sootie

Hi everyone, it's been a while. Hope you have all been well. I just wanted to recount my experience with my local avian vet — Django and I have been there twice in the past 3 days, and they have been nothing but warm and friendly, and intent on getting to the bottom of his illness. It all started when I was home sick last Friday. I noticed that Django was doing some unusual head-bobbing which seemed uncomfortable, and his sneezes sounded squeaky and rapid. If you weren't paranoid you'd have thought it was just a passing thing. Since I am somewhat of a birdie hypochondriac (always remember: when they start showing that their sickness, it's almost too late!) and I was home, feeling a little off but still well enough to go out, I made our first appointment with this avian vet clinic. Is it strange to say that I have always wanted to bring Django there for a routine check-up just to check them out?! They examined and weighed him, took crop and poo samples to examine microscopically and did gram stains. All good, he had a mild upper respiratory bacterial infection which is expected because he is currently going through a big winter moult. I got some oral antibiotics. Django seemed to respond well over the weekend, was almost back to his normal rambunctious self. Then this morning he threw up a pea-sized blob of yellow mucus which scared the heck out of me. I had just given him his morning dose of Entrotil. He shuddered and shivered, and was making choking motions for a good 10 minutes. It was before 9am so I couldn't call the vet yet. I called work and asked to work from home to monitor him. When I finally called the vet, Django's symptoms had subsided but he was looking fluffy and lethargic. The vet spoke to me personally, got all the details and booked me in for later in the afternoon, but also said that if his condition didn't stabilise, I could bring Django in as an emergency case. Django was sleeping most of the whole afternoon, I was really anxious. He ate some food but he seemed to drift in and out of sleep. When we got to the vet she did the same routine as before, and concluded that the antibiotics for the bacterial infection had brought through a secondary fungal infection, visible from his mucous crop stain (clear this time, not yellow) and poo. More antibiotics were prescribed, whee! She said that hopefully that was the end of his infections or else she'd have to start on his blood work. She said she'd had a strong suspicion it was either a secondary fungal or thrush infection after our phone call. Well, I just really wanted to say that it's great when you go to a vet and they are confident about what they're doing, and when they genuinely care for the sick animal. I have had experiences at my previous vet where the "avian specialist" would just pump a needle full of the strongest antibiotic and finish off with worming, and declare a clean bill of health. I felt reassured and confident of this vet's diagnosis, and even though I was really upset before going to the second visit, she made me feel so much better with her competence and even gave some tips on administering the oral treatments. So Django is on another 4 days of Entrotil, and another 9 days of Fungilin. He's getting spoilt rotten until the treatments finish, and he's got a heat lamp going to keep him comfy. Fingers crossed that he will be all right after this and that nothing else major comes up!!

So... the BF and I finally figured out why Django had been viciously pecking and biting our fingers every morning in the past month. He would refuse to come out of his cage, spread his feet out and not budge. It was literally painful to try and get him to go outside! It's because of a ball that hangs in the cage. He would sit next to it all day, play with it and talk to it. Yeah, we were a little slow to realise this. It's been a year since Ball entered Django's life. Ball's not even shiny, just has lots of holes around which Django uses to drag it around. A few days ago I moved the ball to the play-gym on the TV. Guess what, he was ready to go outside again! Since he was so happy to be out this morning, the BF left him on the play-gym and went to work. His cage door in the study is open, there's fresh seed and water and a radio playing. He flies back when he's ready (all other doors are closed). He's always back in his cage when we get home. What the BF did differently this time was to leave the living room lamp on and a seed belt with the play-gym. Guess what I saw when I got home at 6? A guilty budgie still at his play-gym with the ball, with a small mound of seed husks and droppings all around him. It was adorable but soooo naughty! Needless to say the little bugger is not hungry tonight. And we've learnt to not make the play-gym area too comfortable for him!

They are so cute, Jasper looks all grown up! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Kaz. Nevertheless will keep an eye on it just in case.

Hi everyone, Django's cere looks a little stained lately -- especially below the left nostril. I've read a few topics and they've all said it's a sign of hormonal imbalance/iodine deficiency or worse, testicular cancer. He's just finished a major moult that lasted about 2 months. Photo taken just 10 minutes ago: Django's still very chatty and active (more so now that it's warmer and more daylight!). Any ideas what's going on? Your opinions and thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Bogie is such a cutie! :question: I'm not sure if Moulting Aid is sold in the states --> link. You probably want to look out for a similar supplement and have a small supply for whenever he looks like he is about to start a moult. We accidentally found out that Django likes cheek rubs when he had just come home for 2 weeks. He was perched on my finger (and too scared to move) and I slowly scratched the back of his neck. He lowered his head and closed his eyes when I did that so he must've enjoyed it. Some birds grow out of liking cheek rubs but it's been about a year and half now, Django still loves cheek rubs and the best time to offer him one is just after he's finished preening. He's currently moulting and is really snappy so no rubs for now!

He's moulting so he probably doesn't like hands much at the moment. It's not your fault, he's just moody. While waiting out the moult, I would talk to him more often, make sure the ambient room temperature is constant, and put Moulting Aid in his water. If he doesn't want to interact at a particular time, just leave him and try again later.

With Django we roll small buds of millet spray up in paper and give the "package" to him when he's on the landing perch outside his cage. Most fun part every morning and he seems to love the anticipation of watching us roll it! Rips it to shreds in about 10 minutes.

