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budgies_are_great

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  1. Having just read a sickening story in the paper over here in the uk, I just had to create a thread for the poor bird. `A father killed his sons pet budgie during a drunken rage by throwing it against a wall over & over again untill the bird was dead` Apparently, in this mans defense, he said he wouldn't have done it had he not been drunk, as if that's any kind of bloody defence for carrying out such an act of cruelty! He's due to be sentenced later, no doubt he'll get off with a slap on the wrist, he should go to prison for what he did.
  2. We are way past feather plucking now as fas as Smarty is concerned, during the early hours she actually cut her chest & made it bleed She is breaking my heart but smarty is intent on causing herself harm We've got to the stage now where not wearing a collar is not an option, but the collars the the vet uses caused her skin to get all red & sore in the first place! In desperation my sister made some collars out of elasticated tubular bandage, the fabric is very smooth to the touch & so far she is okay with the collar on, it's not tight around her at all & she is eating & drinking & coming out of her cage when she wants. But I know we're just delaying the inevitable in that as soon as we take the collar off she would be back to self harming. At the moment her crop doesn't look air filled at all but still she's trying her hardest to bite & scratch at her skin & it's not just her chest & neck anymore she's going after, there's bold patches on both her wings too. I'll admitt I really hit rock bottom when I found her bleeding during the night, even had thoughts about putting her to sleep because this has been carrying on for 2 months & it's getting no better, if anything it's getting worse. We've spent hundreds of pounds on vet bills on test after test on Smarty, hospital fees etc but we're getting nowhere. I'm not saying the vet has made a mis-diagnosis as you can clearly see the crop certainly is enlarged sometimes, but I don't understand why she is intent on biting and cratching her skin away from where the crop is, like her wings for example. I don't want to give up on her, hence the collar being back on, but if this type of collar makes her skin worse then I really don't know what to do anymore . Anyone got any tips on what would make a good collar?
  3. Well since this all started back in december Smarty has been wearing a collar which the vet put on, we did take it off occasionally to let her preen herself etc, but we had to rush her to the vets last monday because the skin on the front of her neck & her chin was red raw & very sore, also had a bad infection there as well. Ever since she had the collar fitted she's tried to get it off & where she's trying so hard the collar is rubbing against her skin & making things worse. She also couldn't sleep well at all with the collar on, kept falling off the perch as she's falling asleep & that was very upsetting to watch. We did put a platfrom in her cage for her to stand on, hoping she'd go to sleep on there but the little sod wont stay on it, I also put a thick layer of cotton wool at the bottom of her cage under the newspaper to cushion her fall. The worrying thing now is, even though she's not wearing a collar she is still having trouble sleeping & slouches on the perch until she ends up falling off, or suddenly wakes up & stands back up straight on the perch, if you know what I mean. She is very tired all the time but I don't know how to help her with that, I wish she was more friendly, I'd let her lay in my hand & go to sleep or something, I used to have a budgie that liked to do that. Lack of sleep can't be doing her any good at all :/ Apart from looking a right mess, smarty isn't acting ill, she comes out of her cage often, plays with her toys etc & is a right pain to catch when it's medicine time. At least the cream we're rubbing on her skin is helping & smarty isn't having a go at her skin as much, but she hasn't stopped 100%
  4. Has anyone ever heard of Airophagia, it appear this is what Smarty is suffering from it's a very rare condition, in 25 years of being an avian vet, the vet said he's only seen 2 birds with the condition & smarty is one of them! There appears to be no successful treatment. Smarty looks alot worse than she did in the photo at the start of this thread, she wont stop using her beak to scratch & bite at her skin, especially around the crop & her neck, she just continues to self mutilate her skin around those areas. It's heart breaking because she's making her skin so sore, I just wish I could stop her
  5. I'd be surprised if it was down to that to be honest, she has loads of toys & does play with them alot, also has plenty of human company & also another budige for company (they are kept in seperate cages but in the same room & do fly around together). I actually think it may be down to the other bird & possibly stress but I'll hopefully know more when I see the vet.
  6. Well first off, merry christmas all, secondly I need advice urgently. I took Smarty to a local non avian vet over the weekend as she had a minor bald patch on her chest, but being a non avain vet they were fairly useless! Over xmas day she has got alot worse and will not stop scratching and pulling out feathers & below is a picture of how she looks right now What could cause her to do that to herself? I was lucky enough to get that snap of her as she is literally scratching that bald patch constantly & continuing to pull out more feathers, she's also made herself bleed in that bald area. The nearest avain vet is 60 miles away but I will be ringing them first thing in the morning as they have an emergency service so hopefully I'll be able to take her even though it's boxing day I don't know whether she's in pain, or just that the bald patch is itching like crazy, but is there anything I can do to help smarty in the mean time?
  7. Yes I know megabacteria is a fungal condition but as your probably fully aware megabac often follows on from a bacterial infection, that's why I was asking those questions!!! Think I'll stick to ringing the vets instead of doing that and asking people on her for advice as well!
