Sudden death in 2 month old cockatiel

[lizmisssun]

Hello, I'm new here.

I just got my baby about a week ago... he was great ans friendly, loved cuddles and to chit chat. Was on a pellet and dried veggie diet burd food supplied by the specialty store... he has been spunky and all over wonderful. His bed time when he falls asleep is 7. I put him in his cage at 7 and covered three sides with a light sheet and turned his night light on... fast forward to 11 at night I hear a thud in his cage.... i look in the cage he is on the cage floor with labored breathing and not moving... his crest feathers were straight up, eyes wide opened and then squinted. His feet were unresonsive and he was breathing really hard... about 3 minutes later his wings opened wide his head turned all the way behind him and he fell over... and that was the end.
I have no candles in my house
No teflon
My pans that I cooked with at 4pm are ceramic pans
He wasn't in the kitchen with me
I have a carbon monoxide detector 3 ft away from the cage

I just don't know what I did wrong and am devastated. He was happy and healthy full of life jr caught me so off guard I can't help but to think I did something wrong.
Since he was so young I did not give him any people food and he was drinking water and eating normally his poops were also normal....
He was with me the whole day well every day since I got him and I read up on toxins to tiels and can't think of what it could've been....
Any help would be great.
I'm sorry.

 

[Hankmacaw]

I too am sorry that you had to go through such a traumatic experience. Don't blame yourself unless you have reason to - and you don't have that reason.

So many times these sudden deaths remain a mystery. There are hundreds of possible reasons he died. If you can, take him to your vet and have a necropsy performed. It probably will tell you the reason for his death and will do all of your future birds a great favor. You will know what to avoid.

I'm so very sorry for the loss of your baby. I know you loved him very much and will miss him terribly.

 

[Snowghost]

Oh I'm so sorry. How tragic. I don't enough about avian disease to offer any suggestions of the cause. From your description I truly believe you did nothing to cause him harm.

 

[Zara]

Welcome to the Avenue Liz, I´m very sorry for your loss.

Hankmacaw´s suggestion of a necropsy is a good way to get closure and also learn what happened.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

I’m so very sorry for your loss. It doesn’t sound like it was your fault, so please don’t blame yourself. Since you only had him a week, he probably had an existing condition that you didn’t know about. I know it’s hard when their precious little lives are cut so short, hang in there.

 

[iamwhoiam]

Very sorry for your loss. It's possible that he had an underlying infection or some kind of preexisting condition. You may want to have a necropsy done by a vet. Sometimes that can determine the cause of death although sometimes the results are inconclusive. Also contact the breeder or store where you got him from.

 

[lizmisssun]

Very sorry for your loss. It's possible that he had an underlying infection or some kind of preexisting condition. You may want to have a necropsy done by a vet. Sometimes that can determine the cause of death although sometimes the results are inconclusive. Also contact the breeder or store where you got him from.

Thank you for the condolences. I did contact the small locally owned pet shop, the owner cried on the phone with me. My little cockatiel had two other albino siblings at the shop she said are still doing great and I can come choose one of those babies to love if I would like. I loved the short time I had with my tiel Kevin and how much light and love he brought into my life. Today i have triple checked everything in my house from all of my cookware, to my oven down to installing more carbon minoxied detectors checking for natural gas by spraying all of my lines with soapy water. Inspected his cage from top to bottom.. If I take on the responsibility of loving and caring for another baby tiel I want to make sure nothing in my environment causes harm. I have looked up the symptoms of cockatiels in shock and he looked exactly like what others have reported seeing... If i do move forward on adopting another i know I am going to get a sleeper cage that will be not as tall incase the tiel falls off their perch, which I am not too sure how common that is...

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

I'm sorry for your loss too. As others have mentioned the only true way to know why your bird passed away would be a necropsy. Since your bird passed away last night I don't know how effective it would be unless you placed his body in a sealed container or zip lock bag right away. As difficult as it seems this is the protocol for going forward with necropsy -



The necropsy should be performed as soon after death
as is possible. In order to prevent dry feathers from insu-
lating the body and delaying cooling, wet the feathers
with a detergent and water solution. The detergent and
water also decreases the dispersal of feather and fecal
dust into the local environment, thereby decreasing the
transmission of infectious agents.
The body should be refrigerated, not frozen. Freezing
can create artifacts in the tissues that may seriously
obscure histologic lesions. P
ostmortem autolysis also can
obscure histologic lesions, so if necropsy cannot be per-
formed within 3 days, the body should be frozen, realizing that histopathology is likely to be compromised.


Information taken from this web page:

http://avianmedicine.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/26_necropsy.pdf

 

[lizmisssun]

I'm sorry for your loss too. As others have mentioned the only true way to know why your bird passed away would be a necropsy. Since your bird passed away last night I don't know how effective it would be unless you placed his body in a sealed container or zip lock bag right away. As difficult as it seems this is the protocol for going forward with necropsy -



The necropsy should be performed as soon after death
as is possible. In order to prevent dry feathers from insu-
lating the body and delaying cooling, wet the feathers
with a detergent and water solution. The detergent and
water also decreases the dispersal of feather and fecal
dust into the local environment, thereby decreasing the
transmission of infectious agents.
The body should be refrigerated, not frozen. Freezing
can create artifacts in the tissues that may seriously
obscure histologic lesions. P
ostmortem autolysis also can
obscure histologic lesions, so if necropsy cannot be per-
formed within 3 days, the body should be frozen, realizing that histopathology is likely to be compromised.


Information taken from this web page:

http://avianmedicine.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/26_necropsy.pdf

Thank you for the info. The only avian vet in my area is not doing necropsy's and is only seeing patients / interacting with people if there is an emergency due to Covid...
It happened so quickly he was in his cage settling for bed beak grinding etc... then he was sleeping and hours later he dropped to the bottom of the cage..

 

[Shezbug]

Gosh how sad, I am so sorry to hear of your experience and the loss of Kevin who sounded like a real little sweetie. It doesn’t sound like it was anything you did. If all your initial checks come up clear then I’d be thinking something was going on with Kevin or his fall. Please don’t blame yourself.

 

[sunnysmom]

I am so sorry for your loss. I am always concerned with new baby tiels that they sometimes regress and aren't eating properly. But you said he was eating and his droppings were fine so it doesn't sound like that. Without a necropsy, we would just be guessing as to what happened. It sounds like you were during everything right so please don't blame yourself. I do hope you decide to get another bird at some point. You sound like a very caring bird parent.

 

[pearlybaby]

I’m so sorry for your loss. Sounded like a sweet little guy
You took care of him very well and you shouldn’t blame yourself.