Hannah

I thought I'd update... His droppings are basically just liquid now, with no poo, even though he's been eat a good amount (we've been giving him greens etc that he has demolished in seconds). We've spoken to the vet on the phone, he thinks Nibbles has a blocked gizzard, though no tests have been done yet as they involve him being force fed barium? and having x-rays done etc, and there is apparently a high risk of him dying trying to remove the blockage. My mum and I believe it could also be a caused by kindey failure, and he has what we believe could be liver failure aswell (he's bruising really easily on his beak, nails etc- signs he is not clotting properly) So yes. It's not looking good. We're a going to have a 'talk' about what we should do. We don't want him to go through pain, but either way- vet or no vet, he will; unless we put him to sleep. If we take him to the vet and get him to find out what is wrong, he'll go through pain, he would probably have to be hospitalised for 3 days and force fed. If we don't take him, well, need I say more. But maybe, just maybe he'll get better.. I hope he knows I'm sorry :gday:

Another update. Nibbles is still going good, although I woke up one morning to find blood on the side of his face, but it turned our to be a bloody feather that he must of rubbed to hard or something. We are now starting to think the Nibbles may have diabetes. This is because every time we put him back into his cage after a play (not necassarily a long play) he will have quite a big drink, and he gets out of his cage about 6-8 times a day, so it accumulates to a lot by the end of the day. Also because his poop's are very watery, and sometimes there is no feces, just a puddle of cloudy urine. We will reasearch about diabetes in budgies a bit more, and then perhaps take him to the vet.

Yesterday he had a bit of a poopy bum, but otherwise he was okay. Today he's good, no poopy bum, eating plenty and giving kisses He's still taking naps during the day, but the vet said this is okay. Regarding the apple- we cut the core out and chop up the fruit only for him to eat, so it shouldn't be dangerous. It's one of the only fruit and veg he likes..

Thanks Maesie He's picked up and is singing on his perch, so I hope he's feeling a bit better. He looked so terrible before, he sat on my mum's tummy (she had a water bottle under her jumper) for an hour just rocking all fluffed up with his eyes closed and we really felt that he was going to take his last breath and die. But thankfully he didn't, I wasn't ready to say goodbye. Vets are open on Monday, so he just needs to stay strong till then.

To be honest, he hardly gets fruit and veg, at the most he'd have about 5 budgie sized bites of apple once a fortnight, but he has more grass. He has sprouted grass everyday.. so I'll cut down on that. Thanks for the apple cider vinegar suggestion, we've got some in the fridge (:

He's got a seed based diet but we give her fruit and veg etc. The only thing that could of set the vomiting off, would of been a piece of grass from our garden that eat ate half and hour before?. But he's had that grass so many times before, it'd be odd if it was the cause. But you never know, there could of been something on it, even though we washed it and its grown in our garden. Clueless

Thanks He's picked up a bit. He looked like he was about to die for about and hour, but then he started to preen himself and become more active. He's in his cage now, next to a heater and has been eating but we know he's not 100%. WE have no idea what could of caused this, he's been sick for the past month and hasn't really been 100% for a while now, but this is the worst I've ever seen him. He was vomiting here there and everywhere. So it's touch and go from here on, I hope I don't wake up on Easter to find my poor little fella dead. I feel so sorry for him, because he must feel terribly sick.

Nibbles has just had a vomiting fit. We can't get him to the vets because the avian vet is closed today and I'm sure most other vets are closed as well, and its raining outside. He's sitting on the laptop write now which is warm, were trying to move him to a heater, but he doesn't want to move. I'm so utterly miserable right now, and I'm barely holding it together. Is there anything I can do?

I always thought females were more of a biter that males..? Anyway, I'd say male. I have a male budgie, and he does a pretty good job of imitating wild birds, house hold appliances noises etc.

Well, it's day 3 of the antibiotics and he's supposed to be coming off them tomorrow. We haven't seen any improvement. He's had some good times, but today he's been looking very lethargic and sleepy. His poo's also seem to be the same as they were before. Sloppy with a sort of coating on them We'll have to see what happens, but to be honest, we really can't afford to keep having to pay $300 every time we go to the vet and this will probably be a reoccurring thing as his metal poisoning before has really weakened his immune system.

