what does bloodwork show??

[yann]

Hi everyone! my sun conure…has lost around 8% of his body weight in about 3 months. he is 100g now. he is still eating the same & behaving the same.

but to be on the safe side, we are going to bring him to a vet to get checked and blood work done. but i'm curious about what a blood test could show and is it absolutely necessary? could it point me in the direction of why he is losing weight?because that's what i'm most worried about.

if anyone could advice on this i would be most thankful!

 

[jenphilly]

His weight changed by 8% total? So he went roughly from 110 to 100? If so, that is not a weight loss to be overly worried about, especially over 3 months. Is he more active with weather changes? Are you allowing him to fly more? New cage and he has more room to climb around more or such? Is he molting?

Are you checking his weight regularly, say once every few days or once a week? And are you using the same scale? We purchased an avian scale, so we know we are measuring accurately and no worry about differences between scales. If you using different scales, the difference may be calibration between scales.

If was losing 10% of his body weight each time you checked him, that would be a real worry. If he is due for a vet check, I would start with just a gram stain (poop smear). If there are cells in the smear, either white blood cells or epithelial cells, then do bloodwork which will show liver function panel. We had a scare when Ivory first came home, we spent $250 in bloodwork only for the vet to say its probably just due to her poor diet prior to coming to live with us. To this day, I kick myself for not taking her into our regular avian vet who is about 40 minutes away. But we have a well known, very respected avian vet maybe 10 minutes away in Quakertown, so we thought it would be good to have a second avian vet.... but that is another story for another day...

I would encourage you to take your sun to the vet, always better to be safe.... but I would explain why you are there and the 8% weight loss and ask for a stain. They should be able to just look at that immediately and tell if there is a need for bloodwork to try to determine if something is going on.

 

[yann]

yeah a total of 8g decrease from 108g in nov'13...it gradually went down though, not all at once. well, our weather here stays pretty much the same all year round so probably not due to the weather changes. he has always been free flighted and generally very active. but yes!!he is molting now...could it be due to that?

we usually weigh once a month...but ever since we noticed that his weight has been dropping we do it once a week now.

i dont think it's due to a diet problem as he has been with me since he was a baby and he gets chop and harrissons,tops,roudybush everyday. pretty much all the healthy stuff, seeds only from nutriberries or avicakes.

we will still be bringing him to the vet! perhaps as you've suggested a poop smear and see if blood work is necessary. but would i have any idea if he's got some illness or disease?

 

[JerseyWendy]

Here are some links about understanding blood work in parrots:

The Complete Blood Count
Old World Aviaries: The Complete Blood Count

Avian Clinical Pathology
ACVC 2001 - Avian Clinical Pathology

Biochemistries
Clinical Biochemistries in Birds - WSAVA 2007 Congress

Avian Reference Ranges: Chemistry
http://pathology.med.miami.edu/documents/avian_reference_ranges.pdf

 

[jenphilly]

What is your weight record for him...

Nov 2013 - 108g
Dec 2013 - how much?
Jan 2014 - how much?
Feb 2014 - how much?
today - how much?

Molting can affect weight, many birds are a bit miserable with pin feathers and how irritating they can be and will not eat as much, so dropping a little weight would not be a huge concern. Not to mention if he's dropping feathers like crazy, they have to weigh something!

If you are not seeing any other major changes and his poops look good, then you may just be dealing with effects of molting. I know some of our birds can vary 5% weight just from morning til night. If you do not weigh at same time everytime (such as morning before they eat but after a morning poop) or evening before bedtime, you will see a variance of weight just throughout a single day.

I would never suggest not taking a bird to the vet if you have a worry, but if you cannot get into the vet until Friday, between now and then, I would weigh him 3 times a day just to see how much his weight fluctuates throughout a single day.

 

[thekarens]

I'm actually a fan of getting blood work done on a new bird, even a healthy one because it gives you a baseline if anything happens in the future. The bloodwork for Sydney when I got him cost about $300 and that included sexing.

The way I look at it is my own doctor runs bloodwork on me each year when I have my physical, so it can't be a bad idea for a bird to get one once in a while.