Jenphilly
Rollerblading along the road
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Hi everyone,
Sorry, its been forever since I did a Max update. Yes, he's still with us and fighting like the feathered warrior he is!
Max has now had 4 surgeries - April 2023 was the first major surgery to remove the massive tumor that had encased one of this testicles (yes the testicle came out too fully intact). Second surgery was February 2024 to remove the second testicle and associated tumor, and fluid cyst that his body puts off when the cancer is actively growing. Surgery number 3 was originally intended for fall 2025, but Max started with significant fluid in the abdomen again, so we decided to do that surgery the end of March; that round was endoscopic and he woke up from that one like nothing happened. At that surgery, it was found that the cancer put off another lobe on the tumor which was growing on the tiniest bit of epididymis that could not be cut out entirely with the testicles because of the insane way a parrot is put together. The epididymis is attached to a large artery, so cannot be cut. With the accelerated behavior of the cancer, we opted to go back in May 30th to try ablation to kill the cancer while tumor was still small. She was able to remove the large piece of the tumor lobe via ablation, but the small section was too well attached to the artery, so that was not safe to try to get even with ablation. So that made 4 surgeries and at that point, I felt strongly that surgical options were not going to be the final solution. Unfortunately with Max's compromised system, we were fighting aspergillus plaques in his body cavity, so we were hoping with removing most of the tumor, his body would stop with the fluid buildup and we could spend 6 months aggressively fighting the asper. Unfortunately, Max's body decided that was not going to happen and we have found ourselves needing to do abdominal drains every 5-7 days. Initially after the endoscopic surgeries, the fluid was very slow and we were doing a drain maybe once a month, which we were all fine with. But, once the fluid was back with a vengeance, we opted that chemo was necessary now, even with the asper not fully cleared (the size of the plaques were reduced, so treatment is working). But that put us on the very untravelled road of chemo for parrots. My avian surgeon was comfortable doing the intratumor injections of carboplatin, but unfortunately, OSHA regulations are insane and they could not bring injectable chemo into the office. We reached out to literally every oncology vet office and there is only 1 that was willing to see a parrot, and sadly it was over 2 hours away. With the nonstop trips to both of our Vet offices the last 2.5 years, Max absolutely hates going into the carrier and stresses. We all know how stressful the 65-90 run into Philly is for him, so going over 2 hours for chemo was disappointing to hear. So, all the experts put their heads together and everyone including the oncologists at the one hospital that would see Max, that it was a much better option to try oral chemo. We will still need to see one of our avian vets about weekly for bloodwork, we all agree it's the best option for him.
Max is doing remarkably well overall. Up until this past weekend, you would never have a guess of what he was dealing with. Max had a rough weekend, and with the amount of fluid built up, he was not wanting to eat or drink, and as we all know, its a fast spiral. But, I started oral supplements including baby bird formula until we could see one of our Vets Monday. And after some subq fluids and Mom encouraging eating with yummy baby oatmeal and rice cereal mixed with veggies, powdered pellets and bird baby formula, he bounced back great. We went back to the vet on Wednesday for more subq fluids (and he was due for new Deslorelin implants). He's recovered, eating like a champ and his usual bratty self.
But, tomorrow is the start of our new adventure.... the chemo and support meds arrived today, so tomorrow will be the first dose of oral chemo. His medication protocol is somewhat crazy, I actually put everything into calendar on my phone so no forgetting anything! Our avian surgeon is amazing, and has fantastic contacts around the world. She is the consulting vet for Hawk Mountain, and thru her connections with other raptor specialists, we were encouraged to add Terbinafine along with traditional fungal med like itraconazole. We also did 3 rounds of Amphotericin B nebulizer treatments to clear any fungal in his airways (which worked great).
So tomorrow we start his new med regimen of -
Cyclophosamide (chemo) - monthly
Tamoxifen (chemo) - daily
Doxy - daily
Celoxcib - daily
LDN - daily
Fluconazole - daily
Maropitant - daily
Terbinafine - daily except before / 2 days after Cyclo chemo
I apologize I have not been posting updates, but if there is interest in following Max's chemo journey, I will be happy to post every few days or at least weekly after we start with bloodwork / vet checkups.
Some random photos, including the piece of the tumor that was removed by ablation. Max's journey is a first on record with the multiple surgeries, having both testicles removed and crazy of crazy, having 2 different types of testicular cancer!
If anyone has experience with chemo treatment, and there was any foods that you found were helpful, please let me know. Since Caitec disappeared, Max has been on a pellet strike, but if you remember all my birdie recipies, he's sitll eating his pellets just in revised format
I have stocked up on baby foods to help encourage him eating if needed and I made 3 batches of birdie bread / granola balls to have the freezer stocked too. He is awesome with eating fresh veggies, so very thankful for that. Right now, he is on a kick of fresh snap peas, beets, fennel stalks (does not like the bulbs) and of course red and orange bell peppers. And every day his bowl has cucumber, jicama, carrot and blueberries. I have Aronia Berry juice extract in the fridge, but that is quite bitter and he has not taken to that. But if anyone has another veggie or superfood they felt was a great immuno support for their parrot, please let me know!
I think I've babbled enough! I will post again adding to this thread for updates after we do his chemo tomorrow. Hubby and I are heading out for a lunch at our favorite place because I joke, once Max starts the chemo, I don't think you'll be convincing me to drive 45 minutes to our lunch spot once Max starts treatment. I already have his travel cage setup in our room, so I can monitor temps and supplement oxygen if I feel he's not feeling great after chemo kicks in (and besides I am a paranoid Max momma, feel better when I can hear him).
Thanks for reading and happy to share any questions or such about our journey with Max for 'secrets' about how amazing he's done with surgeries and recovery.
