Urgent - Picking at feet

[katie_fleming]

Update: I'll try this for a couple days for dinner (Jasper is eating it now)

- Pomegranate
- Carrots
- Endives (new for Jasper, hope he likes them)
- Hard boiled eggs (can he have these multiple days in a row?)
- Hot peppers

 

[Anansi]

...BTW I feel like such a noob asking this, but if pomegranate will be considered part of his dinners now, can I give more than 1 tablespoon? That's all I ever gave before, it was more just adding a bit of fruit on top of the rest of his food. Can I give more? If we're starting with say, carrots, pomegranate, sprouts, and some green I can find?...

Not a noob question at all. You're questioning everything diet-wise right now... which is exactly what you should be doing. Main thing with the pomegranates is to make sure you don't have so many in his meal that he can fill up on that alone and ignore the less exciting things in his dish. I don't know how much he eats, so it's hard to say whether more than a tblspn would be okay. But the key here is to make sure he has to eat the other stuff in order to be properly full.

Protein 29 - LOW. It had been 30. (Avg is 32-42)
Calcium 1.80 - LOW. It had been 1.83 (Avg is 2.02-2.98)
Bile acids 12 - LOW. It had been 13 (Avg is 30-11)

AST 381 - HIGH. No prev number until I compare at home (Avg is 144-339)
CK 4574 - HIGH. No prev # right now (Avg is 135-410 -- um, did someone make a typo?!!)

I am not surprised with these results. While there are no drastic changes since April the Protein/Calcium are still on a decline.

Given that we're trying to find potential culprits in his diet, and knowing he's too low on these, what foods do you recommend? The sprouts I just started several days ago should have protein correct? And will start giving him some more hard boiled eggs/shells.

A few things, here. The protein threw me off a little, as the protein issues that have been known to lead to toe-tapping and wing-flipping, insofar as I've read, are related to high levels, not low. So while legumes could still be the culprits for a quirky type of sensitivity issue, we're probably no longer looking at them for their protein content. And as such, they're no longer all that high on the list of suspects. (But how the heck is his protein low with the amount of legumes you give him?!? It just doesn't make any sense.)

In my mind, calcium remains the prime suspect for a dietary issue. (And PDD for a non-dietary cause.)

The AST (Aspartate Aminotransferase) and CK (Creatine Kinase) levels are the most worrisome to me. Worrisome enough, in fact, that if the vet originally told you everything was fine, I have to wonder if they're not reading you the wrong results now. (Unless the numbers just aren't significant enough to warrant my fears.) But the problem here is that a high AST value can indicate damage to the liver. And high CK levels indicate muscle injury. (Though certain medicines or supplements can elevate this figure as well.) And both are often elevated in cases of liver and/or muscle damage.

Again, though, relative numbers are important, here. While I know what high or low may mean, I do not know what constitutes a high enough number for this to become a legitimate concern. But at the very least, you have some further questions for Jasper's vets.

Update: I'll try this for a couple days for dinner (Jasper is eating it now)

- Pomegranate
- Carrots
- Endives (new for Jasper, hope he likes them)
- Hard boiled eggs (can he have these multiple days in a row?)
- Hot peppers

I think this is a great start, though I would not give eggs multiple days in a row. Some might give 2 or 3x a week, but I personally lean toward the extremely cautious side and would give, at the absolute MOST, once a week. (Though I tend more toward once or twice a month with Maya and Jolly.)

If the toe-tapping and wing-flipping disappear with this diet, the next thing I'd add would be the sprouts since he has a protein deficiency (unless you were read the wrong report). And broccoli would be great for the calcium deficiency. (As well as boiled egg shells. The shells you can throw in every day. Just make sure you're the one doing most of the egg eating.)

Keeping you and Jasper in my thoughts and prayers, Katie.

 

[katie_fleming]

Thanks Stephen. I'll stick with ~1 tbsp for now of the pomegranate and monitor how much he's eating of everything else.

