Budgie update -- good news and bad!

[samsun]

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since I've posted, but I wanted to give you all an update on how my four beautiful budgies are doing. I wanted to thank everyone once again for all the help and support I've received through the months here. I couldn't have done this without AA!

For anyone that doesn't know, I currently have four budgies (american), three males and one female. I've had Sammy, the oldest, for somewhere around 6 years now -- he's been with me through it all! The other three birds I adopted 6-7 months ago after Sammy lost his lifelong companion. I had a bit of trouble with the new birds, since none of them were tame, and had a strong bond with each other (the two older ones are a mated pair, and the third is one of their offspring from a year or so ago), so getting them to accept Sammy into the flock was a bit of a challenge. Well, I'm happy to report that all four birds are finally living happily together!!! Sammy is thrilled to have bird friends again, and he has become best pals with the youngest of the new birds, lovingly named "Not Sammy", since they look almost identical. Gizmo (male) and Olive (female) may not be best friends with Sam, they don't seem to mind sharing the cage.

Also fantastic news, all four of the birds are getting more comfortable with humans every day. The three males love having playtime outside of the cage, and eagerly jump onto my hands expecting their favorite treats. Olive, on the other hand, was practically petrified of humans when I adopted her. I couldn't get close to the cage without sending her into an absolute panic. But, after 6 months of slowly showing her that hands won't harm her, she FINALLY ventured out of the cage, and onto my hand to eat some seed!! Unfortunately, taming her is still an uphill battle, as she gets spooked extremely easily, and isn't the best at navigating outside of the cage. Last night, she got herself "stuck" on the roof of the cage for a good 20 minutes, becuase she didn't realize the door back in, is on the side. If I try to coax her with my hand, she gets scared and tries to fly away. Luckily, I have Gizmo (her mate), who is always there to come to her rescue and show her back inside the cage.

Getting Olive onto my hand for the first time was definitely the most exciting thing that's happened to me in a while!

However, I do have some news that may not be so good.

Last night, while I was letting the birds out for some play time and exercise, Sammy did not look his usual self. His feathers were very puffed up, he looked a little "out of it", and scariest of all, he was throwing up. This wasn't natural regurgitation... his head would bob violently and he would spit up clumps of slimy seed. He was more than happy to eat seed and some millet, but the shells would get stuck to his beak since he was vomiting. I put some extra vitamin supplements (which I had got from a vet during Sammy's appointment a few months ago) in his food, made sure water was extra clean, and turned up the heat a bit in his room. Today, he looks back to normal and hasn't thrown up anymore that I can tell. I turned the temperature back down though, because I noticed one of the birds was panting.

What do you guys think could have caused this? The other birds look just fine. Everyone is still tweeting away, eating, playing, etc. If Sammy continues to do well, could this have just been a freak incident? I understand if another vet visit is in order, but they are extremely stressful to Sammy and I don't have a lot of extra money to be spending on vet bills right now.

Always something with these birds! Thanks for listening!

 

[BeeBop]

Great news! As far as the bad news I would suggest separating them. One birds illness can bring an entire flock down. It's possible he is just having an energy surge from the vitamins but hasn't truly recovered. I would definitely recommend visiting the vet again as vomiting is a serious symptom. Any changes in droppings? Any change in behavior? You should give the vitamins to all other birds in the flock for an immune boost. I hope all is well and he isn't sick.

 

[Lady Jane]

I am the bearer of potentially bad news. I lost a budgie a few years ago to avian gastric yeast or mega bacteria. Since I did some research on this horrible disease I learned that budgies and other small birds can carry this and some have the symptoms. There is treatment but for my bird it was fatal. He was wasting away slowly. What happens is because of the yeast they can no longer absorb the nutrients in the food and there is wt. loss. Vomiting with head bobbing is a cardinal symptom and I hope it is not this. Please take your bird to an avian vet ASAP for swabs of the crop and droppings. Good idea to separate the bird with symptoms but there has already been exposure for all of them.

Winged Wisdom Pet Bird Magazine - Avian Gastric Yeast Formerly Megabacteria Part I Description

Small Parrots in Health and Disease

I think there is a newer medication on the market for this now but I used amphotericin B which is harsh on a little budgies body. We tried anti nausea meds, apple cider vinegar in the water and several other medications. I think @Hankmacaw may be familiar with this new med.

 

[samsun]

Thank you so much for the replies. Now I'm very worried since the same disease you just mentioned, was also brought up 7-8 months ago when I lost my other bird. The symptoms were very different (no vomiting, just some weight loss but the bird lost all his energy just in a matter of hours), but I wonder if Sammy might have been carrying the fungus through all this time? Is that possible? Sammy was at a vet not too long ago and they gave him a clean bill of health though.

No other behavioral changes in any of the birds, besides Sammy's somewhat listlessness last night. However, it was late at night so perhaps he was just sleepy. All the birds have a vitamin supplement in their food, recommended by a vet since they're picky eaters. No changes in droppings from what I can tell, and I haven't seen him throw up at all today. He seems back to his perky vibrant self. His feathers aren't even puffed up.

 

[Dartman]

They will hide their illness till it's too late to protect themselves from being singled out and eaten in the wild. The House finch we raised got sick and we tried some pet store antibiotics and she would seem OK for a while then go back downhill, but even the day she died she was still eating and trying to act normal so I'd consider getting him checked out just to be sure and if he acts sick again get him in a hospital cage and get him in ASAP. I hope everything is fine and he just had a bad patch but kep an eye on him now at least.

