Seizures - How Do You Know?

[IowaGal]

Our 20 year old cockatiel, Sam, has had 3 episodes since I got home at 4:30 today. First he acts like he's been startled, and then starts, I don't want to say flopping because it's not, but tossing himself all over the bottom of his cage. The first time he did it, we really did think something had just startled him pretty bad. But then about 10 minutes later it happened again, and lasted a little longer, and if I tried to whistle to him to calm him down, which usually works when he's upset, he thrashed around even more. He stayed on the bottom of his cage, kind of rocking side to side for a few minutes, and his breathing was odd. At this point, I still thought something was startling him. He slept a little, and then came down to his food dish for a bite of omlet I put in there for him. This last episode was pretty bad and he broke a blood feather from thrashing around and hitting his lower perch while doing so. We packed the blood feather with corn starch and opted not to pull it out because we got the bleeding stopped and it's a really big, thick feather shaft and we were afraid it would be incredibly painful for him to pull it.

We have taken all of his perches and ladder out of his cage, but left him one perch, not too high, but high enough that if he does it again he won't hang himself up on the perch and hurt himself again. We started with no perches, but he clung to the side of his cage, so I ended up giving it back.

Right now, he is trying to sleep, but it's not a restful sleep, he keeps opening his eyes and then closes them again for a few minutes.

I have never seen a bird have a seizure, so I'm not sure if that is what is happening or not. Any advice?

 

[Billie Faye]

I would be calling the vet in the AM and getting him in there...could be seizures and you want to know why and if it is, what the vet can do for him...
Tonight, I would make sure he was warm, (85º) and a towel put on the bottom of his cage in case this did happen again and he didn't get caught in the bottom grate with his wings or legs....

Found this site for you to read!
http://www.avianweb.com/seizures.html

 

[itzmered]

I dont have any advice just wanted to send prayers out for your little one

 

[Birdiemarie]

I'm so sorry. To add to what Betty said, it would be good to have some Corn Syrup (Karo) on hand in case he takes a turn for the worse it would help keep his electrolytes elevated by putting a little in his beak.

 

[ncGreyBirdLady]

You have already gotten great advice-I just want to say that Your little one is in My prayers

 

[Billie Faye]

By any chance you have a 10 gal fish tank you could put him in tonight with a heating pad on low and wrapped in towels?
This would keep him from climbing to the top of the cage and hanging on the side, keep him warm during the night, and keep him contained so he wouldn't catch his wings on the sides of the cage if he did have another one...
ALSO, food stores now sell Pedilite in small bottles (4 pk) and you could give him 50/50 with water to help him tonight....Just some more ideas....

 

[WingedVictory]

Sorry to see your little one going through this, a couple of us have seen these seizures first hand and it is very hard to watch. First of all could your bird have chewed any type of metal the last few days? Has it been eating and drinking normally? How have the poops looked? Birds can have seizures if dehydrated, just a thought. F

The bird needs medication to stop the seizures and medication to keep them at bay. Valium is used to bring the birds out of seizure and phenobarbital is used to keep the bird from having them. Your vet will try and determine the cause of the seizures before prescribing medication. Seizures could be from low blood sugar, diabetes.

Keep your bird warm and in a non stressful environment.
gary

 

[IowaGal]

Thank you all for the prayers and advice.
I'm on my way to the grocery store for Pedialite, the pet stores are closed for the night, and will be setting up a safer area for him when I get back. Mom is here with him and she'll be keeping a close eye on him. He's actually her first bird she ever bought, 20 year ago, he's her baby.

I'm not sure what he's going to think about being in anything other than his cage, he's very picky about his cage, and I know I've stressed him even more by taking everything out of it. Sam has always had to have the same toy, in the same spot, the ladder in the same spot, and he forbids anyone moving things around on him! He's so set in his ways

 

[crazyanimal]

I am sorry to hear about your little one. I agree with the others, a vet visit is of the utmost importance as soon as you can get in to see one. I experienced seizures first hand too and I will never forget it.

 

[IowaGal]

Sam is resting comfortably right now, but I'm going to stay up with him for awhile.

The only thing that has changed recently is we put a new toy in his cage on Sunday, but he hadn't chewed on it and I don't think he had even touched it. It looks as new as it did when I put it in there the other day. He hasn't had access to anything that he could have chewed on, as he stays in his cage most of the time. We also gave him a bath and washed all of his perches and toys on Sunday, which stressed him quite a bit, especially since it took a couple of tries to get everything back to where he insists it should be.

He has been acting fine up until this afternoon at about 4:30. He's been eating fine, drinking fine and his poops look normal. It's very concerning that he can be fine one moment and then not so fine the next.

Thanks again everyone. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Billie Faye]

Just checking in with you this AM to see how Sam did during the night..
Personally, I would take out the new toy and just put it by his cage for a couple of days....With a bird who likes things "just so"...new toys, moving of things can really stress them out and stress can bring on seizures...I would play with the new toy in front of him but not give it to him UNTIL he shows interest in it and what you are doing with it....
I hope you will still take him to the vet today....Please let us know what is going on!

 

[Anne & Gang]

I am going to say take the new toy out of the cage..maybe its contaminated in some way..you never know with these things..it does sound like he may have had a stroke...how is he doing today and please keep us posted.

 

[IowaGal]

Good Morning. I checked on Sam about 45 minutes ago, and he's ok this morning. He didn't have any episodes in the night, so that's a positive. It doesn't look like he ate anything last night, but I'm not too concerned about that, I'm not sure Sam is much of a night feeder anyway. I'm more concerned that I don't know if he drank anything.

I have to go to work in a few minutes, so Mom is in charge of calling the vet. I can take off of work early to take Sam in, but I have to go finish up some work from yesterday afternoon first. It shouldn't take long.

About the toy, BF, I was wondering the same thing about the toy. Sam has never liked having new toys, but stupid me, after cleaning his cage on Sunday, I decided maybe he would like a new very small hanging toy. He acted like it wasn't even there, so I thought maybe he decided it could stay. It was the first thing I took out of his cage last night! I thought maybe, just maybe, he hadn't noticed it until then, but then I thought there is no way he couldn't have noticed it, it was hanging right by one of his perches. I just bounce bounce bounce on what this could have been.

I'll check in later.

 

[Welshanne]

What afright for you all, so hope it is now over for good and not the start of something else going on. Let us know how he is now won't you? Good luck.

 

[atvchick95]

I just wanted to say I have a Quaker who is like your bird, You can not have a perch out of place even if its by a hair - he completely freaks out,shaking, screaming, will not go into his cage at all Won't even sit on it

Take a pic of his cage When its set to his liking - Make sure you get everything in the shot (take more then one if you need to) and use this as your reference when you clean it so everything is put back in the right spots

it's what I had to do with Billy.

with his old cage all i could remember was the 1st perch went in the 5th bar from the front of the cage - I never could remember anything else, So we always pulled the pic up and used it to know where everything went

hope he's doing better today