As far as eggshells go to try and help with calcium, if I grind them so they're a lot smaller and sprinkle that over his food do you think it will increase his chances of ingestion? Because right now I don't think he's eating the shells. Trying to figure out another way for him to eat them.

Yes it's very strange his protein is low considering he had red beans, pinto beans, navy beans, chick peas (do they have protein?). In the meantime are the sprouts "good enough" before I start adding in those again?

I'm at work but when I'm home I will upload the PDF of his results.

So I noticed after dinner last night within a fairly short amount of time he began toe tapping again and wing flipping increased as well. By the morning toe tapping was gone, wf moderate. I realized he's been getting carrots in both his breakfast and dinner. And Tuesday when he had bad wf/tt right after dinner I remember seeing he had eaten a big chunk out of a carrot. Maybe not be the culprit at all but something I had noticed.

A lady on another Ekkie group told me: "Also as soon as Jewel's calcium gets a bit out she does attack her legs and tt/wf. I have been using Salus liq calcium on M.W.F. and it has been stable for a year now." ------ So good to know if it's low it can also cause the same issues. I've never heard about using liquid supplements. I wonder if this would be worth trying to help give him a boost?

It just seems peculiar that shortly after dinner his issues are worse. But if I take out carrots and eggs tonight that only leaves him with pomegranate, hot peppers, and endives (not sure if he ate those last night).

And just to re-cap he's on these meals atm:

Breakfast:
Bell peppers
Zucchini
Carrots
Celery (I can pick these out, this batch was already made up a couple days ago)
Lentil sprouts
Mung bean sprouts
Green apple

Dinner:
Hot peppers
Carrots
Endives
Hard-boiled egg
Pomegranate

I have kale and parsley for him, I can add those in as well but not convinced he'll eat any of it.

This is a huge wall of text! Sorry for the length. Appreciate everyone's continued support.

 

[LordTriggs]

You tried adding in more fruits? He may enjoy those as a morning meal then having the veg for the evening. That was how I had Rio's day set up, so he had the sugars and sweet stuff in the morning then veg in the evening (with his snacks served after dinner and pellets being left during the day)

 

[Uglow]

It seems like you're making some progress Katie even though it might not "feel" like it. So one thing I've read (please double check this) for a "complete" protein from legumes you need to include something like rice. Uglow get's beans and rice for his complete protein. as for kale, Uglow won't eat it in the chop but he'll attack a leaf tied to his tree stand and eat about 5% of it in the process. So you might need to get a little creative with it.

calcium,
Uglow started toe tapping when his calcium was barely under the recommended marker.
You'll need to try to get some vitamin D(3) in there. That's crucial for absorbing Calcium. Getting vitamin D SUCKS. So sunlight of course works but how often can you do that? I also use full spectrum bulbs but that's just a guessing game. Egg yolk in limited quantities. low fat organic cheese in limited quantities. I'm talking like two or three bites. As an additional precaution I've been including 5 pellets of Goldn'obles and 5 Harrison's fine long life pellets just in case they have something in there that I'm missing nutritionally. They're both organic and have no colors or fortification. I know it's controversial but he normally only eats one or two so I'm totally ok with it.

I would also consider foods high in Phosphorus since that's also related in absorbing calcium and phosphorus is important for nerve health. So brown rice is good for that. The rice will also work with your legumes for the complete protein you'll need. Cooked lentils and pumpkin seeds also have some.

for your mix, snap and snow peas could be beneficial. calcium, Vit A, vit K, manganese, B1, A, C, B2, B6, protein, foliate Plus he might enjoy opening them up. organic and raw. no cooking.

Finally I see no foods that are high in Oxalates. That's good. Oxalates block calcium. But you're good there.

Again, I'm absolutely not an expert. Please verify what I wrote if you plan on using any of the advice I'm giving. I really hope it's just his diet and you can crack the code so you guys can get your lives back. we're rooting for ya.

