- Joined
- 5/10/10
- Messages
- 423
- Real Name
- Anna
All emergencies by nature must occur in the evening or late at night, especially on a weekend. Of course, the universe felt tonight was the perfect night for just such an emergency, as if we have not had enough of them as of late.
This afternoon when I was cleaning cages, I noticed that one of the cockatiels (Luke, Female) looked a little sleepy. I have noticed in the past that she likes to nap around that time in the afternoon, so although the way she looked set off a little alarm with me, I decided to keep an eye on her by checking back again this evening. While doing my usual feeding routine tonight, I noticed that she still didn't look good and decided to examine her more closely. When she turned around I caught a flash of blood on her vent which was of course, instantly alarming and required further investigation. I pulled her fresh papers out to examine poop and anything else that may be on the bottom of the cage to discover a decaying fertile egg that looked freshly laid. The hen had likely been eggbound for an impressive period of time (for the egg to be so decomposed) as it was dark brown, soft rubbery shell, and liquified, bloody insides. Like many hormonal cockatiels, she lays between two and three clutches of eggs a year (though we do not provide a way for her to incubate and so they are trampled), though she has not laid nearly enough this year for me to be overly concerned about lack of calcium. Egg binding of course, can occur at any time, but is more likely with a 'soft shell' egg due to diminished calcium in the body. This looks like it was likely a soft shelled egg that she never passed, but did not fully obstruct her ability to poop until recently (the last 24-48 hours).
My first thoughts were to get her some heat, antibiotics, and calcium. I was going to gavage feed her but once I pulled her out I realized that she was fully impacted. Her crop was full and she had a swollen abdominal cavity that looked like it might burst as well as a massive prolapse where it looked like some of the cloacal tissue had torn trying to pass the egg. Adding more food to the mix would probably make the situation more serious, so I opted out of the calcium-in-formula idea and stuck with an injectable antibiotic. Thankfully her blood sugar seemed stable and though she was breathing heavily, she is still has strength. I opted to try to replace the prolapse, which was sticking out about 1/2 inch and was able to gently put the entire thing back inside of her. It looked quite managled to me - but it was hard to tell what was tissue and what was residue from the egg. To our amazement, she had her first bowel movement a few minutes ago, and it only had a small amount of blood in it. It was watery, but otherwise somewhat normal looking. Her belly is still incredibly swollen. We have her resting in a little homemade ICU (aquarium and heating pad - since Katie is using the incubator) and of course I have a call in to my avian vet, who will likely call me in the morning.
Experienced breeders - if you have any other suggestions, that would be fantastic. I am hoping the antibiotics start working quickly to keep her from going septic.
I know we have asked for a lot of them lately, for little mallory and miss Katie Cockatoo, but any prayers for this little one would be greatly appreciated.
-Anna
This afternoon when I was cleaning cages, I noticed that one of the cockatiels (Luke, Female) looked a little sleepy. I have noticed in the past that she likes to nap around that time in the afternoon, so although the way she looked set off a little alarm with me, I decided to keep an eye on her by checking back again this evening. While doing my usual feeding routine tonight, I noticed that she still didn't look good and decided to examine her more closely. When she turned around I caught a flash of blood on her vent which was of course, instantly alarming and required further investigation. I pulled her fresh papers out to examine poop and anything else that may be on the bottom of the cage to discover a decaying fertile egg that looked freshly laid. The hen had likely been eggbound for an impressive period of time (for the egg to be so decomposed) as it was dark brown, soft rubbery shell, and liquified, bloody insides. Like many hormonal cockatiels, she lays between two and three clutches of eggs a year (though we do not provide a way for her to incubate and so they are trampled), though she has not laid nearly enough this year for me to be overly concerned about lack of calcium. Egg binding of course, can occur at any time, but is more likely with a 'soft shell' egg due to diminished calcium in the body. This looks like it was likely a soft shelled egg that she never passed, but did not fully obstruct her ability to poop until recently (the last 24-48 hours).
My first thoughts were to get her some heat, antibiotics, and calcium. I was going to gavage feed her but once I pulled her out I realized that she was fully impacted. Her crop was full and she had a swollen abdominal cavity that looked like it might burst as well as a massive prolapse where it looked like some of the cloacal tissue had torn trying to pass the egg. Adding more food to the mix would probably make the situation more serious, so I opted out of the calcium-in-formula idea and stuck with an injectable antibiotic. Thankfully her blood sugar seemed stable and though she was breathing heavily, she is still has strength. I opted to try to replace the prolapse, which was sticking out about 1/2 inch and was able to gently put the entire thing back inside of her. It looked quite managled to me - but it was hard to tell what was tissue and what was residue from the egg. To our amazement, she had her first bowel movement a few minutes ago, and it only had a small amount of blood in it. It was watery, but otherwise somewhat normal looking. Her belly is still incredibly swollen. We have her resting in a little homemade ICU (aquarium and heating pad - since Katie is using the incubator) and of course I have a call in to my avian vet, who will likely call me in the morning.
Experienced breeders - if you have any other suggestions, that would be fantastic. I am hoping the antibiotics start working quickly to keep her from going septic.
I know we have asked for a lot of them lately, for little mallory and miss Katie Cockatoo, but any prayers for this little one would be greatly appreciated.
-Anna
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Sending prayers for Luke.
