Urgent Possible URI, vet says environmental - getting worse, help

[Eli_bird]

My GCC, for the past month or so, has been sneezing more than usual. He's around 2 1/2 years old. The sneezes are wet, have clear discharge, and are concentrated specifically in the mornings and the night- I never see symptoms throughout the day. It seems to be getting progressively worse. I took him to the vet yesterday (who is specifically an avian vet, not a general exotics vet) and she did a gram stain and a physical, both of which looked perfectly normal. I asked her if there were any other reliable ways to test for a URI that we could do but she said she didn't want to do any more testing because he hadn't shown any concerning respiratory symptoms on our visit and because he looked very healthy. She said the sneezing was most likely environmental- which is what was said to me a while ago too from a different vet when I was previously having this same issue with him. He is housed in a room with cockatiels so they seem to think that is the issue, but I have a large HEPA air purifier right next to his cage running 24/7. I was aware that mixing old and new world birds in a household could be problematic when bringing him into our home and prepared for that. She went on to talk about how antibiotics are overprescribed for birds but sent me home with a course of Baytril to keep sealed in the fridge to use for if he starts declining in any way.
Ive been keeping everything in the bird room immacculately clean since this started. My mother seems to think it could be an issue with our ventilation system since our house is very old and the vents have never been cleaned. I really don't know but I am still worried and woke up this morning to wet breathing sounds - as soon as I took him out of his cage he was fine, and he's now acting normal, but I know birds show symptoms more when they think people aren't looking.

Needless to say im extremely worried about my little guy and would seriously appreciate some help. Should I just start the baytril? Should I go back for more testing? One of my cockatiels just got treated for a bacterial infection (which showed up in his gram stain- its definitely not the same thing) and that ended up costing over $500 so I am still recovering from that one (followed by this last vet trip which was around $200).

Is there any way this could truly be environmental? I feel like if it were it wouldn't be so concentrated just in the mornings and nighttime and they wouldnt be wet sneezes. I dont want to wake up to him dead one morning and learn I just didnt find the problem.

some notes:
- his regurgitation smells sour, I don't know if that is normal but it concerns me. His breath normally smells fine, its just his regurgitation.
- He is on a diet of TOPs and Zupreem Naturals, working actively on getting him to eat fresh foods but he isnt eating as much as i'd like him to yet, I havent owned him his whole life and got him about a year ago so im still working on getting his diet where I want it to be.
- He scratches his beak a LOT.
- His behavior is 100% normal. He is playing, eating, drinking, training, screaming, etc. normally. He has shown no signs of lethargy or even anything slightly out of the ordinary, and he is an extremely active bird so i would immediately notice a change in energy level.



Thank you to anyone who takes their time to help, im extremely worried.

 

[Eli_bird]

Oh, I'd also like to note that sometimes the sneezing is so bad that he can't sleep well at night.

 

[Mizzely]

It absolutely can be environmental. Have you tried to house him in a room away from the cockatiels for a while to see if that helps? Even with a purifier running it isn't going to trap 100% of the dust.

My son has allergies and the only time there is evidence of that is at night and when he wakes up. During the day he is totally fine.

 

[Hankmacaw]

Has you vet checked carefully for a blockage in the nose and airways (upper). Many times a bird will develop a rhinolith.

"Parrot sometimes suffer from obstruction in breathing that may result to rhinolith. Rhinolith is also means nose stone. It can be cause by accumulation of the debris like blood, nasal discharge or dust in the nostrils. Other causes can be vitamin A deficiency or infections like viral, bacterial or fungal."

Rhinolith in Parrot

www.adpetclinic.com

.

If it is just a blockage, with no associated infection, it won't smell. For the odor in your bird's regurgitation, I'd have the Dr. check for crop infections.

 

[Eli_bird]

It absolutely can be environmental. Have you tried to house him in a room away from the cockatiels for a while to see if that helps? Even with a purifier running it isn't going to trap 100% of the dust.

My son has allergies and the only time there is evidence of that is at night and when he wakes up. During the day he is totally fine.

I will try housing him in a different room from them for a couple of days and see if it helps. In my stress I haven't thought about doing that to pinpoint whether or not it's them.

 

[Eli_bird]

Has you vet checked carefully for a blockage in the nose and airways (upper). Many times a bird will develop a rhinolith.

"Parrot sometimes suffer from obstruction in breathing that may result to rhinolith. Rhinolith is also means nose stone. It can be cause by accumulation of the debris like blood, nasal discharge or dust in the nostrils. Other causes can be vitamin A deficiency or infections like viral, bacterial or fungal."

Rhinolith in Parrot

www.adpetclinic.com

.

If it is just a blockage, with no associated infection, it won't smell. For the odor in your bird's regurgitation, I'd have the Dr. check for crop infections.

The vet said that his airways are clear and did a thorough physical exam where everything looked good, but they couldn't have seen anything that wouldn't be visual in a physical exam.

I suspected that I should get him checked for a crop infection I wish my vet would've said something when I brought it up to her.

 

[Eli_bird]

Alright, he just had some extremely abnormal poops and now I am very scared. His poop has been normal up until now, these are both from this morning.

 

[Laurie]

I think you should also call your vet back and ask them any and all questions you have. If you do not get an answer then ask again. Every vet I know will talk to you on the phone as follow up. If you have concerns you should check with the vet again over the phone with the additional related questions. How else will they know if they should have you administer the antibiotics? Perhaps your Mom can help you with speaking to the vet. If it truly is environmental I would try and sort that out too by testing a different environment as well like moving away from the tiels.

Sometimes it takes some follow up.