PLEASE HELP! BLOOD TESTS!

[potatogirl]

Hi guys! I’m new to this forum! I have questions about blood work on lovebird. I hope i can get some advice here. Any advice is valuable.

My lovebird, male, almost 4 year old. I feel like these days he is lethargic and puffy, his foot grip are weakened (?), he is so wobbly and clumsy (imbalance), and he is not as active as he used to be, and he is getting so cuddly (he would come to my shoulders and asking me to scratch his head) usually he wouldn’t even let me touch him.

So now i’m very worried about my lovebird. I love him so much and i would do anything for him to be happy and healthy. But the vet in my city are not very experienced and skilled with birds. They don’t have the equipment needed to run xray, or another important tests. Most people here they don’t care about birds like they do about dogs and cats. I feel very miserable because there’s nothing much i can do for him. This drives me nuts.

So actually i’ve taken my bird to the nearest avian vet from my house last month. They did physical examination and gram stain (?) i’m not sure honestly. And the vet said he looks healthy and his diagnosis was vitamin deficiency, so he told me to buy vitamin for my birds online. I wanted to get blood tests for my birds but the vet and my parents said don’t do it, because his body is small and the vet said he looks fine.

But now because i feel like my lovebirds is lethargic, i want to go to that vet again to get my lovebird checked. And i really want to get him a bloodwork but the problem is my lovebird is small and he only weights 37g (previously 38g, but these days he lost weight) normally healthy lovebird should weights about 50-60g (?).

And also i read some small birds died because of blood work (i don’t know what happened exactly).

I’m very confused now because blood work can be very dangerous to small birds and i’m scared something bad will happen to my bird if he get his blood test, but at the same time i kmow that physical examination alone can’t tell you if your bird is healthy, and blood work is needed because birds can hide their illness very well, so i wanted to do something before his health get worse.

So what should i do? Have you ever got your small birds a blood tests? Is it safe? What are the side effects?

(english isn’t my first languange and i’m trying my best to explain it, i hope you guys can understand what i’m trying to tell you. Please i have another question posted about my lovebirds poop, please spare your time to read and answer my question, any help is valuable)

 

[fluffypoptarts]

Bloodwork is a risk because it weakens a bird, and the vet doing the draw has to be very experienced to do it safely and effectively, especially with a small bird. It’s also stressful for the bird. A bird that is weak and underweight is going to be a higher risk, so unless other avenues have been explored and bloodwork is essential for diagnosis and treatment, you may want to hold off. You and the vet must make the determination of whether the risk is worth the diagnostic information you might discover. It’s a gamble.

 

[fluffypoptarts]

I have had blood draws done safely on my birds when they were strong enough, but not when they were weak. My last lovebird that passed was only able to make it through an ultrasound - they couldn’t put her under for X-rays because she was too weak for that and other diagnostics.

 

[fluffypoptarts]

You can try looking here for another avian vet:

Association of Avian Veterinarians

 

[potatogirl]

You can try looking here for another avian vet:

Association of Avian Veterinarians

Thank you for you advice, i don’t live in the US, i live in Southeast asian, so i can’t search for another avian vet

 

[Deleted member 57370]

In a situation like this , sometimes vets are willing to try a round of antibiotics if they feel is possible is a bacterial infection, to see if there is a positive response to antibiotics. That the bird improving on antibiotics.
If they did , I would recommend trying doxycycline because is broad spectrum, cover avian clymadia ( a relatively common infection, tho if bird did respond to ten days would need to be extended to 45 days to clear this kind of infection) I wouldn't recommend baytril, tho many vets reach fir it first , because is much harsher in them , can cause nausea and vomiting and almost always a secondary yeast overgrowth which would need antifungal treatment.

But as you already know, many illness can share same symptoms, if this was fungal or viral antibiotics would not help , im the cause of fungal would worsen birds condition.

Nutritional, what does your bird eat ? Nutritional issues are seen in all seed diets because many nutrients are missing from that .

 

[potatogirl]

he used to be on a seed-diet only and his diet was awful.

now, his diet consists of:
-pellets (tops)
-pellets (mazuri, i’m trying to get him to eat mazuri pellets but i’m not sure if he’s eating it)
- seed mix
- leafy greens (spinach and bokchoy) i used to feed spinach to my bird everyday, but i just knew that i can’t give it everyday, so i stopped giving spinach temporarily.
- fruits (banana, apples, pears)
- cooked rice

thank you for your advice!

 

[potatogirl]

Bloodwork is a risk because it weakens a bird, and the vet doing the draw has to be very experienced to do it safely and effectively, especially with a small bird. It’s also stressful for the bird. A bird that is weak and underweight is going to be a higher risk, so unless other avenues have been explored and bloodwork is essential for diagnosis and treatment, you may want to hold off. You and the vet must make the determination of whether the risk is worth the diagnostic information you might discover. It’s a gamble.

hello, so i have another question, so if i can’t do blood tests and x-ray for my lovebird, how can i know if he is hiding his illness or not, if he is sick or healthy, is there another safe way to do that?

 

[iamwhoiam]

Thank you for you advice, i don’t live in the US, i live in Southeast asian, so i can’t search for another avian vet

That website does list avian vets in other countries besides the US.

 

[Deleted member 57370]

Blood tests can be done in little birds , with caution on how much blood they take , and trained veterinarian. Sometimes they decide it is too risky, sometimes they feel it can be done safely. The same with x-ray.
Veterinarian exam your bird , talk to you , and decide what is likely cause. Based on their extensive training and experience. Sometimes they will try things and see . The same can happen with human medicine.

All of us here , we just share from our experience, but we are not vets , or meant to replace your vet. We are just people with birds , trying to help other people with birds. .

There are so many things that could be , it could be nutritional, it could be heavy metal toxicity, it could be viral , it could be fungal, it could be a disorder of an internal organ, like heart disease, liver or kidney disease, or cancer . We honestly can not know.

 

[potatogirl]

That website does list avian vets in other countries besides the US.

i checked and they don’t have my country

 

[fluffypoptarts]

i checked and they don’t have my country

What country are you in?

 

[fluffypoptarts]

hello, so i have another question, so if i can’t do blood tests and x-ray for my lovebird, how can i know if he is hiding his illness or not, if he is sick or healthy, is there another safe way to do that?

From the signs you listed, he does not sound well, but you’re in a bind with not having access to better avian vet care. Your vet should’ve done a swab of your lovebird’s mouth/throat/crop as well (I’m not phrasing this well but they usually do it when they’re doing a gram stain to cover all the bases). Pixie mentioned heavy metal toxicity - does he have any exposure to metal?

Weight does vary by size. 44 grams is a normal weight for one of mine. But 38 seems very low even for the smallest peach-faced lovebird. Can you feel his little keel bone protruding?

 

[potatogirl]

hello everyone, thank you for your advice, i appreciate your help.