Urgent Lovebird swelling, pressure on air sacks

[Birdy]

Hoping someone out there has had some experience with this! My six year old female lovebird Sammy has been dealing with what my vet speculates to be pressure being put on her air sacks by excess fluid build-up in her abdomen. Likely caused by hormones. I believe it was early this year when she laid two eggs (thought it was odd, because she usually lays at least 4) and then stopped but remained somewhat swollen. A few months ago I noticed her breathing making her tail bob, which is when I took her to the vet. She got a shot of lupron to help calm the hormones so she could reabsorb the fluid and/or pass it as urine (she also laid a couple more eggs and it seemed to be over), but the swelling is still sort of there and seems to be still putting a slight amount of pressure on her air sacs.

Add'l info: Sammy is not an excessive egg layer but has laid a good handful of clutches in her lifetime (I don't have a male). I have battled somewhat with her hormones, I can't give her shreddable or she'll find a way to make a little nest out of it and start laying. I think it's possible her hormones may also be triggered by my male Indian Ringneck Bhanu who now and then climbs down to give her kisses through the cage (he actually say's "gimme kiss!" and then gives a smooch lol it's super cute) and regurgitate to her - and often Sammy will start doing her little mating "dance" for him.

Anyways I would be so grateful if anyone could share any experience they may have with this sort of thing. I'm not SUPER concerned enough to take her to the vet right this minute, I do intend to give my vet a call tomorrow to ask, but Sammy is behaving normally for the most part (maybe a tad more mellow than usual the last couple days).

Thank you!!

 

[zoo mom]

No experience myself but @saroj12 should be able to answer your questions.

 

[saroj12]

Hi Nicole,
My cockatiel Emily has had extra fluid buildup in her abdomen several times due to hormones. The vet does an ultrasound, then drains off the excess fluid with a needle. There is always the danger of perforating an airsac in this procedure. Anyway after a year of weekly lupron shots which were barely controlling the problem, we put a suprelorin implant on the back of her neck. It lasted 5 months and she laid an egg so we put another implant in in july and she is doing well thank goodness. So please check with your vet about an ultrasound for Sammy

 

[Birdy]

Thank you @zoo mom !

@saroj12, thank you so much for your input! I didn't get a chance to talk to my vet today but I'm glad that when I do I'll have your experience to refer to. I PRAY we'll be able to tackle this without the need for serious intervention. I want to try Harrison's "Releaves" (red raspberry leaves, said to be effective in controlling hormones) but I don't know how effective it will be and I've already recently put them on Dr. Harvey's nutritional supplement for birds which contains red raspberry leaves, so we'll see what the vet says I guess. Thank you again

If anyone else has had this experience with fluid build-up I would be super grateful if you could share it with me! Thank you bunches guys!

 

[zoo mom]

You're welcome. I am one of those crazy bird ladies who reads almost all of the new posts so sometimes if I don't know the answer or have the experience I know who might.

 

[pinkdagger]

My 12 year old lovebird's isn't hormone-related. The vet suspects, based on cytology, that it's heart or liver-related (two other birds in her family have had liver disease). In our case, a combination of Lasix (furosemide, a diuretic, to help expel liquid and slow the build up) and monthly centesis have helped keep her happy and comfortable since January.

 

[Birdy]

@pinkdagger how much did it cost you for the initial testing for that? Of course I want to do everything I can for my bird but times are really tough for me financially right now Thank you for telling me your experience tho, it really helps to hear other people's knowledge on the matter.

 

[pinkdagger]

I opted out of the blood test, which at my vet here in a big city in Canada would have been $300, due to the stress my bird was already in and the fact that she isn't very handleable (had passed out during handling for a beak trim the previous year), plus her age pushed me to just send the already-extracted fluid, which I believe was $180. My avian vet does have an in-house lab but I don't think they analyze for cytology so I do believe that got sent to another facility in the area. The abdomenocentesis costs $55 each visit, plus appointment fee.

With the Lasix, she pees like a fiend but it brings her more comfort between vet visits and for 30 drops per 2.5 ounces of water a day, that costs about $70 for around 6 months with a script my vet wrote for me to retrieve at a pharmacy for significantly cheaper than at the vet. Without the Lasix, I would probably have to take her in for centesis twice a month, as was the case when we first tried a lower dose. If hormones aren't the culprit and Lupron/Suprelorin don't have a significant impact on the fluid build up, you can try a diuretic.

 

[Birdy]

@pinkdagger I'm definitely going to ask my vet about that option, thank you SO MUCH for the info!

 

[Monica]

It's been a month now, any updates on Sammy?

 

[Birdy]

@Monica I've been keeping a close eye on her, and about a month ago I started giving her a nutritional supplement by Dr. Harvey's that contains (among many other things) red raspberry leaf powder which is good for hormones. It's in powder form so I've been sprinkling it in all my birds' food but feeling uncertain as to whether they're actually consuming it or if it's all just sinking to the bottom - but I ended up finding and using instead a product called "Releaves" by Harrison's which is a supplement containing only red raspberry leaves/fruit/oil so it's especially effective for hormones. I switched her to that and gave the power supplement to my IRN and Hahns/Jenday hybrid. Sammy's been on the Releaves for probably about two weeks, (a couple weeks on the Dr. Harvey's supplement before that) and it does seem to be helping! The swelling has recently gone down significantly and she seems to be more herself. She even seems to be letting some feathers grow back that she'd started plucking in January (too soon to tell if she'll leave them alone for good but it looks good so far)! Hard to say if the change of seasons has had an effect or if I can attribute it to the Dr. Harvey's as well as the Releaves or what but things do seem to be getting better and that's all that matters!

Thank you for asking!

 

[Monica]

Sounds like a good update to me! Hope she continues to improve! Thanks for letting us know!