Hi all,

 

I currently have a budgie in the fight of his life against trichomoniasis as well as a macrorhabdus infection. He is in his 4th day of intensive care at the vet and the outlook the vet has given me isnt a good one.

 

I found Chomp the budgie one day out the front of my house, walking on the footpath. After trying to find his owner, I decided to keep him and took him to the vet for a checkup, where she wormed him, checked his poop for macros and his blood for psittacosis, all of which came back negative. I then got him a friend, who I quarantined him from for 45 days and had him checked at the vet also (everything came back negative). I have no idea where Chomp came from and dont know anything about

 

Wednesday I woke my boys up especially early since I had an appointment. Chomp woke up very perky and ate his breakfast without any fuss or any problems at all. That evening I came home and noticed Chomp seemed to be sleeping a bit. He would wake up, play with his cagemate Jim, eat some food then nap again. I ruled his sleepiness down to being woken up so early and didnt draw any immediate conclusions - its not the first time I'd seen my boys napping. The next morning, Chomp seemed quite tired when I woke them up and thought he seemed a bit fluffy but he often is in the morning when he has just been woken. I came home at lunchtime and checked on him to find he was perched in the same place, still fluffed up. I got him to turn around for me and noticed he had vomited down his front.

 

I immediately packed him up and took him to the vet, where he fell asleep in his carrier on the way there (very unlike him). He tested positive for trichomonas in his crop and macrorhabdus in his feces despite both my birds initially testing negative. He was immediately treated with spartrix for the trich and amphotericin for the macros, with no improvement. She has continued treatment with both, and added in injectable antibiotics in an attempt to improve his condition as well as crop feeding. This morning there was no improvement, he is still foaming at the mouth from the trich and isnt eating enough on his own. She said that while there is a chance for him, she will perservere - he is still hanging in there.

 

I have taken Jim in to be treated incase he has it also but isnt suffering yet. He seems perfectly well and happy, but is calling out for Chomp.

 

Has anyone gone through this with their budgies before? Did you have any success in your pets treatment? Did they survive? I am at my wits end at the moment, I am willing to do and spend whatever it takes to get him better but I am not sure that there is much I can do. Any help?

I am so sorry to hear your Chomp is sick. trichomonas commonly known as Canker is quite common and easily treated. I have had a few birds get it during quarantine as its often brought out by stress. Ronivet is a very effective treatment. Macrorhabdus, also known as Mega or Avian Gastric Yeast, is a secondary infection which is often dormant in a bird until they get sick with something else.

 

Provided the Mega hasn't caused internal bleeding etc, Chomp should make a full recovery under the vets care.

Well done acting so promptly re. the vet. All the best and keep us informed.

You've really done all you could. I hope he makes a full recovery

Thank you so much for all your fast replies, I am finding this all so confusing. Everything I read about these two illnesses tells me that they are easily treated, and my veterinarian is one of the few vets registered in bird medicine in the country and she is stuggling with this. I hope I here some better news tomorrow.

Good on you for being alert and acting promptly. You have given Chomp his best chance. It is not everyone who will spend and do whatever it takes.

I think you did the best thing. I find that with vets and birds they never tell you that the bird could pull through more likly that the chances are slim. Like when i took flame in after she got attacked by my dog and for some reason started bleeding from the cere the vet was saying how basically the chances where not good yet two days later she was back to her normal self. When I took Harley in with Mega and everything else they kept telling me to be prepared for him not to make and and yet here he is sitting next to me. I hope your birds so make it, but remember that bird hid illness really well so through no fault of your own he might have been sick for weeks before you noticed, this is part of bird ownership and do not beat yourself up about it. Fingers crossed for you and your babies

Thank you all so much for your replies! Angelic Vampyre, I believe you will know who my vet is, it is vet #1 from a post of yours I saw around these boards. I am so happy to read your post, I think it must be so hard for vets with budgies since they are so fragile and go downhill so quickly.

 

Chomp was perched this morning, the first time he has perched in days. He is chirpier today than he was yesterday so he might be on the up. I didnt speak to the vet who had been caring for him today but I spoke to the other avian vet on duty, and he said that if they can get him over the trich, he will be fine. He has lost lots of weight and will need more feedings.

 

He reminded me of the state of my account and 'didnt know how far I wanted to go' - I told him I am not concerned with my account, as long as Chomp gets all the care he requires and gets the very best chance of survival. Even if he doesnt make it, I will be happy to pay that money knowing that he had the very best chance he could. I couldnt live with myself knowing otherwise.

