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Urgent Looking for help with baby cockatiel.

iamwhoiam

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How are the droppings? Looks like possible bloating to me and good idea to take the little one to the vet. I hope he will be OK.
 

Birdbabe

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His crop is over extended, which could be not digesting his food. Or a crop issue, or overfeeding let the crop empty complete before feeding again, and when you do feed add a few drops of BRAGG'S apple cider vinegar to the formula..how do his poops look?Does his breath smell " yeasty"? The ASV will help, but, honestly looking at it, your feeding too much, about 7 cc"s max and formula no hotter than 102F..other than the extended crop. He looks good to the eye.
 

rocky'smom

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Please see a avian vet asap
 

melissasparrots

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It looks to me like an over stretched crop. How much and how often are you feeding it? If you don't feed him for 8 or 9 hours will his crop completely empty? If so, then you probably didn't do any permanent damage. If it will not empty in that amount of time, then you need a vet check. Sooner rather than later because bacteria or yeast can cause food to stop moving through the gut and they can go down hill super fast. Someone else mentioned Bragg's apple cider vinegar. That won't cure yeast, but it will make it hard for it to grow. If this were my chick, I'd not feed it for 8 or 10 hours. See if you can get the crop to go completely empty and flat against the chest. When you resume feeding tomorrow, feed about 10% of the body weight and use a few drops of apple cider vinegar in the water you use to mix the formula. The recommended amount is a teaspoon ACV per cup of water. Don't use the ACV forever, just a couple of days. If you are feeding 10% of the bird's body weight, he should be empty or nearly empty after about 4-6 hours depending on temperature and activity level. If the crop isn't emptying or very close to empty in that amount of time, again, you need a vet check. I think it even says that in the instructions on the Kaytee Exact formula bag. If you don't know what 10% of his body weight is, that is probably because you have not been weighing him with a digital scale. If you haven't, you need to go get a scale, then weigh him every morning on an EMPTY crop(a weight with food in the crop is nearly useless as you're weighing an unknown amount of food food instead of just bird). That is your baseline weight for the day and for most babies you should feed about 10% of that weight. People that have raised a lot of babies, can make a judgment based on feel of the crop. For everyone else that isn't super experienced, or just those of us that like a guideline, you need to weigh the chick. BTW, a scale must be a gram scale. Ounces are nearly useless. If the chick isn't empty tomorrow morning or very close to empty after not being fed over night, call around and see if you can get a saturday morning vet appointment somewhere.

Also, if you don't already know, you should feed the chick shortly before or after his crop empties completely. Cockatiel chicks cry and will convince you that they are forever starving. If food is in his crop, he probably isn't starving...unless you've over stretched the crop to the point that the muscles won't push food into the gut in which case you need a vet.

In your case, I'd give it a couple days and let that crop completely empty between feedings just to make sure you have his system back to running properly again. If everything seems to be going well, then start feed him when he isn't quite empty. This helps to ensure good growth, but the trick is that if you use that method, he should ALWAYS empty over night. So if it takes him 5 hours to almost empty his crop, go ahead and sleep for 6-8 hours at night so when you wake up, his crop is empty. If its not empty first thing in the morning, don't feed him. Wait another 1-3 hours for it to empty, then resume feeding. If its not empty after 8 hours and you know you aren't over feeding because you've been using the 10% method, then you need a vet.
 
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Demented_Hag

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ok so, we had already tried not feeding him much and we noticed he not only didn't empty but he also stopped pooping and actually left a small blood stain where his butt was. We fed him after this then a while later found out about "sour/impacted crop". When we checked back on him he was back to pooping again, and we began to empty his crop with a tube attached to a syringe. We emptied about 95% of his crop then fed him cause he was going crazy for food before and after his crop was emptied. I've heard about giving him stuff like alka seltzer after emptying the crop which we found out about after we had fed him for the night. What should we do now that his crop was emptied / if he doesn't empty the new food from his crop over the night? Is there a risk of not having emptied the 5% or less of food that was still left in his crop?

