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She can't fly

Ali

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Hi,
This is important by I want the opinions of everyone, not just the 911 bit.

About 10 minutes ago I opened up Iris' cage and she came whizzing out after a few seconds like normal. She usually lands on the sofa directly opposite her cage, but instead she crashed into it about half way up, sat on the floor for a few seconds and tried to fly off again, but only made it about 2 metres along the floor. She then did a poo (sorry, just adding all the information in case it helps) and flew to the storage shelf below her cage. She's been sat there since, quite content. Breathing is looking a little quick but she's moving around the shelf fine. Her behavior is completely normal otherwise.

Any ideas what is going on?

She laid 4 eggs recently too, and seemed to pass them really well. She didn't seem all that fazed by it and I made sure she got lots of calcium.
 

Ali

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Screenshot_2021-04-08-10-16-45_kindlephoto-47656569.png
Her droppings look like the second one if that helps at all. It's quite dark green, not like the other green in the same article that says possible liver damage.

It has also always been quite loose.
 

Zara

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@Ali My thoughts... Calcium deficiency.
This happened to my Adelie recently after just two eggs. She needs a vitimin booster, I got a liquid I gave orally. )she was on a mostly pellets diet with daily veggies and this still happened to her)

Edit; We´re home from the vet - Adélie can´t fly
 
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Ali

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@Ali My thoughts... Calcium deficiency.
This happened to my Adelie recently after just two eggs. She needs a vitimin booster, I got a liquid I gave orally. )she was on a mostly pellets diet with daily veggies and this still happened to her)

Edit; We´re home from the vet - Adélie can´t fly
Thank you very much. I'm still having trouble getting her interested in other foods although she does have the occasional nibble at pellets and chop.so she's heading the the right direction.

Do you think it would be worth giving some egg as well as the vitamins?

Edit- I have some of this that I've just had lying around just in case it's needed. What do you think?
 

Zara

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I would call your vet.
In my thread I wrote down what happened because I knew I´d forget, the vet gave her antiinlamatory orally at the vet office. And he gave me the supplement to take home and give her. I did that for about a week if I remember correctly.

Your vet might decide to give her a booster via injection. I would definitely get her seen to before it gets worse. I just don´t think a little egg will help.

Plus, just in case it is not a deficiency, you will need the vet to tell you what is going on if it is something else.
 

Ali

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I would call your vet.
In my thread I wrote down what happened because I knew I´d forget, the vet gave her antiinlamatory orally at the vet office. And he gave me the supplement to take home and give her. I did that for about a week if I remember correctly.

Your vet might decide to give her a booster via injection. I would definitely get her seen to before it gets worse. I just don´t think a little egg will help.

Plus, just in case it is not a deficiency, you will need the vet to tell you what is going on if it is something else.
Okay, thanks will do.
 

Zara

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Hope she´ll be ok. Please do let us know what the vet says.
 

Dona

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Good luck!
 
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Ali

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I forgot to say, she took a couple of good, long flights around the room before taking a turn.
 

Ali

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We've just had the news.

They're doing diagnostics. They suspect bacterial infection or something egg related. They're doing bloodwork and xrays.

They'd like to keep her in too, which I'm happy with as I'd rather shes there ready if something was to happen
 

Zara

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Glad you got her to the vet so quickly and they´re keeping her in to look after her :)
Hopefully she´ll bounce back pretty quickly with the right treatment.
 
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Ali

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Glad you got her to the vet so quickly and they´re keeping her in to look after her :)
Hopefully she´ll bounce back pretty quickly with the right treatment.
I hope so. I fully trust our vet and they have specialists for each type, so all our animals go there.

They gave us the option to bring her home and syringe feed but I'm just not confident enough to do it, so shes there. We're back home now, it's going to be a quiet, uninterrupted tv watching evening tonight...
 

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Great! Sounds like she’s in good hands while you figure out the cause. I hope it’s a minor easy to treat problem!
 
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Ali

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Bloodwork has been sent to the lab.
She handled the anesthetic well and came too.
The xray showed something that had crossed my mind as a possibility, but I was hoping it would be an infection as it's easier to treat.

Iris is eggbound. She has an egg stuck. The vet believes it is slightly bigger than a cadburys mini egg. The vet says the liver looks a little off too, but thinks that it's likely to be to do with the egg (as fat is pushed into it during egg production).

There are two treatment options for the egg binding. As she took the anesthetic so well today, they're going to do another tomorrow. They want to pierce the egg and remove the inside (by going up the rear) and that should collapse the shell and Iris should then be able to pass it. I'm sure you all know this stuff anyway, but I think sharing the treatment will help others?

If that doesn't work, the only option is surgery, something the vet has said they wouldn't like to risk.

I'm hoping it all works out tomorrow.
 

Zara

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You´re vet is very good :) Glad they´ve figured it out quickly.
 
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Ali

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You´re vet is very good :) Glad they´ve figured it out quickly.
I'm really lucky to have them. They're really really busy but the moment we called they said bring her in. We were there within 15 minutes of calling.

I'm happy the bloodwork went ahead too as that will bring up any other underlying issues. I'm just hoping that the first treatment idea works because the second one just seems risky on such a tiny bird.
 

Zara

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They're really really busy but the moment we called they said bring her in.
That´s great. They know if they gave you an appointment next week that it´s likely she would not make it. Vets know how important urgency is with sick birds, especially those laying hens!

Fingers crossed for tomorrow!! :fingerscrossed:
 
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Gigibirds

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I hope it all goes well! Iris is beautiful!
 
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