Weirsh Bird
Walking the driveway
I've been noticing a definite trend in my young Zebra Finch that I've been handraising since she was 8 days old, and I'm getting seriously frustrated and upset about her health. My current major issue is the fact the cannot seem to drink water properly most of the time. She breathes a bit heavily normally, gets reeeally worn out and breathes really heavily after even a short flight, and scratches at her face and nose a lot, so I'm going to treat her for air sac mites as soon as the medicine comes in. She also spends most of her time hopping around the floor of her cage, but gets on her low perch occasionally. She eats like a PIG without any difficulty.
Drinking is another story, however. She was drinking ACV water out of a tiny little crock on the cage floor, and not every single time, but MOST of the time, when she drinks water out of it, if she does little tiny sips very carefully, she is ok. If she gets excited or tries to splash in it, or take a big gulp, she starts immediately coughing, choking, sneezing, blowing little bubbles of the water back out of her mouth, and then gets really stressed afterward, breathing really hard, making breathing sounds(gurgling, clicking) from either her chest or nose, I can;t tell. Depending on how bad the incident was, she continues to do this for a few mins to a few hours. Almost immediately after this happened today, I noticed a tiny bit of clear fluid welling up in her nostril, esp. the left one, so i took a tiny Kleenex, made it into a point, and wicked it out of there. It was not musousy, but clear, looked like water...and smelled like her vinegar water. I HATE seeing this happen, it breaks my heart, and she is getting visibly stressed when she knows she has to drink. I am switching her to a water bottle now, in hopes that will prevent such big gulps, but she drank from it tonight and still followed it with a breathing episode.
Has ANYONE seen ANYTHING like this before?? What does it sound like to you? Could she have a physical formation problem causing this?? I'm just so tired of seeing her go through these episodes, and the vet I took her to last week said there werent many tests he could do because of her size. It breaks my heart to see my poor baby dealing with this, and I have no idea how to fix it. I end up just having to comfort her through the bad times. Her body weight is back up, before doctor visit last week, she was down to 9grams, now she weighs 13! Her poops are back to normal after a course of Baytril, but she had wet vent.
Another thing to note, she actually started having this response after some hand feedings and some medicating sessions. Her crop during handfeeding, used to bloat with air. Please, somebody, give me a suggestion or advice. I love this bird and can't stand seeing this!
Drinking is another story, however. She was drinking ACV water out of a tiny little crock on the cage floor, and not every single time, but MOST of the time, when she drinks water out of it, if she does little tiny sips very carefully, she is ok. If she gets excited or tries to splash in it, or take a big gulp, she starts immediately coughing, choking, sneezing, blowing little bubbles of the water back out of her mouth, and then gets really stressed afterward, breathing really hard, making breathing sounds(gurgling, clicking) from either her chest or nose, I can;t tell. Depending on how bad the incident was, she continues to do this for a few mins to a few hours. Almost immediately after this happened today, I noticed a tiny bit of clear fluid welling up in her nostril, esp. the left one, so i took a tiny Kleenex, made it into a point, and wicked it out of there. It was not musousy, but clear, looked like water...and smelled like her vinegar water. I HATE seeing this happen, it breaks my heart, and she is getting visibly stressed when she knows she has to drink. I am switching her to a water bottle now, in hopes that will prevent such big gulps, but she drank from it tonight and still followed it with a breathing episode.
Has ANYONE seen ANYTHING like this before?? What does it sound like to you? Could she have a physical formation problem causing this?? I'm just so tired of seeing her go through these episodes, and the vet I took her to last week said there werent many tests he could do because of her size. It breaks my heart to see my poor baby dealing with this, and I have no idea how to fix it. I end up just having to comfort her through the bad times. Her body weight is back up, before doctor visit last week, she was down to 9grams, now she weighs 13! Her poops are back to normal after a course of Baytril, but she had wet vent.
Another thing to note, she actually started having this response after some hand feedings and some medicating sessions. Her crop during handfeeding, used to bloat with air. Please, somebody, give me a suggestion or advice. I love this bird and can't stand seeing this!