• Welcome to Avian Avenue! To view our forum with less advertisments please register with us.
    Memberships are free and it will just take a moment. Click here
  • This forum is for advice about initial treatment given to your injured/sick bird until a qualified avian veterinarian is available.
    THIS IS NOT MEANT TO REPLACE VET CARE

Urgent Hormone therapy for male bird with enlarged testes?

mavish

Checking out the neighborhood
Joined
12/4/21
Messages
3
Hello everybody,

My budgie (a little less than 2 years old) has been having difficulty flying recently. He is not completely immobile; he can fly short distances, but he has difficulty flying upwards. So, we visited an avian vet, they took an x-ray and ran several tests. It turns out that he has several problems: They said his thyroid gland was not working properly, so he developed fat pads on his chest and belly. More importantly though, they said he had abnormally enlarged testes (0.79 cm and 0.96 cm to be exact), and these were blocking one of his air sacks.

They gave us some oral medicines for thyroid and fat pads which he’s been taking for a week now and they seem to work well- he’s lost %10 of his weight and his flying seems to have improved. And for the enlarged testes, they recommended hormone treatment (three doses with 2-week intervals). They also told us that we should separate him from his mate (to the degree that he won’t even hear her chirping) and that we should stop paying him any attention that would encourage his hormonal behavior. Here I must add that even though he dances and regurgitates to his mate, they could never really mate ever; so he is not displaying overly hormonal behavior. He is usually a calm, happy budgie who likes to talk, sing, and rest on us almost all day.

So, my question is: Should I start the hormone treatment? I am worried that it might be a hard procedure, and the vet said that if I don’t separate him from his mate, there would be no use in it. I’ve mentioned this to a bird breeder, and he found this weird and useless as the birds can get hormonal even with their toys, etc. Does that make sense to you? I’ve tried separating him from his mate for one day but they both went absolutely crazy, so I’ve decided not to do that as it will devastate him psychologically. But the vet said that the enlarged testes carry the risk of growing tumors that are not treatable. So, I am really having a hard time deciding what to do right now and what would be best for my baby boy. Have any of your male birds undergone hormone treatment for enlarged testes and did you find it successful? I would really appreciate any piece of advice that you could give.

Thank you in advance!
 

Shezbug

ASK ME FOR PICTURES OF MY MACAW!
Super Moderator
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
4/28/18
Messages
25,837
Location
Vic, Australia
Real Name
Shez
bump
 
Top