Hope everyone is doing well. Birdie hugs to all.
Sorry, its been forever since I did a Max update. Yes, he's still with us and fighting like the feathered warrior he is!
Max has now had 4 surgeries - April 2023 was the first major surgery to remove the massive tumor that had encased one of this testicles (yes the testicle came out too fully intact). Second surgery was February 2024 to remove the second testicle and associated tumor, and fluid cyst that his body puts off when the cancer is actively growing. Surgery number 3 was originally intended for fall 2025, but Max started with significant fluid in the abdomen again, so we decided to do that surgery the end of March; that round was endoscopic and he woke up from that one like nothing happened. At that surgery, it was found that the cancer put off another lobe on the tumor which was growing on the tiniest bit of epididymis that could not be cut out entirely with the testicles because of the insane way a parrot is put together. The epididymis is attached to a large artery, so cannot be cut. With the accelerated behavior of the cancer, we opted to go back in May 30th to try ablation to kill the cancer while tumor was still small. She was able to remove the large piece of the tumor lobe via ablation, but the small section was too well attached to the artery, so that was not safe to try to get even with ablation. So that made 4 surgeries and at that point, I felt strongly that surgical options were not going to be the final solution. Unfortunately with Max's compromised system, we were fighting aspergillus plaques in his body cavity, so we were hoping with removing most of the tumor, his body would stop with the fluid buildup and we could spend 6 months aggressively fighting the asper. Unfortunately, Max's body decided that was not going to happen and we have found ourselves needing to do abdominal drains every 5-7 days. Initially after the endoscopic surgeries, the fluid was very slow and we were doing a drain maybe once a month, which we were all fine with. But, once the fluid was back with a vengeance, we opted that chemo was necessary now, even with the asper not fully cleared (the size of the plaques were reduced, so treatment is working). But that put us on the very untravelled road of chemo for parrots. My avian surgeon was comfortable doing the intratumor injections of carboplatin, but unfortunately, OSHA regulations are insane and they could not bring injectable chemo into the office. We reached out to literally every oncology vet office and there is only 1 that was willing to see a parrot, and sadly it was over 2 hours away. With the nonstop trips to both of our Vet offices the last 2.5 years, Max absolutely hates going into the carrier and stresses. We all know how stressful the 65-90 run into Philly is for him, so going over 2 hours for chemo was disappointing to hear. So, all the experts put their heads together and everyone including the oncologists at the one hospital that would see Max, that it was a much better option to try oral chemo. We will still need to see one of our avian vets about weekly for bloodwork, we all agree it's the best option for him.
Max is doing remarkably well overall. Up until this past weekend, you would never have a guess of what he was dealing with. Max had a rough weekend, and with the amount of fluid built up, he was not wanting to eat or drink, and as we all know, its a fast spiral. But, I started oral supplements including baby bird formula until we could see one of our Vets Monday. And after some subq fluids and Mom encouraging eating with yummy baby oatmeal and rice cereal mixed with veggies, powdered pellets and bird baby formula, he bounced back great. We went back to the vet on Wednesday for more subq fluids (and he was due for new Deslorelin implants). He's recovered, eating like a champ and his usual bratty self.
But, tomorrow is the start of our new adventure.... the chemo and support meds arrived today, so tomorrow will be the first dose of oral chemo. His medication protocol is somewhat crazy, I actually put everything into calendar on my phone so no forgetting anything! Our avian surgeon is amazing, and has fantastic contacts around the world. She is the consulting vet for Hawk Mountain, and thru her connections with other raptor specialists, we were encouraged to add Terbinafine along with traditional fungal med like itraconazole. We also did 3 rounds of Amphotericin B nebulizer treatments to clear any fungal in his airways (which worked great).
So tomorrow we start his new med regimen of -
Cyclophosamide (chemo) - monthly
Tamoxifen (chemo) - daily
Doxy - daily
Celoxcib - daily
LDN - daily
Fluconazole - daily
Maropitant - daily
Terbinafine - daily except before / 2 days after Cyclo chemo
I apologize I have not been posting updates, but if there is interest in following Max's chemo journey, I will be happy to post every few days or at least weekly after we start with bloodwork / vet checkups.
Some random photos, including the piece of the tumor that was removed by ablation. Max's journey is a first on record with the multiple surgeries, having both testicles removed and crazy of crazy, having 2 different types of testicular cancer!
If anyone has experience with chemo treatment, and there was any foods that you found were helpful, please let me know. Since Caitec disappeared, Max has been on a pellet strike, but if you remember all my birdie recipies, he's sitll eating his pellets just in revised format
I have stocked up on baby foods to help encourage him eating if needed and I made 3 batches of birdie bread / granola balls to have the freezer stocked too. He is awesome with eating fresh veggies, so very thankful for that. Right now, he is on a kick of fresh snap peas, beets, fennel stalks (does not like the bulbs) and of course red and orange bell peppers. And every day his bowl has cucumber, jicama, carrot and blueberries. I have Aronia Berry juice extract in the fridge, but that is quite bitter and he has not taken to that. But if anyone has another veggie or superfood they felt was a great immuno support for their parrot, please let me know! I think I've babbled enough! I will post again adding to this thread for updates after we do his chemo tomorrow. Hubby and I are heading out for a lunch at our favorite place because I joke, once Max starts the chemo, I don't think you'll be convincing me to drive 45 minutes to our lunch spot once Max starts treatment. I already have his travel cage setup in our room, so I can monitor temps and supplement oxygen if I feel he's not feeling great after chemo kicks in (and besides I am a paranoid Max momma, feel better when I can hear him).
Thanks for reading and happy to share any questions or such about our journey with Max for 'secrets' about how amazing he's done with surgeries and recovery.
Hope everyone is doing well. Birdie hugs to all.
