The two vets I went to were both highly rated, certified avian vets. I even went to a third specialist, also highly recommended. A cause of death was never identified for either bird. Our last one miscalculated his flight trajectory and bumped into my husband's arm, slipping off and taking a fall. He seemed fine but was holding his wing slightly away from his body. He was still able to fly and was eating, talking, playing, etc. After a few days, I didn't see any improvement and took him to our usual vet. He was so stressed from being examined that blood came out of his eyes. He has gone to that vet for 4 years for nail and beak trims and routine blood and poop tests; it always stressed him out, but it was necessary as he never really chewed on toys much and his nails got long enough to get stuck on things. After examining him, the vet said it was probably a sprain and to just leave him be. The next day, that wing went from being slightly away from his body to fully drooping. Our vet recommended we go to an avian surgeon to get him checked out and xrayed. We went, he got xrayed, they found nothing, and said it's probably just sprained. We took him home. By the end of that day, his head was drooping to his feet. He started losing weight and we had him hospitalized with the surgeon (she only does exotics, while our normal vet does cats, dogs and birds, so we figured she'd be better able to treat our bird). After a week, there was no improvement or weight gain and she said to try taking him home and see if the less stressful environment would help. When we took him home, he began straining when he pooped. This kept getting worse, so the vet prescribed something that would help move his bowels and said to go to another specialist to get a CT scan. Yet again, it showed nothing but said his gutt was swollen. They said it's possibly some avian virus that there is no cure for or it's neurological, but that he wouldn't get better. He at this point mostly stopped eating and was crying all day long. He wasn't able to poop on his own without medication, which was stressing him out. He just sat there in his carrier all day, with his head drooping into his food bowl but not really eating. Even hand feeding didn't work. We decided to put him to sleep since we were told that his condition would not improve and he seemed to be really suffering. This whole situation haunts me and I feel like if we didn't take him to the vet, he would have been better off. The necropsy showed nothing conclusive so we still don't know what happened. We ended up spending $4,000 and went from a slightly injured bird to a dead one in the span of a month. He was only 4.
With our current bird, we took him in for 2 checkups and the vet (the surgeon) wasn't able to get blood drawn from him either time. He was very stressed out and kept thrashing around, even with the dose of valium they gave him. I can't help but feel this is an awful idea, but I am scared to miss something serious in the long term.