 

[katie_fleming]

Thanks so much for your input.

I used to give him snow/snap peas on occasion but since right now I've stripped his diet right down I'm feeling overwhelmed with do I only offer a select few a day and see how he is for awhile, or do I now try to get in as much protein and especially calcium as possible.

Maybe the liquid calcium supplement could be good to try and kick things up a bit for a couple of weeks. He's such a picky eater, so any leafy greens are going to be next to impossible. I will try weaving them through his bars tonight and also chop them up.

I will buy a bunch of eggs and cook them to get the shells (I don't eat eggs so I'm the problem here) and maybe crush them up and sprinkle over his food since he doesn't seem to care for them.

Do you give your brown rice cooked? I always cooked his. I could re-introduce next week perhaps. I'm worried about giving him dinner again tonight as the past 2 nights right after he had bad toe tapping

I'm still at work and I can see hes had his foot lifted for quite awhile. I have a pit in my stomach sitting here helpless. I hope it's not as bad as I'm thinking by the time I get home.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Hugs to you Katie.. I wish I had something beneficial to contribute,but I have not,just my prayers and well-wishes for your little man.






Jim

 

[Uglow]

So sorry you're going through this. I hope this get's sorted out sooner than later for both of you. So the brown rice is cooked yes. it's only about a teaspoon of rice and a teaspoon of beans. I hesitate to comment about the liquid calcium. I'm not a vet and I don't want to say one way or the other. BUT, when Uglow's calcium was low I was given Osteoform powder and was told to give him a pinch sprinkled on his food. I did it once a day for about 2 weeks while I worked on getting his calcium/vit D/Phosphorus levels up in his diet. And my pinch was extremely conservative. BUT, Uglow's toe tapping was pretty mild and went away in about 24 hours. His Calcium was 7.7mg/dL. 0.3mg/dL less than the recommended 8.0 - 12.0.
IF Jasper's calcium levels are extremely low then yeah, maybe the liquid is the way to go. Again, I can't stress enough how not-an-expert I am on Eclectus health and sentence structure apparently.

So if you're trying to get calcium from leafy greens but he won't eat them, butternut squash and sweet potato might be the way to go. Plus if he's eating those carrots, he's already a fair amount of calcium. And so if it's still a calcium deficiency then it's an absorption issue which is where your vit D3 comes into play. Ugh, hope I haven't confused things.

 

[tashawithanekkie]

My heart aches for you and Jasper. I wish I had something more helpful to add. Hang in there. You're doing literally everything you can. You'll get it figured out.

 

[katie_fleming]

Thank you guys for all your comments, they really mean a lot.

When I got home from work things were as I suspected after seeing him on camera. My heart is just broken. Bad WF/TT and he did a number on his poor feet. He's pretty much ignoring his toes but the ankles/around the back, sides...I just want to cry.

I went ahead with the lady's suggestion from the other Ekkie group. I actually talked with her on the phone for awhile. I mixed in ~0.5cc's into his "snacky time" mix b/c I knew he'd eat it.

Uglow - Do you by chance happen to know what those numbers convert to for mmol/L? Jasper's results were 1.80 mmol/L and they're saying the normal range is 2.02-2.98

I just called my boyfriend to ask him to drive an hour round trip to help me put the cone back on him. I can't risk him losing a foot. He's not bleeding anywhere but the sides/back of his feet are just raw. I am so upset right now. I don't know why this keeps happening and I don't know what to do. I am just sick.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

About the calcium supplement..when I took Smokey to her doc because she was acting "drunk",stumbling and falling over..he gave her a shot the fixed her up within minutes..then he adviced me to add a liquid calcium supplement to her,and Amy's water ,a teaspoon worth to a 6 oz water bowl,a couple times a week. Smokey never had an incident again.

Katie,ask Jasper's CAV about that.
Also...could it NOW be phycalogical??<sp> I'm just grasping at straws here.




