M-Star's follow up

[JAM]

She went back for a follow up blood test to check her iron levels. The vet said she is looking better than last year and although her feathers are still ratty they look brighter and stronger. He says that it is looking like she is being over zealous with her preening so has suggested regular misting with water during the day so that she has so something to preen off her feather as opposed to working at the actual feather.
He said she was good when he took the blood although I could hear her protesting and she glared at me through the carrier.
He's not sure whether or not the liver levels will be better as you can't tell from how they appear, so tomorrow morning I call up for the results.

He gave me a few tips on handling her hormonalness at the moment and said she seems to be progressing well.

She had a good day of it, this CAV is close to my work so J dropped her off at the office and she spent half an hour introducing herself to my colleagues and touring the furniture before we went off to the vet.

 

[Maxsmom]

Wishing best on results. Glad it seems she is better. Great to make going to vet a positive adventure so she got a treat by exploring at your job as part of the vet adventure

 

[Anne & Gang]

good results.

 

[JAM]

Wishing best on results. Glad it seems she is better. Great to make going to vet a positive adventure so she got a treat by exploring at your job as part of the vet adventure

She's been pretty good about going to the vet, I normally let her sit on my shoulder in the car and we whistle together when songs come on the radio. It's pretty funny because she waits for me to whistle the tune and tries to copy it. All the time her eyes are flashing and she's swaying.

She doesn't like being in the carrier and glues herself to the mesh squeaking at me pitifully.

Nevertheless she is really good and just protests vocally at the vet, he doesn't have any problem with her biting him she just makes this awful noise at him, there again we practice the "vet grip" and have a towel so that they have become accustomed to it. They don't like it but they aren't petrified of it and hence makes the vet's life easier.

I am hoping the liver levels are down so fingers crossed as everything else is looking good with her.

 

[GuineaPigster]

Very, very good, M-star!!

 

[roxynoodle]

It sounds like you are on the right track with her Pete's first molt here was disappointing. I had this expectation that since I put him on good food, within a year he would look magnificent like Rowdy. Well, those first feathers were being made by a body that was very malnourished and they didn't look very good at all. It's been the second year that he has shown remarkable improvement. I bet this time next year you see a whole different bird.

 

[JAM]

That's good to know! hopefully an update in 12 months will have some lovely wing feathers that don't look they've been raked to smithereens! I am not holding up hope with her tail feathers though as she is insistent on wrecking them through the cage bars.

 

[JAM]

Wishing best on results. Glad it seems she is better. Great to make going to vet a positive adventure so she got a treat by exploring at your job as part of the vet adventure

The great thing too is that my boss said she can come in again as she was a delight to have at the office!

 

[Maxsmom]

she is an ambassador.

The great thing too is that my boss said she can come in again as she was a delight to have at the office!

 

[Marlene]

 

[JAM]

FINALLY got the results, there was an initial mix up with the lab and then they faxed the results to the wrong vet so it was a lot of chasing around.

Nevertheless the result is.....


.....drum roll......



M-Star's liver levels are now all in normal range!!!

The new diet is working and ensuring we restrict high iron fruits and veggies (thanks to @waterfaller1 for the list) has ensured her blood work is all within normal range.

She has another check up in 6 months and if that remains within normal range we go back to annual checks.

 

[waterfaller1]

That is great news! Glad the list helped.

 

[JAM]

It certainly was Carole, before we were feeding them lots of broccoli, spinach, grapes etc that all are high in iron and whilst they love them we are now getting them used to the lower iron things.

We also got told to lessen the fruit high in vit c as that also assists in storing iron.

They're hard work these soft bills and nectar eaters aren't they!!! But so worth it!

 

[waterfaller1]

So glad to hear it. Yes, there really are a lot of fruits that are great, and we vary them by what is available and the best at different times of the year. It is actually the ascorbic acid found in citrus that aides in storing the iron. Have you seen this article about lories? HEMOCHROMATOSIS IN LORIES

 

[waterfaller1]

I am surprised to see them say banana should be avoided in that article. That is like my main staple for Gryphon.

 

[JAM]

That's right I couldn't remember what the vit c bit was it's Ascorbic acid.

I don't think I have seen that link, that's for that!

 

[JAM]

I am surprised to see them say banana should be avoided in that article. That is like my main staple for Gryphon.

All of ours turn their noses up at banana, so I am glad it isn't a required food otherwise is have to gavage feed it to them.

 

[CheekyBeaks]

All of ours turn their noses up at banana, so I am glad it isn't a required food otherwise is have to gavage feed it to them.

Me too, none of mine will voluntarily eat it unless I sneak some in in a wet mix veggie smoothie

 

[Stormcloud]

Good to see that M-Star is on the improve Marie. Have you had any similar issues with any of your other birds or has it only ever been in issue with M-Star?

 

[JAM]

It's only been M-Star, Gerard so it begs the question does her mutation mean she is recessive or "abnormal" in more ways than one? And I don't mean it in a bad way. The mustard mutation comes from a cross of mutations between a dilute (often wrongly referred to as cinnamon) and a grey green (known as olive).

Blue is under average for a rainbow however she proves to be healthy in every other way. She has previously had health issues with bacterial infections and treated by this specialist CAV but the last 18 months have been good.

Red is probably our most "average" in terms of weight, height etc and he is in excellent health according to our other CAV.

Pikachu is in great health again according to our other CAV he is due a health check soon though so will be interested to see if his levels are lower than M-Star's on the new diet as his were never out of normal range to start with.0