 

[Lady Jane]

The avian vet I go to told me the yeast is almost always from the birds parents. For my budgie it was vomiting every day and he looked miserable. His weight went from 46 gm to 38 gm. The lack of response to multiple treatments and weight loss was more than he could bear so I had him put down. I still get teary. I would still get the swabs for peace of mind. Monday I am getting a baby EB and the breeder takes precautions to keep yeast from forming in his breeder birds. They get ACV and pro biotic early in life.

 

[Monica]

Unfortunately, I agree that a vet visit is in order.

I, too, have lost a budgie to AGY. The first vet that saw him didn't do any tests, just treated him with antibiotics. (probably made things worse) The second and third vets that saw him couldn't find any signs of AGY (despite the fact he was showing symptoms!) and it eventually took him. I didn't find out until after getting the necropsy results.


I've also had Casey, my first tiel, get sick. She appeared "off" one day. Not clearly sick, but not clearly right, either. The following day, she was acting normal like nothing was wrong. Took her in anyway to get checked out and she had an infection. Got her treated and she's been fine since.

 

[samsun]

He looks completely normal again today, and I'd hate to have to put him through all the stress of going to a vet if it turns out to be nothing.

I was trying to think about what might have caused the sickness, and one thing that was different than before, was they went a day without food. It wasn't intentional -- I ran out the door early in the morning (around 7am) and forgot to refill their bowls. I got home around 11 at night, so they went quite a bit without food. Are birds like people, where they can get sick if they don't eat? Perhaps he felt queasy becuase of that, and now that they're back on a regular feeding schedule, he'll be fine?

I'm not going to be home much these next few days so I don't know when I would even have time to make a vet appointment.

 

[BeeBop]

Perhaps. I would still recommend visiting a vet whenever possible. Birds are experts at hiding illness.

 

[Dartman]

Take him in and tell the vet what happened and explain you love your bird but don't have a bottomless bank account and they'll probably work with you. The last time I took in Nerd just before he died my vet was giving me every discount they could get away with to try and help me and him. My vet even had a questionnaire about how much your pet was part of your family and what level of spending you were comfortable with so everyone had a idea where we were at before proceeding. Hopefully it was just a bad patch but I'd take him in if it was me just to be safe but explain your situation like I said.

 

[samsun]

Thank you very much for the advice. I'm going to try and get Sammy an appointment this week. I'll keep you updated!

 

[Lady Jane]

AGY is so prevalent now vets are testing budgies for it on a wellness exam without symptoms present. My budgie tested negative for it in the swabs sometimes even though he was slowly dying. Its a weird disease in that it comes and goes.

 

[samsun]

Hi everyone,

Fortunately, all the birds are looking happy and healthy! Sammy has not shown any signs of illness since that day last week.

However, I am noticing some new behaviors from them. Sammy has been hovering around Olive (the female) all day, trying to preen and feed her. She doesn't seem interested -- her and Gizmo are already bonded. Will Sammy eventually give up trying to impress her? I don't want her to get stressed out, and I can't imagine separating any of them. Olive seems to be in breeding condition again (her cere is now a really dark tan/brown color), which may be why Sammy is so obsessed with her.

Any advice on what I should do about this?

 

[Lady Jane]

Glad they are well. If the female is not interested in Sammy it won't happen. Spring is not far away. I had a budgie pair having similar behaviors. Male was rejected by female but there were never any fights or injuries. Maybe he will give up.

 

[samsun]

Will taking Sammy and Not Sammy out of the cage for a while help? They really don't like being separated, but poor Olive seems overwhelmed.

I also have a breeder box that used to be in the cage. Should I maybe put it back in as a safe spot for Olive to go?

 

[Lady Jane]

If you don't want eggs/babies then I would not put the box in the cage. There is also another theory that one can let the pair go through the laying of eggs and then you would render the eggs infertile either by freezing/boiling or substituting dummy eggs. Please remember if you do this to enhance the calcium in the diet.

 

[samsun]

I really would enjoy raising baby birds -- Olive has had chicks before (Not Sammy is one of them), so does that make things easier on her? I think it's been over a year since she last laid eggs, so would she be okay to again? I'll be sure to give her lots of calcium and nutrients that she'll need. I've done lots of research through my years of keeping budgies, so I'm not jumping into this completely blind.

If I decide to put the breeder box back in, should I move the other two birds out so it's less stressful for the pair? Or should I not risk distributing the flock? I'm afraid Gizmo might become aggressive again if he has the cage to himself for too long. But I also don't want things to be too stressful for Olive.

 

[Lady Jane]

I would take the other birds out. If there are baby chicks are you going to keep them?

 

[samsun]

I will definitely try and keep the baby birds. I'd get too attached to let them go!

Should I move the breeding pair to a more quiet room then?

 

[Monica]

It would be very important for the pair to be eating a lot of fresh foods and maybe some sprouted seeds, too.


The pair may or may not be okay being moved away, although I would definitely recommend separating them. Under normal circumstances, if you had an aviary of budgies, the females would be taking food from any of the males willing to feed them and the males would be off courting other females when they wouldn't be feeding their own hen or chicks. In a small cage, this would be asking for trouble.