Jim

 

[Uglow]

Uglow - Do you by chance happen to know what those numbers convert to for mmol/L? Jasper's results were 1.80 mmol/L and they're saying the normal range is 2.02-2.98

I just called my boyfriend to ask him to drive an hour round trip to help me put the cone back on him. I can't risk him losing a foot. He's not bleeding anywhere but the sides/back of his feet are just raw. I am so upset right now. I don't know why this keeps happening and I don't know what to do. I am just sick.

No idea how it translates. but he seems to be more deficient than Uglow was. I'm starting to think that it's not what you're feeding him as much as an underlying illness that's causing it. Probably whatever is causing the nerve pain.

I know you're supper frustrated and probably feel a bit defeated. You'll get through this. Are showers helping him at all? How's the humidity? Just throwing stuff out there.

Here's a thought. write a page long draft of all his symptoms, tests, etc and send them to any and every avian veterinary University...maybe the heads of those departments. Students might be interested in trying to solve problems like this. For example, I found a wasp a while ago...before the internet was what it is now...and wrote several entomologists to find out more about it. A few wrote back. One I had a long correspondence with. it's worth a shot.
https://veterinarypracticenews.com/best-colleges-of-veterinary-medicine/

 

[Anansi]

I know how you feel, Katie. It's just so hard watching them go through this. As you know, like Uglow I suspect an underlying illness. But to be honest diet has not been ruled out. And this is one time I'd rather be wrong.

A good trick for getting an ekkie to eat greens, eggshells, and any other seeming undesirables is to chop/crush them into fine little bits and mix them in with some oatmeal. (Assuming, of course, that Jasper is a fan of oatmeal.) Jolly and Maya will eat pretty much anything that I cover in some warm oatmeal.

Also, if I'm understanding you correctly, you're saying that the worst elements of his toe-tapping and wing-flipping occur after dinner. If this is the case, perhaps for a few days you could repeat his breakfast menu for dinner. If after a few days the tapping and flipping drop significantly, you can reasonably figure that the cause is one of the foods given at dinner. If, however, it makes no difference, it may just turn out that the symptoms are more pronounced at night for whatever reason. (Like a cough that is always at it's worst when you're trying to sleep.)

As for the calcium supplement, checking in with a vet would be best... assuming a working knowledge of ekkies and their differences from other parrots, of course.

 

[Teddscau]

Okay, any update on EVERYTHHING you've fed him the past two weeks? And I mean absolutely EVERY. SINGLE. THING. I don't have an eclectus, but I do have budgies who have been projectile vomiting everywhere and scratching their vents half to death due to food sensitivities.

Here's what I'd completely cut out:
• NO ROOT VEGETABLES! Especially no sweet potato, okay? It takes three to 14+ days for my budgies to react to sweet potato, but when they finally react, there's vomit EVERYWHERE. Poor Ju's face was covered in vomit, and he aspirated on it (he's fine now, but it looked like he was dying).
• No pulses. No peas, lentils, mung beans, Pinto beans...nothing.
• No green beans, yellow beans, etc.
• No seeds. If you want to give him seeds, give him organic sunflower seeds.
• Absolutely no cherries or berries. I remember one of the members on here talking about how her ekkie started TT/WF from cherries. As for berries, I personally react badly to them. The berry sugars cause severe heart palpitations and maybe a sugar rush, which causes me to have a full blown anxiety attack for more than 8 hours.
• No really sweet fruit (no pears, pineapple, plums, etc.)
• No egg, meat, nuts, or quinoa. Well, actually, maybe feed him egg whites, and not the yolk, since we don't need him to pass out due to lack of protein.
• No pellets
• No corn

