Possible Tumor/Egg Bound Budgie

[Birdasaurus]

hey everyone,

This is Andrea's husband, Josh. I have a question about a budgie pair that a co-worker surrendered to me this morning at work.

This person obviously did not take very good care of these budgies. I think the male may have a broken wing, and the female has further issues I hope you can help with!

I know a picture would do best, but I do not have time at work to take a picture right now.

Her cere has a very crusty brown growth on it.

Her butt looks terrible. It is collecting poops (which are very shiny green mostly), and there is a very large bump that is pinkish/tan with no feathers.

I have two initial thoughts:

1) She is egg bound. I do not see her straining to lay it though. Perhaps she is in the initial stages of it developing in her body.

2) A tumor.

Any thoughts? I will try to get a picture during lunch.

Thanks for any input!!!!

 

[Tamara]

Are you sure the one with the brownish cere is actually a girl? Piggy started developing a brown crusty cere as his testicular tumor progressed (he got a much bigger "lump" around his vent). Nowadays, it switches from Brown to Blue a lot. The crustiness can also be a normal thing if it is a girl (obviously, the bump is not) as our girl budgie gets that sometimes as well. The crustiness always falls off and she gets more of a smooth cere after that (I think of it like us losing skin cells).

It sounds like these birds, no matter what, need to be taken to Birdie Urgent Care!

 

[Zelle]

I had a cockatiel that seemed egg bound. I got her cere in some warm water and a few minutes later she was able to lay her egg.

 

[Tamara]

I'd have to see the "lump" to understand more if it is a tumor.
Piggy's lump looks like:

It was smaller when it was first discovered. This is after many months of it progressing, but he is still chugging along.

Frequently, we do have to remove poop from his vent area, and now the tumor takes up a lot of his body cavity and causes him to regurgitate his food a lot. He's got a permanent "throw-up" stain down his chest.

 

[Birdasaurus]

Thanks for the input.

I know that if a bird is sick their cere can change color, so I am not 100% positive it is a "she".

Now that I look more closely, the sick bird's anterior side is bulging quite a bit over the perch she is sitting on, especially compared to the male right next to her. On the other hand, he looks a little thin compared to our healthy budgies at home!

Ugh..

 

[Birdasaurus]

I just saw your pictures now. I will be sure to take a picture at lunch to compare. I want to handle the birds as little as possible, as I do not want to overstress them.

 

[atvchick95]

it sounds like she is about ready to lay an egg

when a female budgie is in breeding condition their cere turns a deep chocolate brown and looks crusty some get so crusty it looks like the cere is going to fall right off

Is her poops big? this is one sign of a egg laying hen Their poops get much bigger than normal

Signs of egg binding, Staying on the cage floor(usually in a corner), Straining,rapid breathing

but when ever in doubt see a vet.

 

[Birdasaurus]

The poops are on the large side for a budgie, but she is not on the bottom of the cage. She is sitting next to her buddy on the one perch in the travel cage.

 

[suncoast]

I think they both need to get to an avian vet ASAP. If she's egg bound it's serious, but the poor little guy with the broken wing. Also you don't want to bring them into your house without blood work.

Ginger

 

[Tamara]

I also agree with Ginger; you don't want to expose your healthy birds to these sick ones.

 

[Tamara]

when a female budgie is in breeding condition their cere turns a deep chocolate brown and looks crusty some get so crusty it looks like the cere is going to fall right off

Really! That explains a lot about our little Hedwig. She starts humping her toys sometimes when her cere is like that...

 

[Birdasaurus]

Yea, I am not quite sure what to do with them when we get home. Our plan was to take these birds from this guy and find a home for them with a bird lover, as we really should not have any more birds in our condo, despite what Andrea thinks!

(Side note on him-he has had parakeets before these and has told me on numerous occasions of his "euthanization" methods. They are unspeakable).

He is a very weird man, so when he mentioned he was looking to get rid of them, we decided we would take them first, figure out what to do later.
We were talking with someone to add them to their flock, but I think that is out of the question at this point.

Right now we will have to quarantine them in our bedroom. Luckily, we have no ventilation ducts in our place, so it is about as good as we can do.

 

[Birdasaurus]

Ok, I was able to get some pictures with my phone. They are LQ, but will have to do for now.

Any additional insight gained from these pictures?

 

[Tamara]

To be frank, that really looks like a tumor to me. It looks to be too big for an egg. That's just my thoughts from the pics.

 

[Tamara]

Piggy's abdomen is swollen like that now because the tumor is so big.

 

[Thugluvgrl187]

It doesn't look like an egg to me either.

 

[atvchick95]

I'd say tumor - she is fluffed up in the last picture and it's not the normal "getting comfy" fluffed up

When she's perched do her wings droop?

I had a English budgie - that was the 1st thing i noticed was drooping wings then when she was climbing on the side of the cage I noticed she was swollen in her belly (not down low for an egg) So we took her to the vet and they drained it and put her on Baytril, they said they didn't think she'd make it through the night, it's been Several months and she's just fine and what ever it was it has not been back.

 

[suncoast]

Yes to the vet s/he must go and the sooner the better. What about the other one with the broken wing? Has it healed already or is it fresh?

Ginger

 

[Birdasaurus]

Thanks everyone. We are gonna take her to the vet as soon as we can.

My first thought was tumor all along, so I tend to agree with all of you.

As for the poor little guy, I am pretty sure it is healed. He seems to get around ok, so I am reluctant to have anything done unless the vet thinks its a good idea.

 

[itzmered]

for taking these precious little ones in. I hope everything turns out ok with both of them.