Note: There is a TLDR at the bottom if you wish to skim or not read everything, but the details are important.
Hello everyone. I am sad to say that Kiwi is not doing so great. I noticed on Sunday that she was not as active and as fluffed up as she normally would be. Birds really do act fine until the last moment because on Saturday she was happy and playful, eating her treats, talking and running around.
We took her to the emergency vet immediately. On our way there she began vomiting, not regurgitating, and having diarrhea. The vomit was basically just clear liquid, at first it was some chunks of her almond from the previous day, but now whenever she vomits it's just like pure water.
They gave her fluids and testing and basically said her white blood cell count was very high and she was fighting some infection. They also mentioned something about underdeveloped white blood cells. Aside from that, her uric acid was so high that the machine could not read it. She has no abnormalities or parasites in her poop. No blockages, however they noticed there was inflammation in her GI tract as well as inflammation/enlargment of her kidneys. The prognosis isn't good and the vet was frustratingly vague.
There's no known cause to this, nothing from the blood says it was caused by toxicity. Could be viral, bacterial, genetic, etc.
We have her on 4 medications. 3 started last night and one will start tomorrow. The ones started are 2 for fighting infection, 1 for reducing stomach acid. The one I'm picking up tomorrow will help uric acid. I am also setting up appointments so she can be given fluids every 2-3 days as this was dehydrating.
She made it home fine, throughout the night I could see she was still vomiting but it was just clear liquid. She is holding down her solid food (Zupreem Natural Pellets). This morning she was tired, still eating and drinking, had some semi-solid poops and vomited once. Yet again just clear liquid.
We gave her the meds well over an hour ago and she has been taking a nap on my shoulder the whole time.
I've read things about kidneys bouncing back, the doctor says this may need lifetime treatment of fluids, but there's no way of saying. It basically all depends on how well she responds to meds and fluids. Whether or not she will recover fully, recover only partially, or if I have to look into euthanasia due to poor quality of life.
I'm still worried due to the vomiting and diarrhea, and it's especially difficult to get solid answers on Memorial Day Weekend.
So basically I would appreciate any advice as this is my first time caring for a sick parrot. She is almost 5 years old and has not ever had any issues other than occasional hormone issues and low calcium that was corrected quickly.
My plan is to keep her room warm, around 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit. Continuously replace her water bowl, replace the newspaper at the bottom to keep track of her diarrhea and vomiting, and let her stay sleeping in her cage. Checking on her every 30 min to an hour. I read that keeping their sleep cycle is still important so I'll be covering her cage at 7PM tonight, even though she is basically sleeping all day.
She is still able to perch and hasn't been falling, she has flown away because she was scared of the liquid medicine, but we were able to get her before she wore herself out.
Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Prayers from whoever you believe in is appreciated as I'm going to do everything in my power to help Kiwi recover from this and prevent it from ever happening again, even though the cause was unknown.
TL;DR: Advice on how to help a sick parrot recovering kidney disease/infection, what I should do about the vomiting/diarrhea and if it's normal for it to continue until the medicine begins working, and potentially what you end up feeding your parrots that have kidney issues. As once she gets better we are definitely going to change her vegetables and are considering changing pellets.
If anyone has any questions about the medicine she's taking or anything else about her diagnosis, let me know and I'll try to answer as best as possible.
Thank you all so much for reading and I appreciate any and all messages, even if it's just support for her recovery.
Hello everyone. I am sad to say that Kiwi is not doing so great. I noticed on Sunday that she was not as active and as fluffed up as she normally would be. Birds really do act fine until the last moment because on Saturday she was happy and playful, eating her treats, talking and running around.
We took her to the emergency vet immediately. On our way there she began vomiting, not regurgitating, and having diarrhea. The vomit was basically just clear liquid, at first it was some chunks of her almond from the previous day, but now whenever she vomits it's just like pure water.
They gave her fluids and testing and basically said her white blood cell count was very high and she was fighting some infection. They also mentioned something about underdeveloped white blood cells. Aside from that, her uric acid was so high that the machine could not read it. She has no abnormalities or parasites in her poop. No blockages, however they noticed there was inflammation in her GI tract as well as inflammation/enlargment of her kidneys. The prognosis isn't good and the vet was frustratingly vague.
There's no known cause to this, nothing from the blood says it was caused by toxicity. Could be viral, bacterial, genetic, etc.
We have her on 4 medications. 3 started last night and one will start tomorrow. The ones started are 2 for fighting infection, 1 for reducing stomach acid. The one I'm picking up tomorrow will help uric acid. I am also setting up appointments so she can be given fluids every 2-3 days as this was dehydrating.
She made it home fine, throughout the night I could see she was still vomiting but it was just clear liquid. She is holding down her solid food (Zupreem Natural Pellets). This morning she was tired, still eating and drinking, had some semi-solid poops and vomited once. Yet again just clear liquid.
We gave her the meds well over an hour ago and she has been taking a nap on my shoulder the whole time.
I've read things about kidneys bouncing back, the doctor says this may need lifetime treatment of fluids, but there's no way of saying. It basically all depends on how well she responds to meds and fluids. Whether or not she will recover fully, recover only partially, or if I have to look into euthanasia due to poor quality of life.
I'm still worried due to the vomiting and diarrhea, and it's especially difficult to get solid answers on Memorial Day Weekend.
So basically I would appreciate any advice as this is my first time caring for a sick parrot. She is almost 5 years old and has not ever had any issues other than occasional hormone issues and low calcium that was corrected quickly.
My plan is to keep her room warm, around 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit. Continuously replace her water bowl, replace the newspaper at the bottom to keep track of her diarrhea and vomiting, and let her stay sleeping in her cage. Checking on her every 30 min to an hour. I read that keeping their sleep cycle is still important so I'll be covering her cage at 7PM tonight, even though she is basically sleeping all day.
She is still able to perch and hasn't been falling, she has flown away because she was scared of the liquid medicine, but we were able to get her before she wore herself out.
Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Prayers from whoever you believe in is appreciated as I'm going to do everything in my power to help Kiwi recover from this and prevent it from ever happening again, even though the cause was unknown.
TL;DR: Advice on how to help a sick parrot recovering kidney disease/infection, what I should do about the vomiting/diarrhea and if it's normal for it to continue until the medicine begins working, and potentially what you end up feeding your parrots that have kidney issues. As once she gets better we are definitely going to change her vegetables and are considering changing pellets.
If anyone has any questions about the medicine she's taking or anything else about her diagnosis, let me know and I'll try to answer as best as possible.
Thank you all so much for reading and I appreciate any and all messages, even if it's just support for her recovery.
you did everything you could for her and she knew how much you loved her. Fly high and free sweet Kiwi.
