Unusual, non-stop screaming starting the day after his first vet visit?

[Llamalark]

The 14 week old ecky that I've had for 1.5 months was an absolute dream until 2 days ago, when I had to rush him 1.5 hours to the closest avian vet after he munched a toxic plant in my house! Don't worry, he must not have ingested anything, because he was perfectly fine. I got his blood work done and the vet's seal of approval for his general health, except that he's slightly underweight. He's always been a terrible eater (maybe because he wasn't weaned properly and still needs hand feedings?).

This emergency trip, however, completely skewed his normal schedule: we got home at 10:30pm and I had to wake him up at 6am the next morning so I could get to class on time. Thus, he only got 7 hours of sleep for the first time in his life. That evening I got home from university an hour later than normal (my thesis adviser insisted I go to a guest lecture--how do you refuse an order from your adviser??!), again skewing our schedule. Luckily, my husband had been home to feed him at the normal time and ecky was playing on his jungle gym when I got home..

As soon as I walked through the door, the deafening screaming started! That was last night, and it lasted nonstop all day today. He's like a different bird! He can't be distracted with toys or cuddles and hardly stopped screaming long enough to feed himself breakfast and dinner. Now I'm afraid he's hungry as well as emotionally wrecked. He quiets only when I'm out of sight. So. Weird. Please help, what's going on with him??

My hypotheses are:
1) He's still unsure of what happened to his schedule yesterday at the vet, and the shock is lingering.
2) He is still sleep deprived and cranky.
3) He's super hungry and went off food because of schedule-induced stress. [And now I think I should do some hand feedings to fill him up? So I handfeed him until he pushes me away. All the while, and then after eating, he's been screaming his head off. I definitely don't want to reinforce screaming with feedings--but he's just a baby! Is it okay to supplement hand feedings for a baby even though they're screaming? I feel like I'm reinforcing screaming regardless.] Or. . .
4) He has learned that screaming is super comforting, even though it delayed the appearance of his breakfast and dinner until he was quiet, I turned my back or left the room when he screamed, my shoulder twitched violently when he screamed while riding on it, and he was put to bed early twice for screaming.

I have consistently discouraged the tiny amount of screaming he's done since I got him, but now he seems to have self-reinforced it as a mechanism to cope with unfamiliar situations?

 

[weco]

I'll offer another scenario...

a. If you were the one who held him en route to the vet or you were the only one who took him to the vet, he may be upset/afraid of you.

b. You may have to start from scratch with him on the trust factor.

c. He'll get over this in a couple of days.

We often add birds to our household figuring we have covered all the bases, until something comes up that we have not planned for/not thought of.....sounds like this is one of those cases...

If you are stressing out or there is anything else going on in your home, it is very possible you RSE is picking up on it...or...you have already touched on it & just have to let it play itself out.

There are no givens in caring for companion birds and the solutions to the myriad of problems we encounter in our husbandry sure doesn't come in a one size fits all bottle.

 

[CathnPoe]

Gosh, that sucks! You're a good parent for rushing to vet nonetheless. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to have gone backwards! I'd say give it time, but it's great you're hypothesizing a functional assessment. I'm sure you'll be able to rule-out some of the options out very soon. If trust has been damaged, as weco suggested, then you should be able to affirm that pretty quickly by approaching him and assessing his response and whether it's that same as towards your hubby.

If the screaming is to get YOU to go away, then leaving and ignoring is in fact the reinforcer! Ignoring isn't always the answer if it plays to the desired consequence. Try some simple target training or (as you mentioned already) spoon-feeding to help strengthen the bond again. If he thinks he can make you go away by screaming, and you do just that, well, that's your problem.

Hope everything pans out in your favour. Best of luck.

 

[Llamalark]

Thanks friends! I agree he may be a little traumatized by me at the moment. The vet did her best to keep the scary stuff (blood draw and exam) away from me, but I did take him there!

So this morning he ate his breakfast from my arm as I held the bowl, he got some hand-noms, then we tore apart a toy together. His screaming frequency and volume has already gotten more bearable. I'm sure we'll have to start over when I get home later, but at least I'm on to something!