 

He wants me to come in and have a chat to him this afternoon, I am not sure what he will want to talk with me about. If he tells me that he thinks we should stop trying, I will want to know the opinion of the vet who has cared for him so far first - the other vet thought he may have been dead yesterday when she came in but when Chomp perked up after getting his medicine and some food, she wanted to keep trying. It sounds as though the mega is under control, they are still just working on the trich.

 

Fingers crossed!

 

ETA: Also, please ignore the window to the left that says I am a budgie breeder, I clearly am not and dont know how to change it!

Edited June 15, 200915 yr by Carmen

Chomp sounds like a trooper, I admire your dedication and decisive action.

I went in and saw Chomp, the poor little guy is so sick. He sat in the corner of the little cage when I spoke to him and I had a little bit of a chat with him which perked him up a bit.

 

He started lying down on his sternum while I was talking with the vet which is a sign of extreme weakness. He has gone from 53g when I brought him in to 38g in 4 days. I told him that I understand how sick he is, but the report from this morning sounded so much more positive than yesterday which makes me think that he may improve.

 

He asked me that if he was not improving and losing weight tomorrow, would I consider euthanasia. After I explained to him how he had seemed to improve today, he then decided to leave the decision till tomorrow. He also said that being during the week, he will get better care than he would have gotten during the weekend since they are left alone for so long on the weekend - I didnt realise that after 12pm, they dont get any more crop feedings on weekends, which is possibly why he has lost so much weight.

 

God I hope he improves tomorrow.

Power of Positive thinking This weekend if he still needs to be crop feed then give me a shout. I have a crop needle and can either teach you how to do this or we can set something up at my house over the weekend that way we can make sure that he is feed a good two or three times a day.

 

Also as I said in my PM if tomorrow comes and they are still pushing to put him down get a second opinion.

AV youre a wonderful person. Thank you so much for being so considerate - we will see how he goes in the next few days, thanks again!

I went in and saw Chomp, the poor little guy is so sick. He sat in the corner of the little cage when I spoke to him and I had a little bit of a chat with him which perked him up a bit.

 

He started lying down on his sternum while I was talking with the vet which is a sign of extreme weakness. He has gone from 53g when I brought him in to 38g in 4 days. I told him that I understand how sick he is, but the report from this morning sounded so much more positive than yesterday which makes me think that he may improve.

 

He asked me that if he was not improving and losing weight tomorrow, would I consider euthanasia. After I explained to him how he had seemed to improve today, he then decided to leave the decision till tomorrow. He also said that being during the week, he will get better care than he would have gotten during the weekend since they are left alone for so long on the weekend - I didnt realise that after 12pm, they dont get any more crop feedings on weekends, which is possibly why he has lost so much weight.

 

God I hope he improves tomorrow.

How dare they tell you that... [no more crop feedings on weekends] after the event rather than give the bird back to someone who loves it [you darling] and is no doubt loved and could have given greater care... vets are idiots.

How dare they tell you that... [no more crop feedings on weekends] after the event rather than give the bird back to someone who loves it [you darling] and is no doubt loved and could have given greater care... vets are idiots.

 

 

I agree Richo I was incredibly disappointed when he told me that. Even if I couldnt crop feed him at least he would have been safe and warm in my house with someone watching over him.

ETA: Also, please ignore the window to the left that says I am a budgie breeder, I clearly am not and dont know how to change it!

 

I just fixed it for you. I figured you had enough on your plate at the moment... For future reference, go to my controls (top right) and edit your profile

 

I'm also sending healing thoughts to Chomp, and hope he continues to improve. Having a sick family member is never easy. Hugs xoxo

I do hope Chomp makes it. He sounds like a real little trouper.

It is very upsetting to think that he was left alone when he was so sick. That is a warning to us all to ask questions and not just assume.

I got off the phone from the clinic about 20 minutes ago, and Chomp is perching and moving around his cage today. He still isnt eating, but will keep getting crop fed. So, it sounds like he may have improved slightly on yesterday, yet I still dont know about his weight today. I will go in today at 2pm to check on him again, and talk to the vet about how many crop feedings he is getting a day, how many he got on the weekend, and his weight loss.

 

So I will talk to the vet again today, if he keeps pushing euthanasia on me, I will ask when the vet who had been caring for him will be back in. If he keeps insisting, I will move him to another vet who has been recommended to me if this particular vet doesnt seem to want to go the extra mile.

 

This current vet is getting on my nerves a bit. If Chomp appears to be improving and not as close to death as he has been in recent days, when the female vet was caring for him, why would be push for euthanasia? If he keeps this up, I will ask him if he is willing to do what it takes for this little bird. If I get anything other than a satisfactory answer, I will be very upset. The nurses who are medicating him are wonderful, they give me an update every morning and remember everything about his treatment, and about my other budgie Jim. I hope my normal vet is back in tomorrow.