Well, day 2 of antibiotics- and Nibbles is looking worse. Would of expected the antibiotics to have kicked in now, because they did straight away last time and that case was worse. Mum's going to go back to the vet tomorrow.

Got the culture results back today, and he's got staphylococcus again, last time it was in the crop, but this time it's in his throat. The bacteria in the poo was found to be dead. Not sure how he got it, and why it is affecting his poo when it's in his throat and last time when it was in his crop his poo's were normal. He's on antibiotics for the next 3 days. With regard to the water container- we use those water dispensers that a tubes that attach onto the side of the cage. We've been replacing his water 3 times a day and washing it with boiling water and sometimes detergent, so I don't think it could of been from that. We really have no idea how he got it back, but hopefully this will be the last time it occurs. Spent $1000 on vet fees in the past 3 weeks, so mums not liking the idea of having to take him to the vet any time soon.

It's just the testing of the poo, I think. Not to sure..

Back from the vet. News- The vet found bacteria in his poop when they did a poop smear. No idea how he got it We are getting his culture test back tomorrow, and he'll have to go back on antibiotics. He also may have a infection near his vent. He had to have a crop wash which he didn't enjoy. But all in all, its alright news I guess. At least nothing is drastically wrong. I feel sorry for him though, he's been through a lot in the past month.

Yeh, we're going to. He's sleeping right now, and doesn't seem to be 100%, so it's the best thing to do.

Yeh, I think they're safe. Your budgie probably would chew at a cord if it found one. I know my budgie sometimes try's to chew the mouse cord on my computer. So you'll need to keep your eyes on him/her when he/she is out.

I don't see why not, but I think budgies like to be in a social environment, and like to see what's going on etc. They like to be near people, so if you were to be in the living room with other people/family, I'd bring your budgie with you so he/she doesn't get lonely.

I think we are going to be taking him to the vet tomorrow, but if anyone has any ideas of what this could be, I'd really love to know.

As some of you may know, Nibbles was quite sick about 3 weeks ago. He's been his normal self lately, but in the past couple of days his poos have gone weird. I've search about budgie poos but none of the information I've found matches with what nibbles poos are like. His poos seem to have a white slimy coating on them. It's not the white bit of his poo that's mixed with the dark green part, because if you scrape at the poo a covering comes off, and reveals a normal looking poo underneath. He's perky, but hes definitely been sleeping more in the afternoon than he did before he got sick 3 weeks ago. Has anyone every had this with their budgies? Do you know what could be the cause of it? We've placed some QuickGel that our avian vet gave us into his water. He recommend us to give it to him whenever we were in doubt about his health. Thanks

Well he's still great today We're going out to by some stainless steel spiral rings, as stainless steel is okay for birds, to hang his toys off etc.

Thanks GB I might boil his water, but I think our water is pretty good here. He's great today. Eating and drinking well and his poos have returned to normal. Still keeping an eye on him as he isn't out of the woods yet, but he is so much better. No more vet trips for him hopefully, and only two days of antibiotics left!

Thanks He has seemed to perk up a bit since my last post. But I just don't know, he keeps going up and down.

Well, our hopes of him recovering soon have come crashing down. Nibbles is back to how he was yesterday morning. Sleepy, puffed up on his perch and his poos have puddles around them and a couple of times it has just been liquid. Vet is only open for 2 hours tomorrow 8am-10am. Hopefully he'll fit us in. Vets closed now so we can't call up for help either. I really do not know what has happen or what is causing it. He was basically his normal self all day and now- he's sick again

I'm happy too. After Monday he'll be off the antibiotics, and onto a week regime consisting of vitamins & minerals, supplements etc in his seed/water for the next two years Heavy metal poisoning is caused my the bird consuming either zinc, lead or copper. I just fed Nibbles his afternoon dose of antibiotics, but the white bit of his poo isn't forming and it's just this yucky yellow liquid (urine?). Hope it's just because he's had some wet food.

Well, he didn't end up getting his 3rd injection today, as yesterday he seemed to have a reaction to the injection. Vet said he should be fine with just two injections, but to call back tomorrow and tell him how he is going. He's so good today. If you looked at him you wouldn't think he was sick at all. He's singing away in the other room and he even wanted to come out of the cage today! Very happy He still on the antibiotics for a couple more days I think, so hopefully he'll be all recovered very soon