As I wrote in the introduction section, after the sudden death of Inkochan of unknown causes (started vomitting and looking sick on a Sunday night, died despite to vet visits on the Tuesday night).
Botan chan started to get her feet paralysed two days later.
It started lie an itch on the Tursday (frequently biting at one of her foot like she hurt herself of was annoyed), then within less than one hour it moved to her not putting the foot down, and finally her back toe to point forward, shortly before her "making the fist". Thinking she broke her toe, we installed her in a safe cage without perches and with plenty of journal paper on the floor (she likes to dig under papers) and brought her to the vet the next morning. By the time we arrived to the vet, Friday, both feet were curled and she was on her knees. The vet did not see broken blood vessel suggesting a broken toe... She found "yeasts" (sorry I translate for Japanese so some terms might need a bit of interpretation) in her poop, but nothing in her throat. She gave treatemetn for this and now she is still under antibiotics and some other things mixed with that I did not. full understand (it is challenging for my Japanese skills).
Becasue Botan chan was a bit stressed out and vomited after having been checked in the throat, the vet decided to let her recover until the afternoon to make X-rays. She could not see any clear visible fracture in the spine or anywhere else, but there was a tiny bright spot in her stomach, suggesting a potential metal intoxication. She asked us for potential cause, we did not find any clear potential cause but listed whatever we could think of. However, because her head looked fine and she had no blood in the poop and apparently a good digestion, the vet went back to her idea of a spine damage. We are still not really convinced... Botan chan stayed a full week hospitalised to check for evolution, during this time her weight dropped to 37 g (from 44.5 at arrival and 47 the week before Inkochan died, which was probably a bit overweight). Now she is back to 40 and hopefully will keep on adding a bit of weight. Interestingly, while before she loved sunflower seeds and some other fat rich seeds, now she barely eats these and prefers the smaller sized ones like millet... (before all these troubles, she would first of all eat all the biggest seeds and only then reluctantly eat the smaller ones...) at least she still loves the pellets (although not so much the brand recommended by the vet).
The vet recommended to keep her in a "tiny" aquarium (actually it is one of the transparent plastic things to keep the food fresh in which I made plenty of holes as it can open from the front so it is less stressing than a hand coming from the top in the standard "plastic aquariums" they often use. It is actually the same system as she had in the hospital so we thought it was quite safe. While at the hospital, she was apparently super quiet, but now that she is back with us, she is super active and trying to climb with her beak in the holes (so much for the recommendation of the vet of "don't put toys in for the first month as she needs to rest a maximum...").
So we are still not sure what happened, is it possible to have a metal intoxication that would only affect the feet without other symptoms? What are the side effects of the chelating agents (the vet mentioned some side effects as a reason for not giving that to her)? Does anyone knows if two weeks after the symptoms it is too late for chelating agents. Of course if she remains handicapped, we will adapt to her handicap, but if there is a chance for her to recover usage of her feet, it would make her life much simpler.
One thing in the "favor" of a spinal lesion is that Botan had her feathers partially cut to limit a bit her flying at the beginning (we are beginner and the shop recommended to cut not all, but a few before she can fly so she will not have the frustration of losing some ability, then when she molts we can keep all the feather full as we will be used, adn she. will be used to the house). It was no problems until a bit recently when we believe she might have lost one (some?) of her remaining feather before replacing the cut ones and in the last month or so, she was a bit heavier in her landings (and in her weight too actually) and tried to always take the shortest flight route (opposite to Inko chan who had the same feather cuts, but maybe was more balanced and slightly in advance in the molt who was making loops and trying to fly as much as possible).
Well any thought or advice is welcome!
Botan chan started to get her feet paralysed two days later.
It started lie an itch on the Tursday (frequently biting at one of her foot like she hurt herself of was annoyed), then within less than one hour it moved to her not putting the foot down, and finally her back toe to point forward, shortly before her "making the fist". Thinking she broke her toe, we installed her in a safe cage without perches and with plenty of journal paper on the floor (she likes to dig under papers) and brought her to the vet the next morning. By the time we arrived to the vet, Friday, both feet were curled and she was on her knees. The vet did not see broken blood vessel suggesting a broken toe... She found "yeasts" (sorry I translate for Japanese so some terms might need a bit of interpretation) in her poop, but nothing in her throat. She gave treatemetn for this and now she is still under antibiotics and some other things mixed with that I did not. full understand (it is challenging for my Japanese skills).
Becasue Botan chan was a bit stressed out and vomited after having been checked in the throat, the vet decided to let her recover until the afternoon to make X-rays. She could not see any clear visible fracture in the spine or anywhere else, but there was a tiny bright spot in her stomach, suggesting a potential metal intoxication. She asked us for potential cause, we did not find any clear potential cause but listed whatever we could think of. However, because her head looked fine and she had no blood in the poop and apparently a good digestion, the vet went back to her idea of a spine damage. We are still not really convinced... Botan chan stayed a full week hospitalised to check for evolution, during this time her weight dropped to 37 g (from 44.5 at arrival and 47 the week before Inkochan died, which was probably a bit overweight). Now she is back to 40 and hopefully will keep on adding a bit of weight. Interestingly, while before she loved sunflower seeds and some other fat rich seeds, now she barely eats these and prefers the smaller sized ones like millet... (before all these troubles, she would first of all eat all the biggest seeds and only then reluctantly eat the smaller ones...) at least she still loves the pellets (although not so much the brand recommended by the vet).
The vet recommended to keep her in a "tiny" aquarium (actually it is one of the transparent plastic things to keep the food fresh in which I made plenty of holes as it can open from the front so it is less stressing than a hand coming from the top in the standard "plastic aquariums" they often use. It is actually the same system as she had in the hospital so we thought it was quite safe. While at the hospital, she was apparently super quiet, but now that she is back with us, she is super active and trying to climb with her beak in the holes (so much for the recommendation of the vet of "don't put toys in for the first month as she needs to rest a maximum...").
So we are still not sure what happened, is it possible to have a metal intoxication that would only affect the feet without other symptoms? What are the side effects of the chelating agents (the vet mentioned some side effects as a reason for not giving that to her)? Does anyone knows if two weeks after the symptoms it is too late for chelating agents. Of course if she remains handicapped, we will adapt to her handicap, but if there is a chance for her to recover usage of her feet, it would make her life much simpler.
One thing in the "favor" of a spinal lesion is that Botan had her feathers partially cut to limit a bit her flying at the beginning (we are beginner and the shop recommended to cut not all, but a few before she can fly so she will not have the frustration of losing some ability, then when she molts we can keep all the feather full as we will be used, adn she. will be used to the house). It was no problems until a bit recently when we believe she might have lost one (some?) of her remaining feather before replacing the cut ones and in the last month or so, she was a bit heavier in her landings (and in her weight too actually) and tried to always take the shortest flight route (opposite to Inko chan who had the same feather cuts, but maybe was more balanced and slightly in advance in the molt who was making loops and trying to fly as much as possible).
Well any thought or advice is welcome!