New Budgie not looking well

[WaterRaven]

I picked up a 6 month old budgie tonight and getting her home, I am seeing she is not looking as good as I thought.

Her eyes are bright and her color is good, but I should really have held her myself to get a better look at her. I am kicking myself right now :/

She is missing some toe nails on one foot and is missing feathers on her vent. I can’t believe I didn’t see the toe nails especially.

The poor thing

She is active and talking, but I’m definitely taking her to the vet as soon as I can to be on the safe side.

Until I can take her, what can I do to keep her more comfortable?

She is in her new cage with food and water, plus some millet and I have her partially covered and will of course fully cover her in a little bit.

I have concerns for our 2 year old cockatiel. They are in separate rooms for quarantine and actually, different levels, but I’m still concerned for his safety.

I appreciate any help and suggestions.

Thank you.

 

[iamwhoiam]

So sorry that your new budgie looks "off". It's good she is active and talking. Perhaps another bird or mom & dad removed her nails and plucked the feathers. Keep her warm, covered on 3 sides, and just give her love. Missing toe nails are not a big deal.
Hope all will be well with her.

 

[WaterRaven]

So sorry that your new budgie looks "off". It's good she is active and talking. Perhaps another bird or mom & dad removed her nails and plucked the feathers. Keep her warm, covered on 3 sides, and just give her love. Missing toe nails are not a big deal.
Hope all will be well with her.

Thank you so much for responding.

She's missing almost all of her toe nails on the one foot. I noticed she wasn't having the easiest time hanging on and getting around, but she was also nervous and exhausted from the travel and new home.

Her poop looks normal though, so I feel a little better about that.

I think our exotic vet clinic is closed tomorrow, so I may have to wait till Monday. Hopefully this was just from some other birds and she is ok <3

Thank you again.

 

[iamwhoiam]

Yes, she is probably nervous and stressed because of the traveling and the new home with unfamiliar people and objects. Does she have a name? Post a photo of her if you feel she is comfortable with you taking one.

 

[Garet]

Poor thing. :C A couple of birdie ladders might help her get around.

 

[Zoepr143]

The best of luck at the vet visit!
It’s good that she is acting normal, she is not suffering.
I’d just let her rest to get her used to the environment, she’ll be fine.

 

[WaterRaven]

Yes, she is probably nervous and stressed because of the traveling and the new home with unfamiliar people and objects. Does she have a name? Post a photo of her if you feel she is comfortable with you taking one.

I haven't named her yet, but we're considering Heppata and Ora I'm a writer, so I like to come up with weird names

I will try to get a photo of her later this week.

Poor thing. :C A couple of birdie ladders might help her get around.

I'll get her some birdie ladders tomorrow, thank you, great idea. I knew her wings were clipped before-hand so thankfully I put several perches in there and placed them close together for her to get around on. I feel awful for her. Her wings are clipped and she's missing all but one two on her left foot

The best of luck at the vet visit!
It’s good that she is acting normal, she is not suffering.
I’d just let her rest to get her used to the environment, she’ll be fine.

Thank you I'm calling them first thing tomorrow.

I wanted to update that her feces are normal, her ceres is clean, her eyes are clear, and she's eating and getting water. She's hanging out on the side of the cage closest to us now and talking to us every now and again. I don't think I would have been as concerned if she didn't have plucked feathers near her vent, but I figure better safe than sorry. I'm calling the vet tomorrow to discuss it with them. I am concerned taking her to another place so soon is going to really stress her out more, but I'd hate not to take her and then something happens.

 

[Garet]

I'll get her some birdie ladders tomorrow, thank you, great idea. I knew her wings were clipped before-hand so thankfully I put several perches in there and placed them close together for her to get around on. I feel awful for her. Her wings are clipped and she's missing all but one two on her left foot

No problem. My budgie has one in the corner of her cage sort of hanging over a perch so it's at an angle. She likes to nap on the top rungs and seems to feel safe there. Just be careful with your gal. Ciri was pretty badly messed up when I got her and she's still able to fly pretty well. Even missing all but one of her tailfeathers and a good hunk of her flight feathers (what was left were badly damaged), she was able to get across the room and ontop of a 7 foot bookshelf.

As far as taking her somewhere new so quickly, I'd do it. I got my rescue budgie last monday and took her to the vet on tuesday and it all worked out. Had her covered in a nice, warm blanket and peeked into the travel case every now and then just to be sure she was okay. Just keep her nice and calm, give her some millet to chew on and your poor baby should be a-okay.

