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  • This forum is for advice about initial treatment given to your injured/sick bird until a qualified avian veterinarian is available.
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Urgent Breathing problem.?

ls2013

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marie
One of my birds has been having some issues since I got him. The previous owner had them for 3 months and they were kept in a cage (never out) and in a small, dusty shed. When I went to pick them up, their cage tray was overflowing with dirt and emptied out seed. They were only fed a wild bird seed mix and sometimes only sunflower seeds, never got veg and filthy water. He had a lump at his left nostril...started to go down within a week or 2 so ended up not taking him to the vet for that....not sure if it is related to the breathing problems. He has had watery eyes on and off, with both eyes and he will lose the hair around the eye (his left is is fine now). He was making sounds when he breathed, sometimes a wet snuffle sound and other times a dry sound (from 21 seconds - 38 seconds in the video) I ended up taking him to an avian vet. He was given 2 medications...metacam and a liquid antibiotic. Both syringed into his mouth twice a day for 4 weeks. I only ever heard him make the noise twice while on it but when he had 4 more days of meds left, he started doing it again more frequently. It has been a little time since and he still makes squeaking/snuffle sounds occasionally, definitely not as much as before. Times that he would be worse is after taking a bath, when eating and when sleeping. Sometimes there is swelling on his chest, like a lump moving up and down, which you can see in the video. Hoping someone might have an idea what is going on.? Is there a test kit you can buy to test for bacterial or fungal infection without having to take him into the vet.? He has already been tested for chlamydia through a 3 day stool sample. Only reason he has waited so long to go to the vet for more testing (vet mentioned x-ray and bloodwork) is because I have heard of birds dying from stress just going for claw trims and just so worried about that happening. He isn't tame. When he went in for a check up, he screamed the whole time the vet was holding him. How would he be tested for Aspergillosis.? I feel like it may be this due to the old seeds on the tray, they would probably have been down eating it all the time. Also, is it worth treating for Iodine deficiency incase it's this.? Would that be safe to do.? The other bird has no symptoms of anything and they are free flying 24/7 so doesn't seem to be anything that can spread through birds. The link below is the video of him
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expressmailtome

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Hankmacaw

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It sounds as if he may have aspergillosis. Aspergillosis is a very serious disease an if left untreated does kill.

Besides the birds who had problems or died at the vet, have you heard about the 100s of millions who have gone and not had any problems?

In or der to be tested for infections or for aspergillosis your bird must go to the vet. The specific test for Asper is an Asper titer test and a blood sample must be taken.
 

Tyrion

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Beautiful babies good luck with them :)
 

flyzipper

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If it's a bacterial disease, the thing you'll notice is they require testing to determine the appropriate treatment, which means getting to an avian vet.


In that example, there are 14 separate antimicrobials that might be potentially suitable depending on the culture, and you'll also notice there are separate articles for viral, mycotic, etc diseases.

I know of no test kit available for in-home testing.

I'll echo what @Hankmacaw said -- the risk of not taking our birds to the vet far outweighs any anecdotal edge-case risk of going.
 
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ls2013

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marie
Thank you. 1 of my worst fears when any of my pets have to be sedated is losing them through it and I thought, he has had the problem for quite some time so surely can't be life threatening, which is terrible that he has been left for that reason but he does finally have an appointment booked for Wednesday (only avian vet in my area so been busy) and hopefully get to the bottom of it
 

Icey

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Good luck with your upcoming vet visit. Better safe than sorry. I hope you get some good news about your wee one.
All your birds are gorgeous. :heart2:
 

Icey

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How did the vet visit go?
 

ls2013

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Vet thinks he has an upper respiratory infection and has been given a month of metacam to be given twice daily. To go in for a saline nasal flush to have what comes out tested. Going to speak to her to find out if she would recommend a crop swab too. Just been reading about vitamin a deficiency and iodine deficiency and really think he could have 1 or both of these so need to find out if I could use supplements for him now (I recently read that using them if your bird has a fungal/bacterial infection, it can kill them) not sure if this is true or not but would really like to be able to start treating for these asap...they are older birds and I know the 2 homes before me never gave them veg and they were being fed wild bird seed and alot of sunflower seeds so I know they won't have been getting what they need. With me, they get veg everyday, sometimes they eat certain things but lately they haven't been touching it at all. They don't bother with iodine/calcium blocks. They get seed mix, parakeet mix and harrisons pellets but don't eat as much pellets as I would like them to.
 
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