Here's what you can try (all organic!):
• Squash and pumpkins (cooked; starch is our enemy)
• Romaine, dandelion leaves, chickweed, clover (wild), shepherd's purse, eucalyptus (not from florists), bottlebrush, purslane, mustard leaf, Swiss chard, peashoots, beet leaves, turnip leaves
• Grass seed (collect fresh grass with seed that hasn't fully ripened yet)
• Chamomile and lavender from a health food store (food-grade) in a dish, available at all times
• Hibiscus, lilac, nasturtium (food-grade)
• Melon (including a small number of melon seeds, along with rind)

Just a heads up, it takes Samantha at LEAST two weeks before she shows symptoms! My poor girl's been suffering because I kept ruling out the mash as causing her tummy problems, but that's because it takes at least two weeks for a food to cause her problems, and at least two weeks for her to completely get it out of her system.

You should be sprinkling powdered eggshell on his food at least once a day. Boil the eggshell, wait for it to thoroughly dry, then stick it in an immaculate coffee grinder.

As for root vegetables, do not give him any! Sorry, am I yelling? Anyways, I think it's the starch that my budgies don't react well to. Root vegetables would be one of the last things I'd try reintroducing. Pumpkin is far easier to digest than sweet potato. Again, you want to feed Jasper low starch, low carb, low sugar foods.

The lavender and chamomile flowers are used pharmaceutically by my birds to lower anxiety and stress. Your boy might benefit from them as well.

Look up "eucalyptus herb". Buy unadulterated dried eucalyptus leaves/twigs for him to nibble on (I had a couple of eucalyptus trees growing last year, but Mom let them die while I was away for a week). Also consider buying "Now" eucalyptus oil. Put a couple of drops in a glass or stainless steel dish, add water, and let him bathe and drink a bit of it. I recently started doing this for the budgies and kākāriki, and they seem quite attracted to it. Jasper, being an Australian species (probably), might benefit from eucalyptus.

Also, he might benefit from a poultice applied to his feet made from greater plantain leaves and cayenne (sounds weird, but just try it). Beforehand, try having him soak his feet in warm water for a few minutes to promote circulation and open up his pores (do birds have pores? I don't know), then apply the poultice.

You can get dried dandelion at the healthfood store. You can buy organic mixed greens at the grocery store (they're sold in plastic containers).

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Okay, any update on EVERYTHHING you've fed him the past two weeks? And I mean absolutely EVERY. SINGLE. THING. I don't have an eclectus, but I do have budgies who have been projectile vomiting everywhere and scratching their vents half to death due to food sensitivities.

Here's what I'd completely cut out:
• NO ROOT VEGETABLES! Especially no sweet potato, okay? It takes three to 14+ days for my budgies to react to sweet potato, but when they finally react, there's vomit EVERYWHERE. Poor Ju's face was covered in vomit, and he aspirated on it (he's fine now, but it looked like he was dying).
• No pulses. No peas, lentils, mung beans, Pinto beans...nothing.
• No green beans, yellow beans, etc.
• No seeds. If you want to give him seeds, give him organic sunflower seeds.
• Absolutely no cherries or berries. I remember one of the members on here talking about how her ekkie started TT/WF from cherries. As for berries, I personally react badly to them. The berry sugars cause severe heart palpitations and maybe a sugar rush, which causes me to have a full blown anxiety attack for more than 8 hours.
• No really sweet fruit (no pears, pineapple, plums, etc.)
• No egg, meat, nuts, or quinoa. Well, actually, maybe feed him egg whites, and not the yolk, since we don't need him to pass out due to lack of protein.
• No pellets
• No corn

Here's what you can try (all organic!):
• Squash and pumpkins (cooked; starch is our enemy)
• Romaine, dandelion leaves, chickweed, clover (wild), shepherd's purse, eucalyptus (not from florists), bottlebrush, purslane, mustard leaf, Swiss chard, peashoots, beet leaves, turnip leaves
• Grass seed (collect fresh grass with seed that hasn't fully ripened yet)
• Chamomile and lavender from a health food store (food-grade) in a dish, available at all times
• Hibiscus, lilac, nasturtium (food-grade)
• Melon (including a small number of melon seeds, along with rind)

Just a heads up, it takes Samantha at LEAST two weeks before she shows symptoms! My poor girl's been suffering because I kept ruling out the mash as causing her tummy problems, but that's because it takes at least two weeks for a food to cause her problems, and at least two weeks for her to completely get it out of her system.

