Hi there,
Looking for some advice about my cockatiel. She is a grey female, approx. 15 years old. She lives with two other cockatiels.
For about a week, her breathing has appeared laboured. She has been breathing with her beak open and there is an odd clicking/grinding noise with each breath (kind of like the sound their feathers make when they rub together). She opens her beak wide now and then like a massive yawn. She also gets super out of breath when she flies just to the other side of the room. She's never been extremely fit and has always got out of breath much more quickly than the other two, but this is bad even for her!
About a month ago, one of her cagemates,
was ill. He looked really bad and we thought he was dying. He had wet sticky feathers round his face, so he probably threw up. He was very bad for a few days, then started to perk up a bit. We took him to the vet who gave a course of painkillers and antibiotics. He seems ok now.. not 100%.. he's holding one wing a bit low, but certainly much much better than before. He's eating and singing again. The day after he went to the vet, I noticed our other bird breathing a little heavy, but this only lasted a couple of hours, so we figured she'd just flown around too much. The third cagemate appears ok at the minute but he's the strongest of the three so could be hiding it or fighting it better.
She has been to the vet, who prescribed Baytril and Loxicom. We figure she's picked up the same thing as her cage mate had and just didn't show it because she's stronger. We're about 7 days into the antibiotic treatment and no real improvement. Next stage is to take her back to the vet for a swap (not sure why they didn't just do that when we were there the first time...
). After that it'll be an xray if they find no answers.
She seems to be tired, but is still eating and pottering about. She hasn't necessarily got any worse, just not better, but it's very difficult to tell because she fluctuates. One minutes she'll look a bit better, then an hour later she'll be gasping again.. Seems to be eating but despite this we think she's losing weight.
It's difficult to tell if she's swallowing the food but definitely de-shelling things and hasn't lost interest in food. Mostly going for salad leaves at the minute.
Looking for any advice at all. Taking her back and forth to the vets, which is over an hour away, is very stressful for the three of them.
Has anyone come up against something similar? Is it likely to be bacterial or maybe fungal??? Something else??
Can anyone recommend good food to give her that will keep her weight up? Tried syringe-feeding some banana but she didn't appreciate that at ALL.
Thank you!
Looking for some advice about my cockatiel. She is a grey female, approx. 15 years old. She lives with two other cockatiels.

For about a week, her breathing has appeared laboured. She has been breathing with her beak open and there is an odd clicking/grinding noise with each breath (kind of like the sound their feathers make when they rub together). She opens her beak wide now and then like a massive yawn. She also gets super out of breath when she flies just to the other side of the room. She's never been extremely fit and has always got out of breath much more quickly than the other two, but this is bad even for her!
About a month ago, one of her cagemates,
was ill. He looked really bad and we thought he was dying. He had wet sticky feathers round his face, so he probably threw up. He was very bad for a few days, then started to perk up a bit. We took him to the vet who gave a course of painkillers and antibiotics. He seems ok now.. not 100%.. he's holding one wing a bit low, but certainly much much better than before. He's eating and singing again. The day after he went to the vet, I noticed our other bird breathing a little heavy, but this only lasted a couple of hours, so we figured she'd just flown around too much. The third cagemate appears ok at the minute but he's the strongest of the three so could be hiding it or fighting it better.
She has been to the vet, who prescribed Baytril and Loxicom. We figure she's picked up the same thing as her cage mate had and just didn't show it because she's stronger. We're about 7 days into the antibiotic treatment and no real improvement. Next stage is to take her back to the vet for a swap (not sure why they didn't just do that when we were there the first time...

She seems to be tired, but is still eating and pottering about. She hasn't necessarily got any worse, just not better, but it's very difficult to tell because she fluctuates. One minutes she'll look a bit better, then an hour later she'll be gasping again.. Seems to be eating but despite this we think she's losing weight.

Looking for any advice at all. Taking her back and forth to the vets, which is over an hour away, is very stressful for the three of them.
Has anyone come up against something similar? Is it likely to be bacterial or maybe fungal??? Something else??
Can anyone recommend good food to give her that will keep her weight up? Tried syringe-feeding some banana but she didn't appreciate that at ALL.
Thank you!