[galactickiwi]

I went on vacation about 2 weeks ago and Miso has bad separation anxiety. She's close to my mom and dad, but she's the closest with me. My mom said as soon as I left she wasn't herself and wasn't eating as much, and mostly just stared at the front door waiting for me to get back and would occasionally yell for me.
Since then she had been eating less and looked a lot puffier and tucked her head in and took naps through out the day.

Last friday I uncovered her cage to find out she had thrown up sometime during the night, and my mom left work early to take her to the vet. We hadn't een to this vet before but they do have bird specialists and put a lot of focus into their non dog and cat patients too.
The vet said she thinks she had a reaction to the diet we were giving her --mostly zupreem pellets and nutriberries.
They did a fecal test, an x ray, and a few other tests including deworming and told us she had a lot of infection visible in her feces and probably had a lot of gut bacteria.

She has to take 3 medicines, two twice a day and one once a day. We have also added a painkiller in, the vet told us signs of a bird in pain and if we needed she could give us a painkiller. We also are giving her recovery formula and electrolights (as much as we can get into her) through a syringe twice a day.

She still isn't eating very much, but she isn't lethargic. She's very very sleepy, which worries me, but I also know being wrapped up in a towel multiple times a day is very stressful and would probably cause some sleepiness. She can still climb around and fly off things just fine (she's clipped, but clipped well, so she can still land on things from heights very easily without much effort) and she still chirps and all. She also spends a lot of time preening, which as far as I know is a good thing. (No plucking, though, just preening and straightening herself out.)

But she still isn't eating very much. Her poops today have looked "normal" with all 3 parts there and everything, just fairly small, about half the size they normally are. Yesterday they were pretty watery for a lot of the day with not very much urates.

The vet told us to start giving her harrisons, so we're making the effort, but she does not like them so we've just started giving her whatever she'll eat. Not the zupreem pellets, mostly nutriberries as those are her favorite. She has eaten some of the pellets, just not very much.

How worried should I be? She has a follow up appointment on Sunday.

 

[enigma731]

If she's showing improvement each day (which it sounds like she is so far) and isn't weak, then I don't think you need to panic or rush back to the vet. It's normal for her to be extra sleepy when she's not feeling well, and I don't think it's really surprising that she's not back to eating yet.

What meds is she getting? Is she still vomiting?

It sounds like you're doing all the right things.

 

[galactickiwi]

If she's showing improvement each day (which it sounds like she is so far) and isn't weak, then I don't think you need to panic or rush back to the vet. It's normal for her to be extra sleepy when she's not feeling well, and I don't think it's really surprising that she's not back to eating yet.

What meds is she getting? Is she still vomiting?

It sounds like you're doing all the right things.

Okay, that's what I've figured. Shes my first cockatiel, even though I've had her almost two years it feels like I still know so little whenever something new happens...

She hasn't vomited again since last friday, I've been checking very thoroughly every day.
She has to take Panacur Suspension once a day, and Metoclopramide and Metronidazole twice a day, and for a pain killer (which we've given her before when she had an incident with 2 broken blood feathers) we're giving her Metacam once a day.

For electrolytes the vet told us to give her 1.4 ml of Pediatric Apple flavoured (it's literally like an electrolyte drink you give to toddlers) once a day. We were also told if she seems to be okay with the taste of the recovery formula to try and just leave some out of her in the cage so we've been trying that too mixed with a bit of seed, but I'm not sure how much she likes it.

 

[enigma731]

Okay, so that's an anti-parasitic, an antibiotic (kind of, Metronidazole is actually slightly different but it works on many kinds of gut bacteria) and a gut motility med. That should be a good combination, assuming they identified what the bad things in her poop are. Metacam is an anti-inflammatory in addition to being a painkiller, so that will be helpful as well.

How are you giving the electrolytes and formula? Are you crop feeding?

Also, if you aren't already, you'll want to start weighing her. That will give you a good sense of how she's doing, maybe even better than her behavior.

Two years is not long when it comes to bird illness -- I've had 'tiels for over 20 and I still feel like I learn new things anytime we need to go to the vet. With any luck, you won't have to deal with another illness for many years. But it does sound like you're doing really well with this.

 

[galactickiwi]

Okay, so that's an anti-parasitic, an antibiotic (kind of, Metronidazole is actually slightly different but it works on many kinds of gut bacteria) and a gut motility med. That should be a good combination, assuming they identified what the bad things in her poop are. Metacam is an anti-inflammatory in addition to being a painkiller, so that will be helpful as well.

How are you giving the electrolytes and formula? Are you crop feeding?

Also, if you aren't already, you'll want to start weighing her. That will give you a good sense of how she's doing, maybe even better than her behavior.

Two years is not long when it comes to bird illness -- I've had 'tiels for over 20 and I still feel like I learn new things anytime we need to go to the vet. With any luck, you won't have to deal with another illness for many years. But it does sound like you're doing really well with this.

Ahh, I didn't know it was an anti-inflammatory too, that makes sense though-the vet did say she was slightly swollen in the tummy area.

We give her the electrolytes and the formula the same way, I think it is crop feeding, they called it force feeding where you put the syringe further into their beak and kind of force it down? (That sounds so morbid when you try and describe it ) I forgot to mention in my previous post, she also gave us a sort of powder to put in the formula and on her food, I forget exactly what it's called but it's essentially the same as those nutrition booster powder things you sprinkle on daily bird food for birds who aren't getting enough nutrition.

I'm really happy to hear what I've been doing so far seems right, I will definitely start weighing her. The vet weighed her last friday and she was 94 grams, so we have a good marking point. I'm also just thankful I've had experience giving her medicines of sort before, I can't imagine how hard it'd be having to give her 3 syringes of things all at once and having it be a totally new experience, that'd be a nightmare.

You really get a taste of how smart birds really are once you have to force feed them anything, it makes you feel bad for stressing them out so much but you'd feel even worse for not doing it at all.

 

[vampiric_conure]

I thought I'd just throw in a "get well soon' to Miso Yeah - feeding birds medications sure can be a challenge!

 

[enigma731]

Crop feeding involves putting a tube all the way down into the crop. It sounds like you're just force-feeding by mouth, which is less invasive if you can get it to work okay. Either way, she's probably not going to want to eat much on her own as long as you're force-feeding her. As she gets better, you can ease back on the feedings, as long as her weight remains stable, and see what happens with her appetite. I'm glad you have a weight baseline! Remember to weigh her at about the same time each day, and that a few grams of fluctuation is normal.

 

[galactickiwi]

Yeah, she hasn't eaten much at all today. We just weighed her and she came in at 88 grams, though our scale is a food scale and is a little inaccurate.
The vet did say she was a little chubby but I'm not sure this is the best way for her to lose weight... I will weigh her again tomorrow, her next vet appointment is on Sunday.

I just gave her some electrolytes and her beak and feet are very warm which I'm taking as a good sign, and she's very sleepy. This is around the time we start putting her to bed, though she has been pretty sleepy all day again today.