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Growth Inside Parrot Beak

ParrotPart

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2/19/23
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My 21 year old Triton Cockatoo has developed a yellow growth in her beak near her tongue. She was taken to two avian vets to be evaluated and put on antibiotics. Two weeks later the growth persisted in her mouth and the vet suggested bloodwork and a biopsy. The bloodwork came back mostly normal other than additional white blood cells, but the vet said this was likely due to fighting off the infection.
The biopsy results came back and the vet told us that they noticed abnormal cells. The vet said that this could be a tumor and suggested freezing the tissue and removing it via cryosurgery. She soon got surgery for the growth and had it removed. The vet said that 1/3 of the birds undergoing the surgery have to have it removed again. The surgery required painkillers twice a day due to swelling around the surgery area.
It has been almost three weeks since the surgery and it appears the growth may be back. Has anyone's parrot experienced this growth or heard of anything like this? I am worried we may have to continuously remove these growths and the biopsy didn't give very clear results. I would really appreciate it if anyone could share their experience if their parrot has had something similar.
Pictures of her attached:
 

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April

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Poor sweetie I'm so sorry the both of you are having to deal with this. I was also going to suggest tagging Milo. Hopefully she'll be able to help.
 

Milo

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This isn’t something I’ve seen before but in cases like this we would recommend a CT scan to see where the mass starts and ends to try and do surgical planning to even see if full removal is possible.

Depending on the type of cells seen in the biopsy or what mass type it is, localized radiation therapy may be an option after a debulking surgery, meaning that they go in and remove as much of the mass as is visible. If it is removed again it should be resubmitted for histopathology because sometimes there’s a couple different things going on in the same mass, this should not be done via cryosurgery as it damages the tissues too much to identify them. Cutting the mass out and then freezing would be a better approach so the pathologist has good tissue to look at and then can tell If the whole mass was removed or if abnormal cells went up to the edge if that makes sense.

Im sorry you guys are going through this, it’s a tough spot and rough since it keeps coming back :/
 

ParrotPart

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@Milo @April @Macawnutz Thank you for your responses. This was very insightful information and the options are helpful. I will ask about this suggestion and see if this is possible at her appointment on Tuesday.
 
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