Urgent Elderly cockatiel having seizures

[Magpie]

Quick overview so I can post something faster. I’ll add a detailed description after this.

Elderly female cockatiel, assumed 24, rescue of about four years. Suddenly having seizures.what can I do?

 

[expressmailtome]

I am sorry to hear this. Unfortunately, there is most likely nothing that you can do. A veterinarian can give her medication depending on the cause, but there is nothing that you can do at home.

 

[Magpie]

Her name is Linetti. Assumed 24 years old. She’s having what looks like repeated seizures.

I heard a crash in the bird room, she’s very old, her feet don’t work well due to neglect and arthritis, and she dislocated her wing a couple years ago, crashes are not particularly often but they’re not extremely unusual either.
When I opened the door she looked fine at first, she tried to fly up to her cage but couldn’t make it and smacked into the side. She failed to grab the cage which is more unusual and then fell to the floor. On the floor she kept flapping hard enough for her body to flip multiple times. I pinned her so she couldn’t hurt herself and observed her head twisting up and around, mainly to the right, and thought it looked very similar to budgies I’ve owned who had seizures in my hands as they passed away.
I wrapped her in a small towel so she couldn’t flap and would have less stimulation. I now have her in her small travel cage with a towel on the bottom in case she falls. I’m treating it similar to when she dislocated her wing, expecting her to fall and reducing ways she could hurt herself.
While I was setting up the small cage, she seemed to recover to some degree, calling for her boyfriend, and I was able to place her in the cage without incident, but when I tried to move the cage back to the bird room she had another seizure. Head back, wings flapping, backwards somersaults until she wedges herself or I hold her down.
I put the small towel over her again and she’s doing better again, hissing at me per usual. So she’s stable for now.

I live in Alberta Canada and we’re currently suffering from a lot of wildfires. There’s tons of smoke outside. I suspect that this could be the cause of the seizures. The smoke is also the reason why I don’t want to take her to the vet right now. The only avian vet is at least a half hour away and I don’t want to expose her directly to the smoke.
(I’m looking into air filters if anyone has recommendations)
Is there anything I can do to help this? I’m thinking of putting her in a steamy bathroom too maybe help clear her lungs. Should I give her electrolytes? Anything I need to avoid doing?

 

[Magpie]

I am sorry to hear this. Unfortunately, there is most likely nothing that you can do. A veterinarian can give her medication depending on the cause, but there is nothing that you can do at home.

I don’t want to take her outside right now but I plan on calling the vet. Please read full description for context

 

[Magpie]

I am sorry to hear this. Unfortunately, there is most likely nothing that you can do. A veterinarian can give her medication depending on the cause, but there is nothing that you can do at home.

I don’t want to take her outside due to the wildfire smoke but I did try calling the vet. It’s a holiday today though so they’re closed. I called the emergency vet their voicemail says to go to but I wasn’t able to talk to an avian specialist as they were with emergency patients. I left my number with them so hopefully I’ll hear back soon.

 

[haze]

This thread has some bird-safe air filter recommendations you could look at.

Air purifier

Can anyone recommend a good air purifier that won’t break the bank our house is a small house but the rooms all have doors in them. Are there any that plug in the outlets like night lights.

forums.avianavenue.com

 

[sunnysmom]

I hope she'll be ok. You could try an online vet consult if you can't get to the vet's.

 

[Magpie]

Completely forgot to give an update.
We took her to the vet the next day, he gave her a thorough checkup and said that she looks great. She’s lost a little weight since her last visit but she’s old so it’s hard to keep it up a lot of the time. Breathing is great, heart is great, great response to stimuli. Very healthy for her age. He said that it was likely just a fluke, maybe she bumped her head or something when she fell, smoke was unlikely to be the cause. We kept her in her small cage with added padding for another 48 hours as he instructed and she was all normal so she’s out and about now. No incident since.
Why do birds always do this stuff when you can’t get them to a vet?! So glad she seems okay though. Thanks for the well wishes and advice!

 

[sunnysmom]

I am glad she is ok!