Urgent Baby macaw regurgitating/vomiting

[iibxii]

I bought a 3 month old blue and gold macaw 1 week back. Last 5 days my macaw has been vomiting. I am not sure whether he is vomiting or regurgitating, because I only see the drops. There are like 6-7 drops as seen in the attached picture, but yesterday there as like 10ml of food on the floor, 30 minutes after I fed him. Before it happened once daily, but yesterday he vomitted/regurgitated like four times and today once. His poop looks normal (photo attached). Also, he is very active, and by looking at him he does not seem sick. I used to feed him 45 ml, 4 times daily. But today I have reduced to 30ml daily at the temperature of 105 fahrenheit, not too thick, not too runny. Please tell me whether this is normal or should I be worried? Does baby macaws regurgitate?

 

[Shezbug]

@Macawnutz @Hankmacaw

 

[Macawnutz]

Your sweetie needs to see a vet. What does he weigh as your food amount seems really low to me.

The vomiting or regurgitation is not normal at that age and the poop does not look quite right for a formula baby.
Make an appointment with a vet. Birds hide illness and you never wait until they are acting sick as sometimes that is too late.

 

[Hankmacaw]

Take @Macawnutz advice seriously and get him to the vet. Do you have a scale to weigh him daily?

 

[iibxii]

Unfortunately, there is no vet in my country and can’t do any tests. Is there a vet I can consult online? Her current weight is 1.3kg.

 

[Macawnutz]

1300 grams? Are you weighing this baby in the morning before feeding and after the first big poop?

Iba, You have a baby macaw that most likely needs antibiotics. An online consult is not going to give anymore answers then the members of this forum will. Can you call the person you purchased the bird from and ask who they suggest to use for vet care? Can you give us the your location so we can help you find a vet?

So are you guessing the bird is about 14 weeks old? Can we see pictures of the baby to confirm that?
Your sweetie should not be bringing up formula. The usual cause is bacteria or yeast which is very common in babies. You have to keep everything around them including your feeding utensils very clean or they can pick up a bacterial infection. You need medications to cure that.

Your formula on the floor looks a little thin to me. Hard to tell from the floor but I have seen plenty of macaw barf and I'm thinking thin. Your poop is very strange to me. It does not look like the poop from a formula baby. It's the wrong color and wrong consistency. Is formula the only thing he eats? Are you making your own formula that is dark in color?

Most babies eat 10% of their body weight per feeding. If you have a 1300 gram baby that would be about 130ml per feeding. I personally never liked to feed over 100ml per feeding but imagine my surprise that your baby is only eating 30ml. 30ml per feeding but you have a good chunky weight baby?

As you can see by all my questions I'm very confused. How about you give us much more detail and make some calls looking for a vet option. We have members all the time say they have no access to vet care and most of the time they do find one with a little searching and a few calls.

 

[Hankmacaw]

@iibxii
Are you absolutely sure that there are no vets in your country (?). We have found vets for others who have claimed the same thing.
With a macaw you will need a vet sometime in their 60 years of life, so you had better find one sooner rather than later.

 

[iibxii]

Update: she has stopped regurgitating, but has lost weight.

When I weighed today, her weight was 0.9kg. I am not sure if the weight is exactly correct because I dont have a perch attached to the scale. I just keep on her on the gram scale, so might not be accurate as she moves.

Previously I gave katyee brand, but it was not in the original packing. So maybe something could have been wrong with that? Yesterday, I changed to Deli Nature and it was in their original packing.

I also consulted a vet online (a vet in another country). This is what he said:

“Ok try to feed the bird 4 times 20ml.
Weight the birds every morning before feeding. And then if it happens agein, tell me.

Two possibility:
1) it is normal due to bird’s status.
When the bird want to change his diet from hands feeding formula to fruit and veggies, the crop of the bird start to change it’s size and become smaller.
So you can not feed the bird with the same amount of before (i mean 45ml eachtime)
2) not good. It could be the disease although the bird looks normal. It losses weight and vomiting continuously.
For this situation if the bird loose weight, take a radiograph then.

Also inform me about the regurgitation after changing to 20 ml instrad of 45ml” (what the vet said)

I live in Male’, Maldives. There is one vet in a nearby island called Viligili, but cannot do tests from there. I previously took another bird of mine to consult, and the vet said they do not have any equipments to scan or test. So there wasn’t much that she could do. Also, many of my friends who owns birds told me not to go to her because she doesn’t seem to know much about birds and she gives the same meds for everyone. Hence, I would rather not go that place. So yeah, there is no vet here to consult.

Today I again consulted the doctor, to inform that my bird has lost weight and he said:
“Again it could be natural due to weaning period. But still should be under observation and tell me daily weights and vomiting report”

Also, as you said its a bit thin, I made it a bit more thick tonight.

Thank you all. Really means a lot to me.
May God bless you all.

 

[iibxii]

Is it any better now?