One of my female GCCs that is now roughly one year old has been going through on and off puffy and lethargic behavior.
Long History but necessary info. I've had her since weaned. She had an initial higher than normal level of bad bacteria when brought in for her first vet check, avian certified vet runs crop, vent and fecal stains. Blood work was normal so she was put on an antibiotic for bad bacteria and her followup a few weeks later was perfect. She never exhibited any illness symptoms during this.
About 6 months later she came down with a serious case of puffiness and lethargy but was always well perched and ate and drank but had liquid vomiting throughout the day and poor looking feces (dark green and slight diarrhea). I brought her into emergency and all blood work and gram stains were fine. They gave her fluid injection in the hip and put her on Reglan to help move food through her crop and DI. Next day she seemed much better and the second day was completely back to normal.
About a month after that she got super puffy and lethargic again with diarrhea but this time no vomiting. She went back in and gram stains were fine but her white blood cell count was through the roof. Vet said normal is 1-3, hers was 40,000. They put her on antiobiotics again even though there was no presence of a baterial infection but they wanted to rule that out, and yet again she seemed great after two days and two week checkup was perfect and her white blood cells are back to normal.
Now for the past 4 months she is on and off again puffy and lethargic, it seems about every other week, no where near as bad as prior incidents, but she always seems to pull back to her normal self two to three days later. I cannot put my finger on it and either can our avian vets. We have just recently switched her entirely to harrisons (instead of a mix with treats) in case she may have some type of allergy, its been about a month on pure harrisons with slightly better results but not definitive.
We have had her tested for Psitt, Borna Virus (PDD) and a few others I cannot remember.
The Dr's want to make sure we do not over diagnose her, a term in which they call diagnose to death, which I agree with. They want to see if the diet change may help. So we havent been taking her in for checkups in the last few months when she gets puff buts its difficult to see her this way.
I wanted to see if anyone else out there may have some off the wall ideas, or something to look into that we maybe missing.
Oh Edited to include that she is a year and has not had her first molt either. Which I find a bit strange
Long History but necessary info. I've had her since weaned. She had an initial higher than normal level of bad bacteria when brought in for her first vet check, avian certified vet runs crop, vent and fecal stains. Blood work was normal so she was put on an antibiotic for bad bacteria and her followup a few weeks later was perfect. She never exhibited any illness symptoms during this.
About 6 months later she came down with a serious case of puffiness and lethargy but was always well perched and ate and drank but had liquid vomiting throughout the day and poor looking feces (dark green and slight diarrhea). I brought her into emergency and all blood work and gram stains were fine. They gave her fluid injection in the hip and put her on Reglan to help move food through her crop and DI. Next day she seemed much better and the second day was completely back to normal.
About a month after that she got super puffy and lethargic again with diarrhea but this time no vomiting. She went back in and gram stains were fine but her white blood cell count was through the roof. Vet said normal is 1-3, hers was 40,000. They put her on antiobiotics again even though there was no presence of a baterial infection but they wanted to rule that out, and yet again she seemed great after two days and two week checkup was perfect and her white blood cells are back to normal.
Now for the past 4 months she is on and off again puffy and lethargic, it seems about every other week, no where near as bad as prior incidents, but she always seems to pull back to her normal self two to three days later. I cannot put my finger on it and either can our avian vets. We have just recently switched her entirely to harrisons (instead of a mix with treats) in case she may have some type of allergy, its been about a month on pure harrisons with slightly better results but not definitive.
We have had her tested for Psitt, Borna Virus (PDD) and a few others I cannot remember.
The Dr's want to make sure we do not over diagnose her, a term in which they call diagnose to death, which I agree with. They want to see if the diet change may help. So we havent been taking her in for checkups in the last few months when she gets puff buts its difficult to see her this way.
I wanted to see if anyone else out there may have some off the wall ideas, or something to look into that we maybe missing.
Oh Edited to include that she is a year and has not had her first molt either. Which I find a bit strange
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