Hi all,

 

More dramas...

 

My Daisy is experiencing some unusual symptoms. 3 weeks ago she developed a strange gurgling noise with intermittent coughing. No discharge from her nose, and droppings were normal. Took her to the vet who prescribed antibiotics (first injection was Baytril, then onto Clavulox for 5 days). On the 5th day, the vet also recommended treating for air sac mite, just in case, so she had a dose of Ivomec. Whether it was the antibiotic, or the Ivomec we don't know, but she responded and seemed to make a full recovery for a 2 week period. The vet also had us treat (once she'd "recovered") for fungal infection, for 3 days.

 

About a week ago, she started to relapse. Again, no discharge from anywhere, her vent and droppings are normal and no regurgitation. She's back on the Clavulox for the moment but it seems she's stabilised into this cycle of laboured breating with a distinct 'clicking' noise and tail bob. No significant improvement after 4 days. In keeping with Ivomec treatment regime, she also had a second dose on Monday (2 weeks after the first dose - seemed to have made no difference). She's clearly unwell (puffy and sleeping on 2 feet), but she's still eating and flapping around the cage a bit. She's not gone to the bottom of the cage and we've got the room well heated to support her.

 

At this point we're a bit stumped. I hate medicating with antibiotics if I don't really need to. I've read about iodine deficiency being a possible cause of these sort of symptoms.

 

Just wondering if anyone has had any similar experiences and if so, what did it turn out to be?

 

Many thanks for your insights.

I see this post has had a few views, so I thought I'd post an update to provide an insight just in case anyone else sees something similar in the future.

 

Daisy passed away last Thursday (her baby photo is my profile picture). I called my avian vet (who we were on the way to see when she had a heart attack) who suggested I still bring her for a post mortem.

 

The results were that she had cirrhosis of the liver, and this had resulted in an accumulation of fluid in her abdomen. The amount of fluid had increased to such a level that it was putting pressure on her air sacs and heart. Eventually the pressure became too great and caused a massive heart attack. The vet believes that the cirrhosis was the results of a hormonal condition (Daisy did have an enlarged ovary ~12 months ago, and has been overweight ever since). This means there's really nothing that we could have done to save her. Unfortunately the little ones can't tell us when they feel uncomfortable, so by the time they're clearly not well, it's too late.

 

For the last several months, Daisy was overweight and no matter what we did, she couldn't lose any of it. She was also disinterested in flying around when we let her out of her cage. We thought this was because she was overweight (turns out it was hormonal weight gain, rather than too much seed), but it's likely because she had a liver condition.

 

I hope this information may be of use to others. I don't know, perhaps earlier detection of seemingly unrelated and innocuous symptoms may save someone else's budgie.

RIP Daisy.