 

[sunnysmom]

Poor bird. I hope she's okay. Make sure you wash your hands and even change your clothes after handling her before interacting with your tiel, just to be safe.

 

[WaterRaven]

If you look at the bottom, her vent is exposed and soiled :/

Some pics of Trinket (that's the name we picked) Well, with the light blue cere and being told Trinket was female from the previous owner, I thought she was female, but the vet felt like Trinket was a boy and that the cere will get a brighter blue as Trinket matures. What do you guys think?

The vet visit went well, even though I was stupid worried about stressing poor Trinket out further. I am really glad we went. Trinket has a crop infection which we are now treating her/him for. The vet said Trinket most likely pulled out the feathers himself/herself because the infection was most likely causing other problems (like feces sticking to the feathers) and Trinket has more toes than I originally thought, so that's good. It was just hard to tell since I didn't want to hold Trinket too much bringing her home, but the vet got a good look and she/he's only missing two.

In addition, I lowered all the perches and put a towel in under the paper towel in the bottom of the cage, so that it's a softer landing if Trinket falls. I'll be getting some ladders too.

Giving the antibiotics hasn't been great for our new relationships, but I know it's necessary. Trinket hasn't livened up yet, but I have noticed a small improvement and she/he's eating really well.

Thanks so much everyone for commenting and for your helpful and encouraging replies.

Oh, and I am definitely making sure to wash my hands before handling my other bird. I could change too if it's possible to pass on the infection. I wouldn't want that

 

[iamwhoiam]

Trinket is a cute name. It's good that you took him to the vet and that he is getting treated for the infection. I hope he will be 100% soon.

 

[Garet]

I'm glad to hear that Trinket's getting treated! Hopefully, he'll be a-okay soon!

 

[sunnysmom]

I like the name. He's a cutie. I hope he feels better soon.

 

[WaterRaven]

Thank you all so much for your replies

Trinket is still on antibiotics (for the full 14 days) so he's not a huge fan of me :/ but he's started to talk at various times during the day and is eating millet now. His activity level isn't where I'd like it, but honestly, it's a new home and with me putting him in a towel for antibiotics twice a day, he's understandably nervous when I'm around. I'm looking forward to to building trust and working on our relationship when he's better.

 

[iamwhoiam]

Hope that Trinket will be 100% soon. Is he eating other things besides millet?

 

[WaterRaven]

Hope that Trinket will be 100% soon. Is he eating other things besides millet?

Thank you

And yes! Trinket has a seed mix as well that he's been eating. The vet thought I should keep things simple until we're done with the antibiotics. The vet also gave me probiotics to sprinkle on the seed. They also discussed pellet food options with me for later.

 

[Lady Jane]

Do you know what kind of infection the vet diagnosed and exactly what testing was done? Most likely the vet did a swab of the crop and looked at the results under magnification. Its important that you know if it was yeast or not.

 

[WaterRaven]

Do you know what kind of infection the vet diagnosed and exactly what testing was done? Most likely the vet did a swab of the crop and looked at the results under magnification. Its important that you know if it was yeast or not.

They swabbed the crop to see whether it was fungal or bacterial and it came out bacterial, so we're doing antibiotics.

Do you know how budgies get crop infections? Either bacterial or fungal/yeast?

 

[Lady Jane]

There are high chances these come from the parents if young. My vet tells me yeast is everywhere and budgies are highly susceptible to fungus. I have one budgie that did not respond to any treatment and my male had a light case of crop yeast as I caught it early. I have my suspicions it came from feeding corn on cob. The corn is not easy to digest and the kernel shell can possibly stay in the crop longer than needed thus attracting fungi. This is only my theory. I stopped feeding all fresh corn and so far no more yeast.

 

[WaterRaven]

There are high chances these come from the parents if young. My vet tells me yeast is everywhere and budgies are highly susceptible to fungus. I have one budgie that did not respond to any treatment and my male had a light case of crop yeast as I caught it early. I have my suspicions it came from feeding corn on cob. The corn is not easy to digest and the kernel shell can possibly stay in the crop longer than needed thus attracting fungi. This is only my theory. I stopped feeding all fresh corn and so far no more yeast.

Interesting about the corn. I don't feed either of my birds corn, so good to know.

Trinket was supposedly 6 months, but considering she came from a pet store and then from a kid, now I'm not so sure. She or he, we'll know eventually

The good news though, she's continuing to improve. She's talking now and eating real well, we're just working on our relationship. It's slow going because I had to towel her for the first two weeks, but I've gotten her to perch a couple times. I'm going to wait two more weeks and the quarantine month(little over a month) will hopefully be over