! I am assuming the vet she saw was a certified avian vet as it sounds like they went through the usual standard of practice tests and evaluations.

As for a possible bordetella exposure, do you or anyone in your household work around poultry? The avian version is primarily found in factory farm turkeys from what I’m reading. It seems like exposure would be unlikely unless someone you know works in that kind of setting. I have personally never witnessed or had a case of it in my own birds, psittacine or poultry.

If her WBC was high, did they do any other disease testing? Chlamydiosis (psittacosis), ABV (avian bornavirus), etc? I think you usually have to request those and honestly I don’t recall lockjaw or beak pain being a symptom of either.

Does she have any new toys in her cage that might be causing discomfort or injury?

I’m so sorry you and your feathered friend are dealing with this, and I hope you get to the bottom of it soon. It’s always scary to not be sure what’s going on.

 

[Olivia12348]

That sounds terrifying! I am assuming the vet she saw was a certified avian vet as it sounds like they went through the usual standard of practice tests and evaluations.

As for a possible bordetella exposure, do you or anyone in your household work around poultry? The avian version is primarily found in factory farm turkeys from what I’m reading. It seems like exposure would be unlikely unless someone you know works in that kind of setting. I have personally never witnessed or had a case of it in my own birds, psittacine or poultry.

If her WBC was high, did they do any other disease testing? Chlamydiosis (psittacosis), ABV (avian bornavirus), etc? I think you usually have to request those and honestly I don’t recall lockjaw or beak pain being a symptom of either.

Does she have any new toys in her cage that might be causing discomfort or injury?

I’m so sorry you and your feathered friend are dealing with this, and I hope you get to the bottom of it soon. It’s always scary to not be sure what’s going on.

I don’t work around any poultry and neither does anyone I know. I brought her to Angell Medical Center which I hate. It was the only option. They did not test for anything else (hence why I can’t stand them). I told them to test for literally anything possible and money is no object but they still did a lazy job. She is acting fine today except for her beak still seeming off. I really do not want to bring her back to Angell. They have misdiagnosed both of the birds I have brought there. Tomorrow I’ll call my regular vet and see if I can get an appointment and have them do every test possible to find something. The toys in her cage get rotated out every two weeks or so but they’re always the planet pleasures brand which is natural and soft and one wooden toy for her to rip. Nothing with bells or anything dangerous.