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

Edited March 14, 201015 yr by Hannah

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.

I'd take him to the vet.

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.

give him some heat, should help. but yeh definetly take him to a vet.

and maybe a poo sample (but budgies poo every 20 minutes i read somewhere so you could just wait at the vet til he drops a bomb)

Edited March 14, 201015 yr by Houman

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.

Edited March 15, 201015 yr by Hannah

hopefully it wont take him to long to recover. whats a culture test though?

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

A microbial culture is when they grow the bacteria on a plate then do tests on it to figure out what type of bacteria it is. They usually also let it try to grow in different antibiotics to figure out what antibiotics are effective and which aren't.

 

Hannah, what kind of water containers do you use and how do you wash them? I've been finding that the bacterial infections of the gut (and crop) tend to come from those who rinse out the water container with hot water only. It's my recommendation (as well as that of an avian specialist I spent time with in Brisbane) that you actually use detergent, then blast it with hot water before making sure all the detergent is gone.

freash food also can give these infections ive heard not sure how true but

veggies and socked seed can carry fungle that is not able to be seen to the eye

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.

Edited March 16, 201015 yr by Hannah

are those water dispensers any good?, since people say the bowls get seed and things in them very quickly.

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.

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.

Poor thing.

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:

Edited April 25, 201015 yr by Hannah

:gday: I'm so sorry to hear this, Hannah. From what you've written, Nibbles is truly being well-cared for, you and your mum have shown that you will go to great lengths to have Nibbles healthy again. It's a difficult decision to make should things become so bad that it seems worse to treat the problem than to let Nibbles go.

 

: Hope that Nibbles pulls through quickly, he sounds like a little trooper. All my thoughts are with you and him!

Oh no! Poor Nibbles.

oh no, i hope nibbles gets better. i cant image what you and him must be going though :gday:

Thanks guys

 

He's still not good this morning, droppings are the same, and he is fluffed up and sleepy I hope he's not in pain.

Thanks guys

 

He's still not good this morning, droppings are the same, and he is fluffed up and sleepy I hope he's not in pain.

 

 

Oh Hannah... I'm so sorry. Do what you need to do and he will understand. Promise xoxox

Thanks Maesie.

 

The vet isn't open today, so if we do anything, it will have to wait for tomorrow... if he even makes it to tomorrow.

All he's doing is just sitting flufffed up with his eyes closed, nothing else. It's heart breakening.

Edited April 26, 201015 yr by Hannah

is he warm enough, if his not maybe put a blanket round the cage and a hot waterbottle under the cage

He just vomitted

oh i am so sorry hannah.

i have always admired nibbles, he looks lkike such a happy and friendly bird

 

and i am sure you would have been the best friend that was ever possible

from what it looks like you have done everything you can.

 

so lets just pray and hope to god he pulls through