2budgies

:rofl:

Thanks Sailorwolf for your response. I agree that people shouldn't research their own health if they have a tendency to think they have everything they find. It's not helpful to worry about illnesses you don't have. I see your point. Don't worry, we were "frequent flyers" at our local ER the first few years of my daughter's life! Sadly the time I mentioned where she had to be checked for "Lamictal Rash" we waited so long that she caught a gastro bug that was going around the hospital and ended up too sick to stand! Years ago my daughter's Paediatrician thought she had a rare Syndrome (Schwachmann-Diamond Syndrome) with a poor prognosis and limited life expectancy. She had many symptoms that seemed to fit. He asked me to find out as much about it as I could, and thankfully I found that it didn't completely fit with her symptoms - kids with the condition are usually short and she's very tall! Also I spoke with some parents on a forum and was told that kids with this Syndrome tend to have a "look" about them which she didn't have. I was so relieved to find out that she didn't have it! We've since figured out what was going on with her, and now she's thriving. The best thing I ever did was take her to a Naturopath who specialises in Neurological Disorders and lectures at Sydney Uni. She helped a lot. Any internet research, or Googling needs to be done with an open, but questioning mind. Not all sources of information are reliable. It sounds like you and I both have the research bug! Good luck with your studies, I'm sure you'll do well! :thumbs_up:

Thanks Maesie we have to be well enough tomorrow to take the kids to the Australia Day Pet Show in Grafton or we'll never hear the end of it! I've spent most of today grooming our Toy Poodle, and I still need to wash the Aussie Shepherd and make the Poodle's costume! Everything seems to take longer when you're sick! I don't hate doctors, quite the contrary, but not all doctors are good - as in any other profession. I also think it's important to do whatever we can for ourselves- after all, it's our health! That's why this forum is so great - I have learnt so much more about budgies than I could have if I just stuck them in a cage with some seed, and went to a vet when they got sick. How many people wake up to find a dead budgie in a cage, only to replace it with another and make the same mistakes that lead to the first's demise? I remember all the budgies my Nanna buried.... :budgiedance: I love researching things and the computer is such as great way to keep up with the latest. My budgies are happy and healthy because of what I learn from the vast knowledge and experience shared by others on this forum.

Sailorwolf I disagree. I have had many incompetant doctors over the years - some that have risked my life through their lack of knowledge or carelessness, some that have done me permanent physical damage. I now have a wonderful GP (who is way too busy and hard to get in to see) who did further study to become an Endocrinologist but due to changes in his personal life, never sat the final exam. The only difference between him and a "qualified" Endocrinologist is that small piece of paper which to me means nothing! I stopped seeing my Endocrinologist many years ago when he told me that my body was destroying itself and the only thing I could do is prepare myself for the next likely auto-immune complication. I don't need to be paying someone good money to shuffle some blood results in front me and have a defeatist attitude when I plan on sticking around for quite a few more years! I now see my "unqualified" Endocrinolgist GP, and he is far more up to date with medical advances than the "qualified" guy ever was.A friend of mine had her children taken from her and was commited to a Mental Health Institution because the doctor wouldn't listen when she told him she had Lupus and needed treatment. Years earlier this same friend ended up in a coma because her doctor didn't believe she needed Thyroxine to treat her easily treated Underactive Thyroid. Most doctors know next to nothing about Auto-Immune Sydromes.My mother needed 5 blood tranfusions when her "qualified" Gynaecologist didn't stitch her up properly after surgery - he told the hospital staff that he was the only one to treat her and let her bleed for four days despite the pleas of other doctors and nurses. I was outside the operating theatre when the Aneasthetist rang his lawyer and asked "I don't think this woman will make it, will I be held responsible for Doctor *****'s stuff up?" She nearly died because of the Gyno's pig-headed arrogance!I delivered my own uterus (extremely rare thing to do) with my first born because my Obstetrician wouldn't listen to other medical professionals that there was a problem with the baby being Transverse and too big to turn properly. His response when I said I couldn't push any longer..."All women say that!" with a smug grin - his grin soon disappeared when he realised he'd have to stitch my uterus back into place. He had only ever seen such a thing in textbooks, and was never taught how to do it, so had to take an educated guess! He did ask my mother to take a photo as my legs were in stirrups (for his records) - he said: "That's the weirdest thing I've ever seen!" I went on to have further complications as a result of this doctor's botched effort. My daughter and I almost died because of the doctor's complacency! My daughter's first few years of life were a real battle with very poor health - we tried every diet recommended by her specialists from Mediteranean, to Elimination to Ketogenic, and along the way she was poked and prodded and misdiagnosed on many an occassion. Her Paediatric Neurologist has been very impressed with my proactive approach which has resulted in her Epileptic Seizures being controlled by an anti-convulsant dose 1/10th of what she should be needing for her age and weight - why? - because I Googled til the cows came home to find everything I could do to help her. By the way, when she came out in a dangerous Lamictal-induced rash, the attending doctor Googled to learn about it as he had never seen it before!These are all examples of "qualified" doctors' making human mistakes.I am perfectly capable of the academic rigor necessary to complete a medical degree, in fact when I was 16, a specialist of mine offered me a scholarship to become a medical researcher and work with him! But I personally dont need the piece of paper when I am just concerned with keeping myself and my immediate family well. In fact, I have more time to research the things that are particularly relevant than a doctor does - most doctors are sleep-deprived and overworked, with little time to update their knowledge.I could go on with thousands of examples of reasons why we should take an active role in the management of our own health, but I hope you get my point. A doctor is a human being and as such they can be careless, arrogant and ill-informed just like the rest of us. My experiences don't allow me to share your blind faith in the medical profession. When it comes to the wellbeing of my family and myself, I work with the professionals. There's much more you can do together than sitting back letting one man/woman with one viewpoint and set of experiences make such important decisions. (PS I know we don't have Rabies ) Thanks for everyone's advise and concern, we are a little less feverish today. We have just found out that there are others in the area with similar symptoms, so it looks like its probably just something nasty going 'round, not likely Psittacosis (thanks Kaz for sharing your Psittacosis experience).I can't wait to be well enough to think about finishing off the aviary and giving the budgies some room to move! :budgiedance:

