Pictures Hello......Weird Poo

[Tiel Feathers]

Griffin is adorable!!

 

[Donna turner]

That is so adorable. Cheeky just runs up my arm and sleeps under my hair. I know what you mean about getting sucked in in the pet store. Cheeky had been there long enough to be sad and her big eyes said please love me and take me home so I did. Best thing I've done for myself in a long time.

 

[Griffin's Mom]

For those of you who I have spoke to regarding Griffin's poo and excessive drinking, I have an update.

Last Friday 2/10/17 I took Griff to the vets to get this matter taken care of once and for all. I have complete faith in Dr. Gary Riggs that he with find the root of the problem.

Friday: Griff had a blood test which showed he was dehydrated (probably due to the hour and a half car ride and car sickness). Glucose level was fine and so were some other tests they ran. The dr and us know about this on going issue with him so the dr agreed to keep him and run a few tests and keep and eye on him. Now mind you Griff isn't presenting with any illnesses, problems or anything of that nature. The only oddity is the stool.

Saturday: 24 hr result: Griff proved the the dr his fluid intake is 85 CC, this is 10 times the amount his is supposed to have. He is only supposed to be taking in roughly 8.5 CC. He is more hydrated than the day before but no where near where he should be. for the amount of water he's drinking. The dr is concerned with Griff's water intake and believes he's taking waaaayyyyy toooooo much and therefore doesn't have time to absorb the fluids due to the fact that he is flooding his system with it so fast, it comes out as fast as it went in. Griff was tested for internal parasites and bacteria (Internal swab of crop and such) and nothing other than the normal bacteria that he is supposed to have was present.

Sunday: 24 hr result: Griff was given a dye to see just how fast his body is "dumping" the fluid he drinks.

Monday: 24 hr result: Griff dumped the dye incredibly fast, all the while he is being provided plenty of water. Dr wants to do a water restriction experiment to see if he absorbs more water when he doesn't have as much to fill his crop every time he drinks. He will be given the recommended amount of water during the next 24 hours to see if his hydration levels improve, he won't be able to gorge on water and it will have time to absorb. He must be kept under watchful eye because if this doesn't work he will dehydrate further which can kill him. More blood testing for hydration levels. If this is the case the Griff's issue could just be that he is (lack of better words, water alcoholic). This could be more of a psychosomatic disorder, if we went without water for a long period of time. (reminder: we left him with a caregiver last June when we took a trip to Arizona (5 days), his problems were apparent the very day we picked him up. this could be a possibility).

I will be hearing the results from this test today. If this doesn't work we are looking at liver damage or diabetes insipidus. Dr. has high hopes for him, he is young, he is very healthy otherwise, very active, loves to fly and sing, you would never know he had something going on.


So now i wait for todays phone call in hopes we find the problem and that i can go pick up my lil turkey today.......I'm really starting to miss him, i'm afraid he will forget me and he's in misery from being poked and prodded for that last 4 days.

 

[Cynthia & Percy]

awe poor baby

 

[Tiel Feathers]

I hope it's just behavioral that he can come home today!

 

[Griffin's Mom]

I heard from the vet a little while ago and he's eating good, all his testing has come back good, nothing really serious to watch for. He has a few minerals and proteins levels that are low, but the dr said that could just be him flushing them out of his system so fast he's not absorbing anything. But he still cant be drinking all that water. Even though he was water restricted the dr only did a 10% water restriction (I thought he was gonna do a recommend dosage) I guess he didn't want to cut him completely off in case of dehydration and to provoke him into a worse behavior, so i understand. So he is staying another night at another 10% water restriction. I have a feeling he's gonna be there longer than I hoped. I really hope we get lucky and its just a behavior. The dr said it's extremely rare for a bird as active and healthy as him to have liver or kidney issues, or even have diabetes insipidus. I really regret leaving him with the caregiver when we went to Arizona, I should've boarded him somewhere. I just thought he would be more comfortable in a home setting. Now I keep getting these bouts of "what if". I worry if he went without water, or was fed something he shouldn't have had or got into something......I'll never know.. I hope Griff is just a little water-holic that needs a 12 steps program

 

[Griffin's Mom]

Griffin and his little buddy Ruby


Griffin waiting to kill the cuckoo



The whole birdie gang.......Ruby, Griffin and Pheonix

 

[SueA555]

Poor baby. He is adorable. You are doing everything you can to find out what this could possibly be. Keep us posted.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

Waiting to kill the cuckoo! They are all very cute! I'll keep Griffin in my thoughts, and don't beat yourself up about something that most likely was fine.

