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  • This forum is for advice about initial treatment given to your injured/sick bird until a qualified avian veterinarian is available.
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Urgent Sick & Wet-Looking Parakeet. Super worried, how do I proceed?

cuttlebone

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This started yesterday. My bird was just sitting around in her cage in the morning pretty quietly and fluffed up. She looked fine. Even during the day yesterday, she looked fine. At night however, when I tried to put her in her cage, I noticed that she looked wet. I thought maybe her head dipped into her drinking water and that was that, "I'll check in the morning". Well, it was morning and she looked the same. She barely ate, but she did eat a little bit of spinach. She can still fly but I haven't heard her sing since last night. Her eye color has changed and she smells a little bit different. I didn't see her throw up much except just now when I went to take pictures. There was watery discharge, and as it was coming out, it was foaming up a little bit. She does look a tiny bit better than yesterday, so that gives me some hope. I am putting down pictures. I have never been to a vet before and don't know what to expect. I hope anyone can help here, she is only approaching 3 years of age now. I am attaching pictures for more reference. I have also put a picture of her poop if that would help. The early pictures may not be as useful, she was preening quite quickly. Thank you in advance.
 

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tka

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She needs to see a vet, preferably an avian vet or one who specialises in exotic animals. If you give us a rough idea of your location, we may be able to suggest someone who can help.

The vet will weigh her and physically examine her. It's easiest to weigh the little guys by popping them in a box which you then put on a scale. Subtract the weight of the box and you have the bird's weight.The vet will listen to her heart and lungs, examine her eyes, nares and ears, feel her keelbone to assess how much muscle she has, part her feathers to look at her skin, check her cloaca, and stretch her wings out to look at the feathers and test range of movement. She may be towelled for part of this to allow the vet to hold her more securely - birds don't usually like this but it won't hurt her, and avian vets are very good at conducting a thorough but quick physical exam.

The vet will visually examine any vomit and droppings. They may suggest additional testing, for example for bacteria and/or yeast in her crop, or for bacteria in her faeces.
 

tka

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Posted before I finished...

Birds often hide how sick they are until they are too sick to hide it. You sound like a very attentive carer and the changes you've noticed suggest that a vet visit is in order. It's better to go and get told it's nothing rather than convince yourself that it's fine only for it not to be.

I hope your little one will be okay.
 

fluffypoptarts

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I would be running to the vet. Birds can deteriorate so fast and any sign of illness that is at the point of being observable is significant.
 

Lady Jane

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Vet will likely do a test called gram stain to check for bacteria and yeast. Vet swabs the crop and smears the swab on a prepared slide. Then looks at the slide with microscope. Let us know how the vet visit goes.
 
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