Thanks all for the help.
 

melissasparrots

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If he still hasn’t progressed in the morning, don’t feed him. Take him to the vet instead. He might have been crazy hungry because even though the crop was full, nothing was going into the gut. Adding more food at that point was just feeding the bacteria or yeast, not the bird. If he has progressed by morning, I’d recommend a couple of small very diluted meals that are just slightly thicker than water with the apple cider vinegar mixed in and see how that goes. By small meals I’m thinking about 2 cc. Also, on a mostly empty crop, you can try very gently massaging the crop to help keep things moving in there. Regardless, I still think he needs a vet. The acv is not medicine and will not fix his problem. He probably needs to rehydrate, rest his crop slightly and then get meds from a vet. Not going to the vet is like asking a forum how to treat strep throat without medicine and still expecting a good outcome. A foreign body(pine shaving) obstruction is also a possibility.
 

melissasparrots

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Also, cockatiels are apparently prone to yeast. I’ve never had yeast issues with my birds except as secondary to another issue that needed antibiotics. Crop yeast infections can be a fairly quick and not terribly expensive fix. A crop swab with grams stain at the vet will likely cost you less than $100 depending on where you are located and can allow the vet to get this bird the meds it needs to turn this around very quickly. Don’t wait until Monday to see how it goes trying the advice of internet experts. Just do it right and find a vet. This can be a quick and not super expensive fix or it can be a dead bird by Sunday.
 

Monica

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The chick may require a "crop bra" to lift the crop up and help get the food digested. I also agree that a vet check could be in order for the little one.

And, if the mother is not a pearl, then this chick is a female. (if mother is pearl, this chick could be male or female)
 

Lady Jane

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I hope this baby survives. Thanks everyone for helping out.
 

finchly

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I hope you will take the advice you have been given here. Melissa and Monica know what they’re doing. Please don’t empty the crop with a syringe again, and don’t do the alkaseltzer. If the crop isn’t emptying, if you’re seeing blood, if she is sluggish or is constantly hungry even though you fed her—
It’s time for the vet.

Keep us posted!
 

Birdbabe

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Pleasedon’tempty the crop with a syringe again,and don’t do the alkaseltzer.
100 percent agree, crop flushing is only for the very experienced , and " alkaseltzer "? No, no, please dont..blood could an obstruction and shes straining to poop..hope the baby is better.
 

melissasparrots

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How is this chick doing this morning?
Also wanted to mention to make sure the chick is warm enough and formula is fed at the proper temp. Both of those can cause digestive slow down and blockage. Although, if the gut has already been blocked and stasis occurred, chances are high that another issue is now present that needs vet care even if the original problem is fixed.
I might be stereotyping so I apologize if the following is too forward. We get a lot of people in this section that have a sick bird and don't want to take it to the vet. Either they got a bird who's care they can't afford or they just have some sort of cultural thing where they just don't take birds to vets for whatever reason. If that is you and your family, you might consider trying to find a rescue to surrender this chick to. I would think that most bird rescues worth their salt have experience dealing with hand-feeding babies. Just thought I'd throw that out there as an option if you haven't thought of it. A really good rescue will even have someone on staff with basic diagnostic knowledge and meds in storage. Unfortunately, I doubt most pet bird rescues are up to that level, but I'm sure there are a few around. At the very least, almost all of them will have a deal worked out with a local vet to see their birds using donation funds.
I hope he's doing better.
 

iamwhoiam

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Please update us. Hope baby is better and that you did take him/her to vet if the issue was not resolved. NO alka seltzer!
 
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Lady Jane

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When a bird is not doing well and knowledgeable members here give valuable advice they like to hear how the bird is doing and also how the human is doing. We appreciate feedback!
 

Crazy4parrots

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ok so, we had already tried not feeding him much and we noticed he not only didn't empty but he also stopped pooping and actually left a small blood stain where his butt was. We fed him after this then a while later found out about "sour/impacted crop". When we checked back on him he was back to pooping again, and we began to empty his crop with a tube attached to a syringe. We emptied about 95% of his crop then fed him cause he was going crazy for food before and after his crop was emptied. I've heard about giving him stuff like alka seltzer after emptying the crop which we found out about after we had fed him for the night. What should we do now that his crop was emptied / if he doesn't empty the new food from his crop over the night? Is there a risk of not having emptied the 5% or less of food that was still left in his crop?

Thanks all for the help.
Omg i have NEVER heard of alkaseltzer on a bird! I think thats a huge NO NO... i raised lovebirds for sometime and when one of the chicks had slow crop all i did was WAIT until he emptied the crop on his own. Didnt needed to put a needle on his crop or anything like that.
 

iamwhoiam

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Still no update. :(
 
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