You should be sprinkling powdered eggshell on his food at least once a day. Boil the eggshell, wait for it to thoroughly dry, then stick it in an immaculate coffee grinder.

As for root vegetables, do not give him any! Sorry, am I yelling? Anyways, I think it's the starch that my budgies don't react well to. Root vegetables would be one of the last things I'd try reintroducing. Pumpkin is far easier to digest than sweet potato. Again, you want to feed Jasper low starch, low carb, low sugar foods.

The lavender and chamomile flowers are used pharmaceutically by my birds to lower anxiety and stress. Your boy might benefit from them as well.

Look up "eucalyptus herb". Buy unadulterated dried eucalyptus leaves/twigs for him to nibble on (I had a couple of eucalyptus trees growing last year, but Mom let them die while I was away for a week). Also consider buying "Now" eucalyptus oil. Put a couple of drops in a glass or stainless steel dish, add water, and let him bathe and drink a bit of it. I recently started doing this for the budgies and kākāriki, and they seem quite attracted to it. Jasper, being an Australian species (probably), might benefit from eucalyptus.

Also, he might benefit from a poultice applied to his feet made from greater plantain leaves and cayenne (sounds weird, but just try it). Beforehand, try having him soak his feet in warm water for a few minutes to promote circulation and open up his pores (do birds have pores? I don't know), then apply the poultice.

You can get dried dandelion at the healthfood store. You can buy organic mixed greens at the grocery store (they're sold in plastic containers).

How about virgin coconut oil on his tootsies? I rub some into Amys' on occasion,helps sooth and smooth them for her.


Jim

 

[plumsmum2005]

Twin Beaks® Aviary - Animal self-medication - Natural, Organic and Holistic wellness for your pets.

 

[Teddscau]

The coconut oil would probably be good too. With the poultice, however, the greater plantain is often used for poison ivy, bee stings, bug bites, and I think jellyfish stings. I read on different blogs and forums about how people thought it was a bunch of nonsense, but they were so desperate for relief that they chewed up the plantain and applied the mush to their ouchie. Apparently it provides immediate relief. As for the cayenne, they've done studies, and apparently it dulls pain quite well when applied to the affected area. If both herbs actually work like people say they do, then a poultice made from them could, in theory, greatly dull the pins and needles sensation.

Hey plumsmum! I'm actually quite fascinated with zoopharmacognosy. I've actually ordered that stuff for my birds (hopefully everything comes in this week...). Buying such a product for Jasper could give him the chance to treat his medical problems. There's debate about whether zoopharmacognosy is an actual thing, but I believe much of the skepticism concerning the topic is due to anthropocentricity. In the wild, animals choose to eat balanced diets (or at least you don't see animals suffering from rickets or scurvy), and many Native medicines (especially in Africa and South America) were learnt from observing animals. Elephants have been observed eating a certain species of plant to induce labour, and many monkeys make their own mosquito repellant.

 

[katie_fleming]

Hey guys, sorry for the delay. I'm behind on messages, will get caught up after I post this quick update.

I've been in touch with a lady who has experience with Ekkies for 20+ years, and some of her colleagues. I've been told by other members that vets often go to them for help with Ekkies as they consider them the experts.

