BirdCatLady
Jogging around the block
But do I need to be? I know I have a history of freaking out over Brodie's poop, but here are two photos of poop from tonight. It doesn't look normal to me. He's acting fairly normal -- no abnormally fluffed feathers, no disinterest in food (quite the opposite), no change in behavior, his vent is not stained in any way...
That being said, I have pulled up the phone number of an avian-certified vet in my area. And the email. And I'm prepped to call and see if I can get him in to be seen tomorrow.
Three poops all from approximately the same time. The first one is the big lumpy one. The smaller other two happened shortly thereafter (not sure which of those came first though).
Then there was this one... and this is the one that REALLY has me kinda freaking out.
The black specs. I've NEVER seen that before. It doesn't look like undigested seeds to me, but I have no idea what else it would be. And the "stringiness" of the urates is bizarre too. And the color, and the bubble.
He's had a poop similar to this before (NO black specs, but "stringy" urates). Poop abnormalities always seem to happen when he's out of his cage (right now he is on his table stand next to my desk).
I've taken to putting paper plates under where he poops in the cage so I can closely monitor his poop. And for the most part, he's fine. Green or reddish brown feces (the reddish brown ones are due to him eating only the red pellets from Higgins InTune pellets), white urates, and clear urine. No bubbles, no weird discoloration.
But when he's out of his cage, I see the "stringy" urates and the malformed feces. And he also has "normal" poops when he's out of the cage too (even tonight, he had one poop that was the normal tubular feces, white urate, clear urine). And this seems to be the only time I see them... they're never in his cage/on the paper plates or the newspaper lining the bottom of his cage. Yet he chooses to come out of his cage... so I don't know what to make of that. It's not like I'm forcing him to.
Here's 3 poops -- an example from tonight. About 5-10 minutes apart. The two (that look like one poop) on the righthand side are bizarre looking. The one on the left/top is more normal. The one on the left happened after the ones on the right. (The tiny feather on the bottom right is because he was preening and fluffed, and it fell and landed on the paper.)
I'm so confused.
A note on diet: Brodie eats a mixture of Higgins InTune Pellets and Higgins Safflower Gold seed mix, with almonds, pumpkin seeds, a pistachio or two, and sometimes some of ZuPreem's SmartSeed added in. He normally gets apple slices daily but this has been less regular in the past week since I've been working crazy hours and my stress levels are high.
A note on stress: We recently adopted a 1 year old dog. She's been here for about a month, and is settling in well. Brodie likes her. However, I'm pretty sure that he can tell that my stress level is higher now due to work plus taking care of my "zoo" -- and I also don't see my husband very much at all due to HIS work schedule.
So I know all of that can impact how he is doing. And I'm going to get back on track with feeding him regular fruits and veggies (smack me on the hand, go ahead -- balancing everything is tough but I feel like I failed and that I should be making him more of a priority -- in my head he's dying... because anxiety is fun like that).
But in the meantime... call the vet's tomorrow for an appointment?... or is this something that is not as emergency-ish as I'm assuming...?
That being said, I have pulled up the phone number of an avian-certified vet in my area. And the email. And I'm prepped to call and see if I can get him in to be seen tomorrow.
Three poops all from approximately the same time. The first one is the big lumpy one. The smaller other two happened shortly thereafter (not sure which of those came first though).
Then there was this one... and this is the one that REALLY has me kinda freaking out.
The black specs. I've NEVER seen that before. It doesn't look like undigested seeds to me, but I have no idea what else it would be. And the "stringiness" of the urates is bizarre too. And the color, and the bubble.
He's had a poop similar to this before (NO black specs, but "stringy" urates). Poop abnormalities always seem to happen when he's out of his cage (right now he is on his table stand next to my desk).
I've taken to putting paper plates under where he poops in the cage so I can closely monitor his poop. And for the most part, he's fine. Green or reddish brown feces (the reddish brown ones are due to him eating only the red pellets from Higgins InTune pellets), white urates, and clear urine. No bubbles, no weird discoloration.
But when he's out of his cage, I see the "stringy" urates and the malformed feces. And he also has "normal" poops when he's out of the cage too (even tonight, he had one poop that was the normal tubular feces, white urate, clear urine). And this seems to be the only time I see them... they're never in his cage/on the paper plates or the newspaper lining the bottom of his cage. Yet he chooses to come out of his cage... so I don't know what to make of that. It's not like I'm forcing him to.
Here's 3 poops -- an example from tonight. About 5-10 minutes apart. The two (that look like one poop) on the righthand side are bizarre looking. The one on the left/top is more normal. The one on the left happened after the ones on the right. (The tiny feather on the bottom right is because he was preening and fluffed, and it fell and landed on the paper.)
I'm so confused.
A note on diet: Brodie eats a mixture of Higgins InTune Pellets and Higgins Safflower Gold seed mix, with almonds, pumpkin seeds, a pistachio or two, and sometimes some of ZuPreem's SmartSeed added in. He normally gets apple slices daily but this has been less regular in the past week since I've been working crazy hours and my stress levels are high.
A note on stress: We recently adopted a 1 year old dog. She's been here for about a month, and is settling in well. Brodie likes her. However, I'm pretty sure that he can tell that my stress level is higher now due to work plus taking care of my "zoo" -- and I also don't see my husband very much at all due to HIS work schedule.
So I know all of that can impact how he is doing. And I'm going to get back on track with feeding him regular fruits and veggies (smack me on the hand, go ahead -- balancing everything is tough but I feel like I failed and that I should be making him more of a priority -- in my head he's dying... because anxiety is fun like that).
But in the meantime... call the vet's tomorrow for an appointment?... or is this something that is not as emergency-ish as I'm assuming...?
