A few weeks ago, Zuni (M2) started picking at his chest. He had previously dropped a bit of weight, but I he tends to do that when he's ramping up for a bout of hormones, so I wasn't too concerned about that. Once he got itchy/irritaged, the weight dropped off more.
We got him to the vet (CVA), they did bloodwork which came back with an extremely elevated white blood count, but otherwise the 'profile looks good'. Started him on oral antiibiotics (baytril) and an anti-inflamatory. He loves the anti-inflammatory, but it was getting hard to get the baytril into him, so we asked if we could switch to shots. We did that last Tuesday, which has been great. He really doesn't seem to mind them much. We've also been doing a lot of showers. It seemed like he was finally improving, until this weekend. Now he seems to be more irritated than ever and he's opened up a spot on his chest. I'm home with no car, so I made a collar out of a toilet paper roll, some gauze pads, medical tape and vet wrap. I got it on him (don't ask. He spent a few minutes in his cage beating the poop out of his toys and flopping around. It's all PO'd M2 dramatics, he's ok. He's calmed down now, other than the accusatory 'I hate you' look and beak clicking, a nervous habit. I don't know if he can get to his chest or not, so far, he hasn't tried. I'm really hoping this collar works - not sure I can do it single handed again! I'm going to pick up some pipe insulation and more supplies later. Major thanks to AA for posting the collar instructions - I had to modify based on the materials I had on hand, but it was very helpful!
I'm so bummed. The vet is closed today. How can this infection be hanging on after 15 days of antibiotics - shots for 6 days now. Any suggestions for next steps? We are broke - just had to have a new furnace put in, so that has wiped us out. Obviously we will do what it takes, but I'd like to go the vet prepared with suggestions/questions. Thanks.
We got him to the vet (CVA), they did bloodwork which came back with an extremely elevated white blood count, but otherwise the 'profile looks good'. Started him on oral antiibiotics (baytril) and an anti-inflamatory. He loves the anti-inflammatory, but it was getting hard to get the baytril into him, so we asked if we could switch to shots. We did that last Tuesday, which has been great. He really doesn't seem to mind them much. We've also been doing a lot of showers. It seemed like he was finally improving, until this weekend. Now he seems to be more irritated than ever and he's opened up a spot on his chest. I'm home with no car, so I made a collar out of a toilet paper roll, some gauze pads, medical tape and vet wrap. I got it on him (don't ask. He spent a few minutes in his cage beating the poop out of his toys and flopping around. It's all PO'd M2 dramatics, he's ok. He's calmed down now, other than the accusatory 'I hate you' look and beak clicking, a nervous habit. I don't know if he can get to his chest or not, so far, he hasn't tried. I'm really hoping this collar works - not sure I can do it single handed again! I'm going to pick up some pipe insulation and more supplies later. Major thanks to AA for posting the collar instructions - I had to modify based on the materials I had on hand, but it was very helpful!
I'm so bummed. The vet is closed today. How can this infection be hanging on after 15 days of antibiotics - shots for 6 days now. Any suggestions for next steps? We are broke - just had to have a new furnace put in, so that has wiped us out. Obviously we will do what it takes, but I'd like to go the vet prepared with suggestions/questions. Thanks.
