Urgent Valium in nare

[Alien J]

My Oscar is going to the vet on Tuesday for an X-ray and a blood draw. They have instructed me to squirt a syringe full of valium into his nare 1/2 an hour before we leave home. I am very nervous about doing this. Has anyone ever had to do this??

 

[April]

That's a bit odd,when Nala had to be sedated with drugs in the nares(not sure what kind) my vet did it and I sat and held her in the room as she fell asleep.

@Macawnutz @MiniMacaw

 

[Deleted member 57370]

Valium for birds?!

Poor Phoenix is such a baby when it comes to going to the vet to get his nailed trimmed or even for a simple exam, that my avian vet has suggested using these valium drops that she could put in his nose. She is scared he is going to have a heart attack, seizure, or stroke or something. I think I...

forums.avianavenue.com

 

[Alien J]

Actually, after looking at the syringes she gave me (there are two in case I mess up the first one) the medication is called Midazolam. She said it was like valium. I'm going to call her Monday and see if we can bring him in earlier or make the appointment for later and have them do it. She was great with Oscar and said he tolerated the entire exam well (I was there for most of it till she took him in the back to get a better look at his tail base area). He only had a problem as she examined that area. Seems he has pain there which is probably why he's not grooming his tail feathers.

 

[Deleted member 57370]

If you are uncomfortable, I think that's a great plan . I think if they can give it 45 min before appointment it should be good

 

[Alien J]

@Pixiebeak
I had asked them about the timing. The instructions were to administer the medication 30 minutes before leaving our house for the appointment. It takes us almost 2 hours to get there. I was afraid it would all wear off before we got there anyways. So I called and they rescheduled me for March the 8th as a drop off. That means we drop him off around 7:30 in the morning and pick him up around 3:00 in the afternoon. Then they called me back and rescheduled me to March the 12th because they had made a scheduling error. So now he's not going in until March the 12th.

Here's a couple recent pictures of him. I tried to get more of that lump that's at the base of his tail that made me think it was a clogged preening gland. Also his right wing is drooping more and more.

 

[Deleted member 57370]

Gosh darn , I definitely don't like those wing drops! And his general lack of self feather maintenance ...

Wing drop is general weakness, often weakness from sickness... that one picture where he is resting wing on perch , really worries me

Has he lost weight? What to poops look like?

 

[Alien J]

@Pixiebeak (forgot to quote your reply )...

It's odd because his wings don't always droop. He weighed the same at this vet visit as he did at the first one, 300 grams. However, his keel has no meat around it. It's very sharp and prominent (when you feel it). His right wing is the droopier one. The vet said his keel bone is that way because he doesn't fly. He does hang on the side of the cage and flap vigorously, but he doesn't do it very often. When we get home (I'm at the surgical clinic with George right now) I'll send a picture of his poo. It's been the same since I got him. I just wish we could get in sooner than the 12th. I'm very worried about him. Can't go to a different Avian vet as the nearest one after Charleston is in Elkins, WV which is close to 4 hours away.

 

[Alien J]

Gosh darn , I definitely don't like those wing drops! And his general lack of self feather maintenance ...

Wing drop is general weakness, often weakness from sickness... that one picture where he is resting wing on perch , really worries me

Has he lost weight? What to poops look like?

As promised... Poo pics! And a couple more of Oscar taken when we returned home today. Here you can see his wings aren't so droopy.

 

[Deleted member 57370]

Need to see fresh poop.
But can tell good fecal volume and shape , and seems to have urates present .

300 grams????? A typo???? My largest has been 125 grams

Even tho not always wing drop , that's just because when they alerted on concentrate they bring them up . But if has issues will drop when not watching, or not trying to hide.
But he always looks kinda partial fluffed . You have seen how mine look sleek when alert active , doing their bird things . Only fluff a little at rest , or if it gets cold in here. Which it's chilly for us right now ! Had a forty degree temp drop today

 

[Alien J]

Holy cow! 40 degree drop! We had about 15, but 40! Darn! Could his wing drooping issue be related to his lack of chest muscles due to not flying? The vet said his heart and air sacs sounded good. I'm sure he's got some nutritional issues having been fed people food a lot (at least by his last caregiver.). The chart says he weighs .300 pounds.

 

[Alien J]

Si, actually he's 131 grams.

 

[Deleted member 57370]

Holy cow! 40 degree drop! We had about 15, but 40! Darn! Could his wing drooping issue be related to his lack of chest muscles due to not flying? The vet said his heart and air sacs sounded good. I'm sure he's got some nutritional issues having been fed people food a lot (at least by his last caregiver.). The chart says he weighs .300 pounds.

I'm sure nutritional issues are in play .
But lack of pectoral should not cause wing drop. Birds that are kept clipped ( terrible in mho) don't have wing drop .
He definitely could have fatty liver .
Has he had blood work and chem panel?
What's his age?

 

[Alien J]

As far as we have been told he's 11 or 12. He'll be having a blood panel done when he gets his x-ray on March 12th. I've been concerned about fatty liver disease myself. He absolutely recognized potato chips and pizza when he saw them! The lady I got him from, the one who was feeding him mostly salted, made for human consumption pumpkin seeds said, "He will eat food from our plates". She didn't specify what foods, but I doubt they were good ones.

 

[Deleted member 57370]

He could be much older. Could be the she said but terrible nutrition is catching up.
Your a great bird mom, sbd getting the blood level and X-ray, hopefully is going to get you answers.
If he comes back with elevated liver enzymes, I would still do a round of antibiotics because of the inflammation they often have a bacterial liver issues to. As you know I do not like baytril. Just putting that out there

 

[Alien J]

@Pixiebeak (I keep forgetting to quote your messages!)
There's no way of telling how old he may really be. Idk where the lady I got him from got the age. Could be they just said 12 so someone would think he had a lot of years left. It really doesn't matter, I just want him to not hurt and be as happy as he can be. He's really a much different bird now then he was back in September. He's always playing and very active. Hardly ever "feeds his feet" anymore. Flirts with me. Plays games with me. He's just so sweet. I hope he can be with me for a long time. I just wish we didn't have to wait 12 more days to get this ball rolling. She (the vet) also didn't trim his nails while we were there, saying she would do them when she did the X-ray and now he has to wait. He has that one deformed talon and it's too long now. I liked the first Dr we saw there better.

Btw, what does sbd mean?

 

[Deleted member 57370]

Sbd is and and my phone always thinks it needs to switch to typo ugh

I love how much better he is doing with you! Awww so sweet !
Really fantastic anxiety weird thing quakers do with feet is down .

My girls will do feet stuff when excited, or nervous...must mean something to quakers some kinda communication thing