One of my budgies is sick & I can't get in to see an avian vet until Tuesday evening. Realistically, she has been sick for a few days now, and now I'm kicking myself for not taking her sooner. At first I thought she might just be going through a heavy moult, but it is very clear now that that is not the case. She spends pretty much all her time sleeping, she is fluffed up, has *definitely* lost weight & she's not eating the way she used to. Her vent is not blocked, and her droppings by & large seem normal (she is currently quarantined, but until yesterday was with the other 5 budgies so it's difficult to tell). I am so worried that she is going to take a turn for the worse before I can get her to the vet. What measures can I take in the meantime to keep her comfortable? Warm? Eating?

 

Bennie girl is my budgie that I adopted with a birth defect (she does not have any claws, just "stubs" for feet so to speak) & she has always been smaller than the others. In spite of this though, she has shown complete drive & determination to prove that she *IS* a "normal" budgie....she will continuously try to perch anywhere the other birds do (including plant stems which she can't grip), and no matter what she will always flap her wings to her heart's content to keep up with them flying about. She's only a year & a half...I'm taking the determination she's taught me she has & I want her to know that in this time of need, that I'm determined to show her how much her life means.

 

Please help :dbb1:

I would advise you to get her in early tell them it is an ER because I honestly don't know if she will hold out for a couple more day. Budgies go down very quickly and usually don't get better on their own.

 

Right now keep her cage covered, keep her warm and call the avian vet today.

I agree, definitely try to get her in as an emergency if you can. Some vets will even sqeeze a very sick bird in between appointments (which is what I had to do with mine).

 

Keep her warm (maybe a towel under the cage with a heating pad under that, set on low). You can also use a lamp on one side of the cage so she can go to it if she feels the need.

 

Another thing you can do is get her to take some fat free, plain yogurt to boost her digestive system incase it's some sort of GI infection. All of this is just secondary to what she really needs: a very very speedy trip to the vet. She's probably been sick for a while and this is the time when they're most likely to crash.

Thank you both of you for your quick responses. I have managed to find an animal hospital with an avian vet that will take her tomorrow afternoon. I have a heating pad of sorts set up under her cage & under a towel (it's one of those heating bags you put in the microwave for a few minutes). How would I feed her the yogurt?

:ausb: Oh dear, hang on little Bennie, hope everything turns out okay. :dbb1:

Thank you Phoebe. Throughout today I have noticed that she is still trying to eat which is good, but she's struggling with it - from observation it seems almost as though she has something stuck in her throat which is preventing her/causing her difficulties. I have had her out of her cage as well (partially b/c any time I put my hand in her cage to make sure it wasn't too warm or to move her food etc she would *immediately* run over & try to jump on), and as soon as she's out the poor girl immediately scuttles into any position which allows her to be the closest to my body as possible in order to stay warm. She is also making these small noises, sometimes they sound like she's having difficulty breathing, but mostly they just sound like little chirps of "help me." It's so disheartening feeling like there's not enough that I can do to help her right now.

I am sorry, poor little thing. Please keep us informed as to how it is going with her. Good luck.

Shell

The best thing to do is keep her warm. The hospital cage is a good idea. I had to make one recently and my instructions were to put the heating pad under the cage, set on medium. I sandwiched the heating pad between hand towels so the table and the plastic part of the cage would not be exposed directly to the heat. Cover the cage on three sides. The internal temp of the cage should be at least 85 degrees F. If you don't think the cage is warm enough, use a lamp that you can position the arm on to shine on one side of the cage. If she gets too warm she will move to the cooler side. If she wants to snuggle with you, I would let her. :bluebudgie: She sounds like she is a very resilient little girl, and hopefully she can hang on a while longer.

 

Is there any chance she might actually have something stuck? Is she still trying to eat today? Please let us know how the visit to the vet goes.

Good luck. I hope she will be able to hang on til then. Our thoughts are with her.

Thank you all of you for your help, input & kind thoughts. It is with a very heavy heart that I write that Bennie girl passed away last night at 10pm. It is still hard to wrap my head around it, as I truly believed & wished so hard for her to make it so I could get help for her. But it was too late. She passed in my hands while I was still holding her...she was so peaceful. It was hard to see & to experience, but it felt right to be there when it happened. I wrapped her in a cloth & told her I loved her one last time. She was a very special bird & I will never forget the love & the beautiful life that she shared with me. Originally named Bennett (as I was told she was a boy at the time of adoption), she truly did earn her namesake: Little Blessed One.

 

I'm sorry to hear. At least she died in the comfort of her family and with love.