I wanted to paste a comment here from one of them. Firstly, she suggested that I get Jasper milk thistle to help his liver. She told me:

[FONT=&quot]Note. Low calcium levels in the blood can mean that calcium cannot be uploaded into the muscles and the result is muscle spasms such as toe tapping and wing flipping. Now, chewing on the feet indicates severe irritation...and in most cases similar to yours, is totally diet related. I am quite suspicious of that French seed mix. Please read the bag and see if there are ANY added vitamins, which would be quite typical of seed mixes. That indeed could be the problem. IF there are ANY added vitamins, get rid of that seed mix now. It can definitely be the cause of the problem. I can create toe tapping in one week in a healthy bird just by added the recommended amount of vitamins to their food!!! Which of course I don't do....except once to educate my vet about vitamins and eclectus parrots.[/FONT]

Jasper has been on a liquid calcium supplement starting last Thursday and I was instructed to do it for 7 days.

Since Thursday Jasper has been good. I made him wear his cone until Saturday morning then took it off. He didn't pick all weekend. He only had a few minor TT occurrences otherwise the WF was steady.

This morning I get up for work and he's wing flipping badly, AND picking both feet non-stop. I already missed work on Friday. Now missing today. Thankfully I have VPN but I am so worried about my job right now. I am missing too many days. I feel utterly helpless. I live alone, I have no one to help me. Trying to take care of him and working...I am beyond stressed. Today he is wf/tt every 5-10 seconds It's really bad.

Everyone over on that board is convinced it's still diet related. I wish I could send him somewhere for awhile. I really do.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Hey guys, sorry for the delay. I'm behind on messages, will get caught up after I post this quick update.

I've been in touch with a lady who has experience with Ekkies for 20+ years, and some of her colleagues. I've been told by other members that vets often go to them for help with Ekkies as they consider them the experts.

I wanted to paste a comment here from one of them. Firstly, she suggested that I get Jasper milk thistle to help his liver. She told me:

[FONT=&quot]Note. Low calcium levels in the blood can mean that calcium cannot be uploaded into the muscles and the result is muscle spasms such as toe tapping and wing flipping. Now, chewing on the feet indicates severe irritation...and in most cases similar to yours, is totally diet related. I am quite suspicious of that French seed mix. Please read the bag and see if there are ANY added vitamins, which would be quite typical of seed mixes. That indeed could be the problem. IF there are ANY added vitamins, get rid of that seed mix now. It can definitely be the cause of the problem. I can create toe tapping in one week in a healthy bird just by added the recommended amount of vitamins to their food!!! Which of course I don't do....except once to educate my vet about vitamins and eclectus parrots.[/FONT]

Jasper has been on a liquid calcium supplement starting last Thursday and I was instructed to do it for 7 days.

Since Thursday Jasper has been good. I made him wear his cone until Saturday morning then took it off. He didn't pick all weekend. He only had a few minor TT occurrences otherwise the WF was steady.

This morning I get up for work and he's wing flipping badly, AND picking both feet non-stop. I already missed work on Friday. Now missing today. Thankfully I have VPN but I am so worried about my job right now. I am missing too many days. I feel utterly helpless. I live alone, I have no one to help me. Trying to take care of him and working...I am beyond stressed.

Everyone over on that board is convinced it's still diet related. I wish I could send him somewhere for awhile. I really do.

Dang Katie..I'm stressing just reading this Wish we lived closer,but I still wouldn't know how to help you or Jasper.

How long have has Jasper lived with you? And how long ago did this start to happen??
I don't personally know anyone (except the folks here) who have an Ekkie to run all of this by.
Baffling to say the least.


Jim

 

[coopedup]

I hate to throw more suggestions at you, especially since it's so non-specific but you might try adding a humidifier. Wrangler has been barbering feathers like a demon the last few days with no specific trigger. He's not bored, he's not stressed...he will be playing with me then stop and bite a few off right in front of me! I think he is itchy/irritated from molting and we had a spell of VERY dry/low humidity days. Single digit humidity. I doused him under the faucet in the sink and he calmed down a good bit and seems more comfortable. It made me think of you---couldnt hurt, but I know ou already have a ton of suggestions to work through. Still thinking of you and Jasper--and wishing for a quick resolution