 

[camelotshadow]

I guess there are things that make a bird drink too much. Sounds like they are doing alot of the tests. Hope they figure it out

 

[Birblover]

Hello @Griffin's Mom, you have such a lovely little flock! I'm sorry to hear about his health worries. I can relate with my Buttons current recurring health issues.

I did come across this forum post where someone mentioned a lack of urates in droppings from calcium poisoning. They also mention Gout, although that doesn't seem to fit.
I don't know if you've seen it, or if it can be of any help, but I thought I'd link to it jic.

I hope everything works out.

 

[Griffin's Mom]

I HAVE NEWS!!!

Dr. Riggs called and explained that they have restricted his water the past 2 days by 10% again. More testing says his liver and kidneys are normal. His poo has formed up to more like its supposed to be. He thinks its psychosomatic and he has anxiety by how active he is in the cage there.

I was feeding the other birds today and decided to measure Griff's water bowl and found out his bowl will hold 225 mL, and every morning there was only about 30mL left in the bottom.....thats way more water than we first assumed he was drinking. I told Dr. Riggs and he was floored, he thought he was only going through 85mL because thats the amount he had available to him a the animal hospital so they were basing their findings off of that. Now that we know what his intake truly was we then realized that by only starting him out on 85mL it was already cutting him down by more than half of what he was drinking. Drinking that much will flush everything out of their system, food, mineral, bacteria, proteins and all. Now his levels are good, they are almost back to normal where they were a little low before. We are seriously entertaining the possibility that when i left him with the caregiver when we went on vacation it is possible he ran out of water, or was forgotten to be given water, which is quite possibly where the behavior of excessive drinking started and the anxiety he has made it worse. It never once occurred to me that he had anxiety, i always knew he was high strung, full of energy, always vocal, and was adamant about being with me all the time (HE HAS STALKER STATUS).

Dr. Riggs says he wants to keep him until Saturday to be 100% sure. He is going to give him something for anxiety to see how he does. And if all goes well we can pick him up then. Would you believe I have a nasty stress rash all over my neck from worrying over him. I actually cried my eyes out this morning because I was missing him so bad....he wakes me up in the morning screaming "yoo hoo" cause he wants me to take the cover off his cage, and let him out to reek havoc. He helps me fill up the food bowls and usually enjoys diving into his portion long before it makes it to the cage.

I told Dr. Riggs about being a part of this forum and some of the advice I got and he was happy that theres chat boards like this that owners can go to. He also stressed that if anyone else has a bird with Griff's symptoms to not wait to go to the vet. Even though it looks like Griff's issues may be resolved, had i decided to wait until he looked and was acting sick it could have been too late to do anything. Drinking excessive water is extremely dangerous for a bird, especially if its been going on for a while. It can lead to the flushing of all the chemicals, elements, mineral, and proteins within the body that is necessary for proper function and could have easily caused renal failure, dehydration, etc.... its fatal for them to drink so much. Even if they are acting normal you gotta Check your birds!!.... Dr. Riggs said its better to be over protective than under and these guys can go downhill faster than you realize.

I'm so happy I'm almost crying now. I was afraid to lose him, he's just a baby, he turned a year old last December.

I wanna thank everybody for letting me cry on their shoulder with my worries and concerns. So for now the next time you'll hopefully hear anything is the final dr.s eval on Saturday.

 

[iamwhoiam]

I hope that everything will be OK with Griff and that he will be home soon.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

I'm glad his tests were normal! That's a crazy amount of water, poor guy. He's anxious so he drinks, your anxious and you have hives. I hope the anxiety meds work for him and everyone is better by Saturday!

 

[Griffin's Mom]

Griffin is home for now!!!!! Yippee! He was gone a week. Would you believe I cried my eyes out when they opened the towel and he saw me and instantly flew to me and started chatting and telling me all able his stay. Extremely vocal. He is very happy to be home. I ill be uploading a photo of his diagnosis for others in case anyone else is having the same issues as he was. Hes not completely out of the woods but hes doing MUCH better and his droppings are becoming more normal. Its suspected he was feed or gotten into something he shouldnt have had.

 

[Griffin's Mom]

 

[Griffin's Mom]

He's very happy to be home, he filled his belly with lunch and it taking a much needed nap on mommy's chest

 

[iamwhoiam]

Great news that he is home. Hope that he continues to improve!

 

[camelotshadow]

Never really saw Rio drink except for dunking pellets or dried fruit he really does not drink. That's an abnormally high amount of water to drink.
Don;t think I've ever seen a bird drink enough water to even lower the water level in the bowl. He's like a siffon.

Glad he's home but what's making him so thirsty or such a compulsive drinker?

Hope the hives & Griffin gets better.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

I'm so glad he's home, and that sounds like it was a very happy reunion! He looks so content snuggling in your hand. I hope he continues to improve!