Urgent Ongoing wheezing respiratory sound symptoms in bourke parakeet

[Ichigopink]

Videos to accompany post:

Ichigos current wheezing (Google drive video right now but I'll be uploading to youtube shortly and updating this post):Click here or copy this link

ichigo_aug22.mp4

drive.google.com

Ichigos past wheezing when in black mold environment: Click here or copy this link

TikTok - Make Your Day

Hi everyone,
Long time reader on the forum but first time posting.

I have a bourke parakeet named Ichigo and she is currently being boarded at the vet. Long story short she is making these wheezing/ audible breathing noises and my vet and I are not sure what to do next. We're not sure if this is a disease, behavioral, environmental, or something else.

Some history: The reason why Ichigo is being boarded at the vet is back in June of this year I found a substantial amount of black mold in my apartment after Ichigo got very sick in a short period of time. She very well may have saved my life because I also began to get ill from the mold and we only looked for it because of her symptoms and the vet thinking it was environmental. She had similar respiratory distress and noise with every breath but it would clear after a good sneeze for a minute or two and sounded a bit louder and different. I'll post a tiktok video of that I made at the time. At the worst of it she was on oxygen over night which would help her breathe.

I nebulized Ichigo 3 times a day with saline, an Antifungal, and an antibacterial I believe. But when I found the mold finally I immediately brought her to the vet and she got alot better once out of the environment. Her noises went away for a good month it seemed.

Recently however her breathing noises have come back and sound eerily similar to how her more serious illness started. The weird thing is they aren't progressing- the noises have stayed mild since around July now.

I am worried about aspergillus, allergies, or permanent scarring damage from the black mold exposure.

The vet doesn't believe it's a disease process at this point because Ichigos behavior is not affected whatsoever. She's a very happy social and chirpy bird. It also hasn't progressed or gotten worse in the last two months. The noises and mouth breathing that accompanies them have been intermittent.

I am going to upload the videos to youtube, for right now they are on Google drive and you may need to download them to watch them.

Please let me know if you've ever heard similar sounds from your bird and what it ended up being. My vet doesn't really even want to do any treatment at this point but I'm so scared of losing Ichigo.

Thank you so much!

 

[Shezbug]

@Hankmacaw might have some helpful suggestions for you when they are online next.

I can't view your tiktok ones for some reason, it basically just shows as a photo for me - I do not have a tiktok account.

 

[Ichigopink]

@Hankmacaw might have some helpful suggestions for you when they are online next.

I can't view your tiktok ones for some reason, it basically just shows as a photo for me - I do not have a tiktok account.

Thank you! I'm going to upload the video to youtube or Google drive shortly and update the post with the tik tok video

 

[Ichigopink]

Here are the two videos on YouTube:

Ichigos current wheezing sound

The tik tok from a few months ago when she was sickest

 

[rocky'smom]

@Monica also

 

[Hankmacaw]

From everything you have posted and the videos, i would say your bird has chronic aspergillosis. The difference between acute and chronic asper is that acute is very fast acting and your bird would have died by now. With chronic the fungus does not grow as quickly, but makes the bird very ill.

I strongly suggest that you insist that your vet, perform an asper titer on your bird immediately. That way, if ti is asper, you can get started on the regimen for asper treatment sooner and the sooner the better. There are other tests for asper which will give you additional information. Electrophoresis is one.
most
There are several medications for asper, Ittraconazole being the best, but it also is damaging. Others are Lamisil, terbinafine and voriconazole. These three do not cause as much liver damage. Treatment for asper is a long haul and it is important to not stop too soon. Keeping the bird as quiet as possible is also important.

 

[Ichigopink]

From everything you have posted and the videos, i would say your bird has chronic aspergillosis. The difference between acute and chronic asper is that acute is very fast acting and your bird would have died by now. With chronic the fungus does not grow as quickly, but makes the bird very ill.

I strongly suggest that you insist that your vet, perform an asper titer on your bird immediately. That way, if ti is asper, you can get started on the regimen for asper treatment sooner and the sooner the better. There are other tests for asper which will give you additional information. Electrophoresis is one.
most
There are several medications for asper, Ittraconazole being the best, but it also is damaging. Others are Lamisil, terbinafine and voriconazole. These three do not cause as much liver damage. Treatment for asper is a long haul and it is important to not stop too soon. Keeping the bird as quiet as possible is also important.

Thank you so so so much for your insight- I brought this up to my vet today and I'm hoping we can do the test by the end of the week. I will keep you posted. Thank you again!

 

[Ichigopink]

Thank you so so so much for your insight- I brought this up to my vet today and I'm hoping we can do the test by the end of the week. I will keep you posted. Thank you again!

Just as an update Ichigo is getting bloodwork done tomorrow for the chronic aspergillus test. I am really nervous because she's only gotten blood taken once before and she did very poorly after, couldn't keep her head up and seemed very lethargic. I thought I almost lost her. I'm hoping tomorrow won't be a repeat of that.

She also did a nebulizer treatment and that helped her a little with the wheezing. It was just saline though.

Thank you again for your help! I'll keep you posted after the bloodwork tomorrow