The different attitudes between the two vets may simply be that one is male and the other is female. When possible try to deal with females. Generally better human beings.

The different attitudes between the two vets may simply be that one is male and the other is female. When possible try to deal with females. Generally better human beings.

 

Generally I have to agree with you Paul. Female GP's I've found are more caring and compassionate and believe females would make better vets too.

 

I hope Chomp continues to get better and comes home soon all happy & healthy again. Best of luck.

The different attitudes between the two vets may simply be that one is male and the other is female. When possible try to deal with females. Generally better human beings.

 

Tend to agree with you Paul, however unflattering to our gender. I'm sure there are some excellent male vets out there but some of the qualities we look for in a vet, [caring, nurturing, gentle etc] I'm sure come more naturally to women.

Interesting ideas! I think anyone who chooses to be a vet probably has certain qualities, regardless of their gender. Never thought of it as a gender thing before. I have been to both good and and bad male and female doctors... the only reason I prefer female doctors is because it's less awkward talking about women's health stuff with a woman than a man. Our closest avian vet is a male and it never occurred to me to care about that lol

*pumps hand in air for your little guy* okay he is not out of the woods yet but this sounds good. I find the Nurses there great there is one (she is blonde with glasses) who is really nice! Keep it up and as I said if it gets to the weekend and he still needs crop feeding we will work it out so he does not miss some feeds over the weekend.

I find that female vet's are better, seeing that they have more of the "feminine" and kindness attitude towards animals etc.

i suppose you could say they feel for the animal more then a male would. where as the male vet's tend to take everything so serious and such.

The issue that Carmen is seeing here is that the male vet in the practise is very good at his job but does not seem to understand people spending money on Budgies (and I have heard today he also has the same attitude with Love Birds) he is a big bird person and sees these little guys as disposiable. Which is sad.

 

Carmen don't worry you are not along in the way you feel about this guy. I was talking to a lady today who rang me as she knew about my semi shelter I run and asked for information on vets. She said they had taken her sick love bird in and the male vet had recommended putting him down in front of her two young kids. When she expressed her disintrest in doing this she says he basically told her why waste money on a bird like this you can just go buy another one cheaper then it would cost to treat this one and there is little to no hope of him pulling through. I sent her off to the other vet I recommend you to and again they have said little to no hope but they are prepared to give it their all.

 

I know that Dr Colin Walker at a club meet he spoke at said one of the hardest things that he has to deal with is a Budgie or small parrot owner will come in, say do whatever you have to to fix the bird they spend close to $1000 and the bird dies and then the people refuse to pay and say why would they spend that amount on a bird worth $30. He even said that a few times the bird has pulled through and people still refuse to pay but I guess that can happen with any vet with any bird or any animal. I went through my vet book the other day and worked out I have spent over $6000 on Harley in the 9 years I have had him with vet check up and medications and emergency care. I have spent at least $1500 on my breeders in the last year but I don't regret a cents of that (whats that I smell.... oh it's just my creidt card melting!)

AV, I totally understand that point of view from the non-paying side of things, which is why I have been keeping the account up to date. What I found interesting was that the male vet quoted me what I had spent so far, not what I owed, which showed his true colours to me.

 

 

 

Just visited Chomper, he is still very sick but the female vet was in today so I was happy. She said that she did another crop wash and found no more signs of the trich or the original gram positive bacteria that was in his crop. What she did find in the crop wash was a gram negative bacteria, so basically he is so sick at the moment anything that is going around, he is getting sick from. He is still doing green runny poops and has some vomiting which would be a sign of bacterial infection. She said that she was worried that what she had been giving him may have been beginning to knock him around so she said she decided to change her strategy otherwise we would lose him. What she is going to do now is rather than inject him with antibiotics, she is going to deliver a special anti-gram-negative-bacterial directly to his crop to try to save him. He really isnt eating anything at all. She thinks that at the moment what we have been managing to do is keep him alive rather than get him better, so it sounds like this is a last ditch attempt to get him well, hopefully if we clear up the gram negatives, he will start to come around.

 

The nurse who took him in when I first went in (the blonde girl with glasses) said she is amazed at how much of a fighter he is. She thought that he might die overnight on Thursday when he came in, but now he is perching and trying his hardest. He leans up against the side of the perch and keeps falling asleep then waking up again when he almost falls off. She tried to pat him on the head and he got grumpy her, I laughed and said "Thats my Chomper". He's such a funny little boy, I hope he gets better. He is trying his very hardest to at least.

Edited June 16, 200915 yr by Carmen