I will preface this by saying that I HAVE already taken him to the vet. They prescribed me enrofloxacin/Fluconazole, but it didn’t seem to be the answer.
So about 3 weeks ago, my cockatiel (5-6 yrs old) started breathing rapidly. He is not doing this constantly, but it often happens at night. It's not after any strenuous activity nor any sort of night fright. The heavy breathing is audible. He is completely normal outside of this - active, eating, drinking, his normal weird self except for these random breathing episodes. He is more antsy than usual during the episode though, pretty anxious.
I brought him to the vet, and they found him to be healthy. Naturally, he wasn't doing any of the heavy breathing during this visit. They took a fecal sample and found an overgrowth of Gram negative bacteria and yeast (birds should have mostly Gram Positive bacteria). Still, none of this info led to the vet coming to a conclusion about what was really wrong with him.
I was sent home with enrofloxacin/Fluconazole and instructed to give 2x a day for 2 weeks and restrict flying. I didn't make it the full 2 weeks, probably about 1 week and 4 days. My bird was just getting way too worked up over the medication, and he started seeing through all my tricks. Way too much stress.
About 48 hours later, he started breathing heavily again at night.
At this point, I'm not totally sure what the move is. Nothing has changed with him since the last time I brought him to the vet, so I assume they will charge me another $300 for a guessing game. Hoping there may be some second opinions here. Let me know what you think. Maybe it’s some sort of panic attack? From what, I have no idea. The only thing I can think of is we had some neighbors move in downstairs who smoke weed. I doubt the smell of it is causing this (no smoke), but that is literally the only thing that has changed around here.
So about 3 weeks ago, my cockatiel (5-6 yrs old) started breathing rapidly. He is not doing this constantly, but it often happens at night. It's not after any strenuous activity nor any sort of night fright. The heavy breathing is audible. He is completely normal outside of this - active, eating, drinking, his normal weird self except for these random breathing episodes. He is more antsy than usual during the episode though, pretty anxious.
I brought him to the vet, and they found him to be healthy. Naturally, he wasn't doing any of the heavy breathing during this visit. They took a fecal sample and found an overgrowth of Gram negative bacteria and yeast (birds should have mostly Gram Positive bacteria). Still, none of this info led to the vet coming to a conclusion about what was really wrong with him.
I was sent home with enrofloxacin/Fluconazole and instructed to give 2x a day for 2 weeks and restrict flying. I didn't make it the full 2 weeks, probably about 1 week and 4 days. My bird was just getting way too worked up over the medication, and he started seeing through all my tricks. Way too much stress.
About 48 hours later, he started breathing heavily again at night.
At this point, I'm not totally sure what the move is. Nothing has changed with him since the last time I brought him to the vet, so I assume they will charge me another $300 for a guessing game. Hoping there may be some second opinions here. Let me know what you think. Maybe it’s some sort of panic attack? From what, I have no idea. The only thing I can think of is we had some neighbors move in downstairs who smoke weed. I doubt the smell of it is causing this (no smoke), but that is literally the only thing that has changed around here.