Hi...Not sure if I am putting this in the right place or not, since I'm new to this blog. I lost my 8 month old African Grey to PDD (diagnosis was confirmed with samples sent to a pathologist). I have other birds, but the one that is concerning me at the moment is my 4 year old Rose Breasted cockatoo.
Beginning 2 years ago, she started picking under one wing and between her shoulder blades. It was a frantic picking and always in the same spot. I took her to my vet and they didn't see anything and didn't run any tests. She stopped for quite a few months. She started again about a year ago and picked a sore under the wing where it attaches to her body near her back. I took her in (still no tests) and the vet said that it looked like a bacterial skin infection and he kept her for a week to clean the area, give her meds (meloxicam and trimethoprim). I brought her home and continued the meds. It continued, so she is now on meloxicam to stop the inflammation. She is still doing it, but my vet doesn't want to test for ABV because he says that the above are not symptoms of PDD or ABV. From what I have been reading, there are people who have PDD birds that have the exact same symptoms.
I am hoping that Dr. Echols can shed some more light on this. I have 2 very young birds in the living room with her and cannot stand the thought of losing any more of my babies to PDD. Thanks for listening.