My Alexandrine used to have heavy moults. One morning I found him lying at the bottom of his cage, barely moving, I thought he was dying. I put him in a smaller cage and kept him warm and gave him loads of attention and the next morning he was being rude and cheeky like normal! I hope that's all it is with Boris :rofl:

From what you described, the camera is focusing on the bars in front - instead of the bird. You can tell if this is the case the bars will be sharp and the bird blurry. You may be able to change your camera setting to a manual focus to get around this problem. An easier way is to change the metering to Spot Metering (for Focus) but you can also change the light meter to Spot focus and this may help too. not all cameras have these functions though. It could also be that you are too close, check in the manual the minimum recommended distance for the Macro setting from camera to subject. Make sure you have good light so that photos without a flash don't leave the lens open for to long as this will show camera shake and be blurry. Hope this helps

Your birds are so pretty! I especially like the colours of the last one, do you have any more photos of her?

Sweetpea!

Thanks, will do

Thanks Kaz, I think that rules Psittacosis out as only the children and I have had contact with the birds, my husband hasn't been near them, and he is sicker than I am. I am definately changing vets though, this is not the first time I've had dificulties/ridiculous expenses with this vet! We really want to be well for the Australia Day Pet Show in Grafton, our kids look forward to it and would be so disappointed if we couldn't take them! I've adjusted a cute singlet top that has printed on it "Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi !" for our Australian Shepherd, and still have to make a fancy dress costume for our Toy Poodle but it's the last thing on my mind at the moment - I'll need to clip her again too, she a furry mess! We've got to be well by then, we just have to!

Thanks, I may be barking up the wrong tree as the bird in question is very healthy other than a slight bit of red at the corner of her eyes (like our tear ducts only much smaller). I'm just desperate to get my husband and myself back to good health! Psittacosis is still a possibility, but after reading Kaz's link I'm not so sure - the bird is too healthy. Also, after more Googling I think it unlikely my husband could catch it from me, but he hasn't really been exposed to the birds to catch it from them. So maybe it is something else? It's near impossible to get to a doctor for testing at the moment, so I rang the vet to ask about testing/treating the birds. I was told: - $200 per bird - all would need to be tested - results would take 1-2 weeks - No Doxycillin until results are back and positive Since the bird seems perfectly fine, it's a lot of money and time that could be wasted when I really don't know why we're sick or if the birds have anything to do with it. If we haven't improved by Tuesday, I'll beg to see the doctor and get tested. Otherwise we'll keep up with the antibiotics (Keflex) and panadol. Whatever it is, we'll be glad when it's behind us! Thanks again, I'll let people know what happens.