Tammy is so cute, keep the pictures and updates coming.

Sootie was buried today in a little park not too far away from us. I still feel sad but my heart's a little lighter now that she's been laid to rest. I'll always remember the image of her sitting on her swing, fluffed up and clucking to herself.

I guess he just thought, Oh a bird just in the first week of quarantine, let me give all the preventative treatments, antibiotics and worming, etc. I'm not very happy with the way he treated her, to be honest. He did a faecal exam, checked her wings, keel bone, etc but didn't think there was anything wrong. He said the faeces portion was normal looking but the excess liquid did seem quite worrying. I felt her keel bone myself before and I knew it was quite pointy. He kept repeating textbook information (much of which I already know from spending time on BBC) and then sent us home. If we had a car I'd have gone up to Carlingford Animal Hospital where I know they are experienced with birds. This vet is the nearest and he especially treats and looks after birds in the clinic even though he's a general vet -- he keeps lots of birds himself and has treated Django twice this year. From my observations the most worrying thing about Sootie from Monday onwards was her consistently wet droppings, like puddles with a bit of green in the centre, and her lethargy. That indicated that she was not eating and not feeling well. Her cere and the feathers above it were okay.

Thanks everyone for your kind words, and thank you Dave especially for being so supportive and caring in the past few days. My partner and I are very upset about Sootie and have come to terms with the fact that we all did what we could and in the end, she had to go. It was a laboured departure but we tried to make her as comfortable as possible, and we kept telling her to let go and be free. Over the last weekend, Sootie was happily jumping around her cage and we even began hand-taming her. It was such a relief to see her adjusting so well and so quickly. She stopped eating on Monday and her health began a downward climb. We monitored her every day and kept a warm lamp on, then took her to the vet on Wednesday. He said that she was stressed and that because she had been drinking so much water (instead of eating seed), her kidneys were strained. Sootie got a penicillin injection and a worming treatment. Later that night around midnight, she finally gave up the fight. I don't know what exactly it was that she died from, but I can say that she was noticeably drinking water frequently in front of us. It was a short week we had with Sootie but we opened our hearts to her and will miss her very much. Jasmin

Congratulations, Kaz!! So sorry to hear about the last little one. Hope you get some well-deserved rest this weekend.

Aww, thank you everyone. :question: :bow: She's still a young chick but is responding well. She started eating seed today, which is a good sign as her plops have been watery from fasting. She's been preening, fluffing out feathers, and generally looking contented... all good signs! She's definitely a big cutie pie and she seems to like us as she moves closer when we speak softly next to her cage.

I'm very sorry to hear that, Glenn. :question: You couldn't have known since he had appeared healthy all this time. :bow:

Last week I PM'ed Dave_McMinn asking if he had any pet type budgies for sale as we were looking for a friend for Django. He said he did not, but had a small hen who would be perfect for a pet. A week later after numerous emails back and forth, we have a little hen sitting in quarantine, looking curiously around, who has the sweetest voice. Dave delivered her last night in person and refused to take any money for her or for fuel! I even asked him a few questions about Quiche. So... :bow: thank you so much, Dave! It's just her 2nd night here and she's already responded a little to our soft talking and will take a little bit of millet spray through the cage bars. I don't have any photos of her yet, but these are the ones that Dave sent me last week... As for her name, we decided tonight that it is Sootie. I feel :question: weird about it as it's my nickname here on the board, but she is grey after all and I was outvoted.

I'm so sorry to hear this, Hannah. Goodbye Nibbles, you were so loved, rest in peace.

digital single lens reflex.

:gday: I'm so sorry to hear this, Hannah. From what you've written, Nibbles is truly being well-cared for, you and your mum have shown that you will go to great lengths to have Nibbles healthy again. It's a difficult decision to make should things become so bad that it seems worse to treat the problem than to let Nibbles go. : Hope that Nibbles pulls through quickly, he sounds like a little trooper. All my thoughts are with you and him!

Hey alpaca-boy & Houman, thanks so much for your lovely comments! "Django" is pronounced with a silent D = "jango". The BF named him after the French gypsy musician, Django Reinhardt. Alpaca, your budgies are so much more expressive than Django is... he tends to sit around staring into space and even if he's playing, he'll stop once the camera gets close. And photo composition is really a matter of practice, you have really great examples here and I've learnt that shooting more photos will lead to much improvement in that area! You have done well with a point-and-shoot. By the way, I love the name "Alfalfa", and baby Alfalfa's colours! Some camera specifics if you are interested: I use a Canon EOS 5D (link) - it's a 2005 model and is the version prior to the current 5D Mark II, which also shoots HD video! The lens is the 50mm compact macro f2.5. The reason why I shoot with a higher end camera is because I do professional photo work on the side: food, lifestyle and portraits. I need the full-frame capacity of the camera so that I can use my existing lenses without compromising on the 1.6x crop factor of cameras that are more consumer-focused. Anyway... too much tech talk. If any of you are looking to start using dSLRs or want more info, I'm just a PM away. :gday:

No, the worming was not repeated after we got him from the breeder. I wasn't aware that there was a need to before this incident, and now I know better.

Some photos taken this year: He's become such a poser for the camera!

It's so adorable when they talk in their sleep. Django does it all the time, nothing to worry about.