  8. A little update on how Sky is doing, he only weighed 24 grams when we took him to the vets last monday, today he is 32 grams & doing really well. Went to visit sky last friday at the vets & while we were there the vet told us about Megbac-S & advised us to get some so we can use it in his drinking water, I've ordered some from over in the states as you can't get any in the UK! We were planning on bringing Sky home this friday as by then he would have had 10 days treatment by crop tube of an antifungal drug, but there's a postal strike starting in the country from tomorrow & lasting til early next week, so I need advice on whether we should bring the budgie home or leave him in the vets as it's now going to be the end of next week until the Megabac-S will arrive. We've also been putting antibiotics into Smarty's water while Sky has been in the vets, just as a precaution in case she passed something onto sky. I'll admit I've been counting the days til sky comes home & I did have my heart set on picking him up Friday, but what would everyones advice be, would it be okay to bring sky back home on Friday & then start putting the Megabac-S in his water when it arrives, or would it be safer to leave him at the vets so they can continue giving him the Antifungal drug by crop tube. Another question, my other budgie who's missing sky alot I can tell (Laughing out loud), would it be safe if he drank water treated with Megabac-S, or should I only let Sky drink it. Reason I ask, budgies will be budgies as you know & they're forever flying in the other birds cage & eating out of their food bowl & drinking their water! Or should I just put the Megabac-S in both budgies drinking containers.
  9. On saturday afternoon we took sky back to the vets so they could keep him in as it was obvious the antibiotics weren't working, we had him under a heatlamp as well but he just wasn't improving at all. A little update, it is megabacteria and sky is now on a 10 day course of treatment. He's responding well, is eating on his own & doesn't need force feeding so things are looking up. I Hate to think I've got another 10 days til we can bring sky home but at least he's now getting the treatment he needs. Here' something I'm very concerned about though, I also have another budgie, smarty, who is healthy & chirping away as I type this, but what is the chances that smarty passed on megabac to sky? @Nerwen, yes Baytril was the first medication the vet gave us. To the others who say I should find another vet, well after reading my posts again I probably didn't paint too good a picture of this vet, plus I haven't written down absoutely everything that's been going on. Sure it took longer than I would of liked for a firm diagnosis, but at least now Sky is getting the right treatment
  10. God what a nightmare, rang the vets yesterday (thurs.) only to be told that the results weren't known yet & to phone back the next day, well after ringing the vets a number of times today I finally get a call back to tell me the test failed, possible due to faulty equipment etc, so we still don't know what exact antibiotic sky needs to get better So they're going to do the test again, but as it takes 48 hours to grow the bacteria or whatever it is they do, that's now monday until I can get a firm diagnosis of what is wrong with sky. To make matters worse the avian vet wasn't in today & he's not back until monday so I couldn't even ask him some questions. I'm worred sky wont even be here by monday, since last sunday he is hardly eaten more than a handful of seeds, I'm really worried this bird is starving to death :budgiedance: There's loads of seed in his food bowl, plus lots of pellets which the vet told us is better for him than trill budgie seed but he never did like that, even when he was healthy. He keeps going to his food bowl, maybe eating a few seeds but then he goes down the bottom of his cage & looks like he's looking for food down there, as if there wasn't any in his food bowl, which is full!! I do have a heat lamp on him but sky is all fluffed out all the time now, whether he's under the heatlamp or not. We're also off to the vets in the morning as we said we wanted to try another antibiotic, just be pot luck right now as to whether it's the right one until the test is completed, but he's not responding to the medicine he's on at the moment, that's baytril & Septrin we've now tried with no improvement. I could use any advice any of you might have about getting sky to eat, he's obviously hungry but he's hardly touching any seed
  11. Well there's a possibility my new budgie could have megabacteria, I can't believe it & I hope and prey he's just got a normal bacterial infection which can be cured with some antibiotics, a test for psittacosis has already come back negative & tomorrow I'm expecting a call from the vets to find out just which bacteria is causing sky's illness so they can identify excatly which antibiotic to give him. Sky was a baby when we got him so he can't be more than a few months old & to think he may have megabacteria is just heart breaking as I lost a budgie through that last year & it's a horrendous illness. While we were at the vets, he took sky off and had a look at some droppings under the microscope & he did say he could see a bacteria which looked very much like megabacteria, but it wasn't a 100% match so it may be something else. Is it normal for such young birds to suffer with megabac? I've had budgies as pets since I was a child, & up until pepsi I'd never had a bird suffer with it, & now to think I may have another one with the condition. Below is a couple of pics of the new addition to the family, and I hope he's with us for a very long time
  12. For anyone in the west country, there's a great avian vet in swindon http://www.gwreferrals.com/index.asp The vet you want to see is Neil Forbes. It's a 120 mile round trip for us to take our budiges there from where we live but it's worth it as he knows what he's doing P.s. I hope it's okay to resurrect such an old thread but I thought I'd post in here instead of creating a new topic
  13. Nobodys blaming the budgies, I'm pretty sure I would of became ill first if it did have anything to do with the budgies as I have the most contact with them, I just couldn't remember if it were possible for any illness to pass from budgies to people.
  14. okay I'm not blaming either of my 2 budgies or anything (Laughing out loud), but there's 4 poeple living in this house & 3 of us all went down with a nasty cold within a day of each other. We all have close contact with my budgies, except for my dad & he's not gone down with any cold etc & I just can't remember nearly all of us going down with a cold all at the same time, could just be bad luck though What I'm wondering was, is there any diseases that budgies can pass onto humans. Cassy I've had for nearly 6 years, but smarty I've had since april, neither shows any sign of illness, they're both as chirpy as ever
  15. Spot the Difference (Laughing out loud) This is Smarty, We've had him nearly 4 weeks.
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