My husband and I have been sick with severe fever and chills, migraine type headaches, joint pain, swollen glands and lately an unproductive cough. He is affected worse than me, but we are confused why we don't have any congestion or gastro that would usually go with fever etc. We have had some nausia and vomiting, but only when the fever is too high. We have both started Keflex antibiotics now. After Google searches to figure out what we've got, I'm concerned we may have picked up Psittacosis from our Cockatiel Comet we bought two weeks ago. It wasn't until I purchased a second Cockatiel that I realised the small patch of red in the corner of her eye is not meant to be there, and I've since read it can be a sign of Psittacosis. Of course I will get Comet treated, but I'm concerned as my husband is very ill, and I have an auto-immune syndrome which leaves me very vulnerable. I don't want to give up the dream of hand-raising birds, but I want us to get better SOON!!! Has anyone caught Psittacosis from their birds? Please help if you know about Psittacosis in humans!

Another attempt at Flash's tail feathers as promised:

Here's Flash after he escaped the cage as I was trying to take a picture of him. Isn't he cute! This one was on the flywire - Splat his tail feathers are mostly yellow with a few greys but no bars. I'd describe the grey tail feathers as looking like a shaded graphite pencil drawing, no patterns, just shading. Splat - let me know if you'd like me to have another go taking a photo under his tail. I don't know how successful I'll be because he's a fiesty little fellow, when he flew out I was like ! Only not smiling so much at the time! My husband's had a rough day - his fever's been out of control followed by periods of violent shivering and vomiting . I tried contacting our local Casualty and got the impression they'd let him sit in the waiting room for a few hours then tell him to go home and rest. So we took a shortcut - stayed home to rest! I hope he doesn't get any worse. His wounds from falling off his bike yesterday look pretty sore so I've got him wrapped like a mummy! Thanks for the well wishes, I passed them on and got a smile out of him

Yesterday I brought home a beautiful Pied Cockatiel "FLASH" who is a proven male (has fathered a couple of clutches). I suspect he may be split for Lutino as he has a small bald spot behind his crest. He's a real character, and his behaviour is very different to our Pearl Cockatiel "COMET". :hap: I'm hoping that means Comet is a girl, as my plans to breed the two later might not come off if she turns out to be a he! :hap: I'll add photos of Flash tomorrow, had two busy days- I spent yesterday afternoon (and plenty of $$$) in radiology having some tests done, and my husband fell off his bike this morning, so half the day at the doctor getting him patched up :hap: ! Still had some time for bird watching though!

Opal

I know what you're describing! My doctor recently asked me to try waiting for three months without an injection so that he could check some other problems I've been having. I felt very tired, teary, tingling fingers and toes, leg cramps, no appetite, fuzzy brain, pale purple colouring, unsteady gait and eventually lost bowel control. I got my needle just before Christmas, and swear I will never let anyone make me wait that long again! A few days after I've had the needle, I'm SO much better! Hmmm...I'm due for it again.....

I forgot to mention that Folic Acid masks Pernicious Anemia, so you might need to check with your doctor if you take it whether you should continue or not. It's no big deal, just makes it harder to see if the B12 deficiency is dietary or Pernicious Anemia. Good luck with the "GO-GO juice"! It can also be called Megaloblastic Anemia I think - because if untreated the blood sells get bigger and more sticky. There's plenty of good info online .

I have monthly B12 injections for Pernicious Anemia ( auto-immune disorder that prevents absorption). I've had them for over 8 years, and yes they help! I was pregnant when diagnosed, and feeling like I was going to die I was so tired, but because I have a thyroid problem, the doctor ignored the new symptoms - and my gut feeling! Luckily my blood test was mixed up with my daughters, so I got an urgent call from her Paediatrician and started injections immediately. Just as well too, as my son (I was pregnant with at the time) was unharmed. As I said, I felt really awful before the injections started, then three days later I hopped on a bike with two flat tyres and went for the first ride in 5 years! You should definately feel the difference if you're low ! Just make sure you relax your arm before the needle goes in, it can hurt more if you're tense. DEFINATELY WORTH IT THOUGH!

Thanks, they had good long lives

Can only hope all goes well. I was just like that with my daughter I felt preggers really early! My husband and I weren't sure if I'd be able to have kids so agreed to buy a bird baby if things didn't work out. After getting a devastating negative result from the doctor (the day my periods were due) when I was sure I was pregnant, we went out and bought a cockatoo. Three days later I got a positive! So I ended up with both bird and baby!

I'm interested in what answer you get, my cockatiel has the same toy! Thanks for your post, I was beginning to think I was the only one left on here tonight!

Lucky the cutie!

We look forward to some pics of the birds - and the hearse!

Good idea! Frozen green beans were the worst for me. My husband would open the freezer to get blood worm to feed the fish, and I'd have to leave the house for at least 1/2 an hour! Make sure your family spoils you at this special time - especially because morning sickness can be cruel! It will all be worth it in the end, just count down those weeks one by one!