GreenThing
Jogging around the block
Symptoms
- Shocked to weigh him after a few months (he was around 30g) and find that he was 45g
- Slight puffiness around his crop not going down
- Labored movement visible in his abdomen, like a pulse (but no tail bobbing)
- Increased appetite in my LEAST food motivated bird, to the point that he was coming over to investigate/try anything I was eating
- Raising his wings like he is too hot in our AC-cooled house
- A little polyuric, but he's also molting right now (are my birds ever not molting?)
Went to my new vet, who had treated Margo. Merlin has always been high strung and was not easy to handle. They managed to take blood but accidentally lost some (a genuine accident but hard for me to even talk about). Only had enough for one test.
The vet went through a few theories:
- Fiber impaction.
I am going to go over every inch of their cage cover tomorrow, but just seems so unlikely. I have always been paranoid about this and don't use any fiber toys or even rope perches. I was also going to rotate their toys this weekend because nothing had been chewed in a while.
- Thyroid issues.
Floated as a possibility but described as very difficult to test.
- Pancreatic issues.
His gram stain showed an unusually high level of undigested starch crystals. I'd never heard of this before. She suspects that his food is not properly digesting and he is over-eating to compensate, thus the swelling being an over-full crop. She said he had some fat deposits in his belly but not enough to account for 44 grams of weight-- he wasn't obese. Maybe it's the food. She thinks this could also be why he is too hot (body working hard and struggling to digest food).
The one blood panel they were able to do did not point to anything conclusive, although I'm struggling to remember the details. She also mentioned that he bled very easily, and it worried her. Merlin was in a panic the whole time, more than Percy or Margo. He was so weak and disoriented when we got home.
She gave me Lactulose with milk thistle to give orally twice a day and prozyme powder for his food. I don't know how I am going to handle giving him medicine right now. I trained Percy to go into my hand-- Merlin has always been much harder.
I am absolutely blindsided and not dealing with this well. Wanted to post in case anyone had experiences with a similar diagnosis. Merlin has always been okay. When Percy died I just thought Merlin would keep being okay.
- Shocked to weigh him after a few months (he was around 30g) and find that he was 45g
- Slight puffiness around his crop not going down
- Labored movement visible in his abdomen, like a pulse (but no tail bobbing)
- Increased appetite in my LEAST food motivated bird, to the point that he was coming over to investigate/try anything I was eating
- Raising his wings like he is too hot in our AC-cooled house
- A little polyuric, but he's also molting right now (are my birds ever not molting?)
Went to my new vet, who had treated Margo. Merlin has always been high strung and was not easy to handle. They managed to take blood but accidentally lost some (a genuine accident but hard for me to even talk about). Only had enough for one test.
The vet went through a few theories:
- Fiber impaction.
I am going to go over every inch of their cage cover tomorrow, but just seems so unlikely. I have always been paranoid about this and don't use any fiber toys or even rope perches. I was also going to rotate their toys this weekend because nothing had been chewed in a while.
- Thyroid issues.
Floated as a possibility but described as very difficult to test.
- Pancreatic issues.
His gram stain showed an unusually high level of undigested starch crystals. I'd never heard of this before. She suspects that his food is not properly digesting and he is over-eating to compensate, thus the swelling being an over-full crop. She said he had some fat deposits in his belly but not enough to account for 44 grams of weight-- he wasn't obese. Maybe it's the food. She thinks this could also be why he is too hot (body working hard and struggling to digest food).
The one blood panel they were able to do did not point to anything conclusive, although I'm struggling to remember the details. She also mentioned that he bled very easily, and it worried her. Merlin was in a panic the whole time, more than Percy or Margo. He was so weak and disoriented when we got home.
She gave me Lactulose with milk thistle to give orally twice a day and prozyme powder for his food. I don't know how I am going to handle giving him medicine right now. I trained Percy to go into my hand-- Merlin has always been much harder.
I am absolutely blindsided and not dealing with this well. Wanted to post in case anyone had experiences with a similar diagnosis. Merlin has always been okay. When Percy died I just thought Merlin would keep being okay.