Urgent Young macaw, nare discharge

[Kay3]

I’ve taken my young Mac to 4 different vets (including an avian vet 6 hours away), no one is sure of what’s going on, or how this can be fixed - I’ve been told she might just be a bird that has this problem for life (I’m not taking that as an answer)
she has had discharge in large amounts coming from one nare since about 3 weeks of age, she hatched and was raised during the bushfires and she would roughly be about 4 months of age now. The frequency of the mucus has settled since, but on cooler nights it has come back. The mucus has always been clear but the consistency has changed back and forth between thin and runny to a bit thicker. I’m going to be sending my avian vet an email tomorrow to ask if we can get more testing done and get to the bottom of this, and I will attach the pathology report done on her nasal mucus. She has been on baytril antibiotic twice, once when this first started and second time a month ago after receiving results back. I’m now trying her on Sulfa3 to see if it helps. Has anyone had a similar problem and gotten answers? Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Shezbug]

@Macawnutz @Hankmacaw @enigma731 @tka

 

[Macawnutz]

Have these been oral medications given? I would see if you can't get some nasal antibiotics like Gentamicin

 

[Kay3]

Have these been oral medications given? I would see if you can't get some nasal antibiotics like Gentamicin

That’s what I was going to ask about in my email tomorrow after doing a bit of my own research even though I don’t really understand the pathology of it. The only reason I can think that our avian vet did not suggest a nasal medication is because I was told to flush her nare so much when this started that he didn’t want anymore flushing to happen.

 

[Karen]

I would also ask about nebulizing meds.

 

[Hankmacaw]

The vet has performed the correct test and the sensitivity gave several antibiotics that the microbe is sensitive to. Enrofloxacin (Baytril) is not the solution for every infection. Ask your vet for the Gentamicin, which is at the top of the list.

I sthere any possibility that there is something stuck in his nasal passage?

 

[Kay3]

The vet has performed the correct test and the sensitivity gave several antibiotics that the microbe is sensitive to. Enrofloxacin (Baytril) is not the solution for every infection. Ask your vet for the Gentamicin, which is at the top of the list.

I sthere any possibility that there is something stuck in his nasal passage?

Honestly hard to say, we were flushing her poor little nose daily (well supposed to be twice daily , glad I went with my gut instinct and did once every few days) and only some times managed to clear the mucus enough to actually have the saline come out through her mouth. But I would hopefully assume that those few times the flush worked that would mean there isn’t anything stuck. I will write that in the email tomorrow and ask!!

 

[Kay3]

Actually just looked that medication up online and it seems to have very negative side affects on birds and should only be used in life threatening situations, so I’ll give that one a miss and ask about a nasal medication!

 

[Hankmacaw]

Which medication did you look up the side effects on? Enrofloxacin has some side effects the most common of which is nausea, very long term use of it may cause ulcers in the crop and kidney damage. My Jasper took it for weeks and weeks when she was getting one opportunistic infection after another when she had aspergillosis and had no side effects other than some nausea. That can be taken care of with a dosage of an alkaloid one hour after dosage.

Gentamicin I have not had any experience with.

 

[Karen]

But I would hopefully assume that those few times the flush worked that would mean there isn’t anything stuck.

I had a persistant sinus issue with my Macaw. He had many sinus flushes, where the fluid is put into the nostril and let to drain back out. We did this numerous times. We were finally able to get to the bottom of the problem when my AV did a sinus flush by going directly into the sinus cavity and flushing it out that way. A few days after that flushing a blockage was sneezed out while I was nebulizing him. Getting the fluid behind the blockage and softening it finally loosened it. The flush was invasive but that combined with the nebulizing got to the problem.