May 25, 200520 yr I hope he comes back with a clean bill of health. I'll bet you will worry until then, won't you? The not knowing is sometimes the worst part, you know. Hopefully it will not be anything at all. Thinking about you 'till then. Let us know what happens.
May 25, 200520 yr It's only been a few hours... and mums already phoned once... and I'll be ringing in about 2 hours to get some results. I hope to god his results come back healthy, I don't know what I'd do if they don't
May 25, 200520 yr I know it will be hard, but try not to stress yourself out until you know something. It makes you feel bad and makes the time go by so much more slowly too.
May 25, 200520 yr Just a little update: They are treating him with antibiotics as they said he had traces of somethingarother, sidicosis and coxidia. Dr Sacks also said that it could be diet related if he is only eating seed. Â The problem is, the little bugger WILL NOT eat pellets of any kind, will only eat spinach and boc choi, and if you take away his seed to force him to eat pellets he goes on a hunger strike until he gets them back.... but even if it's not diet related I still have to get him onto a healthier one... Suggestions?
May 25, 200520 yr You can have him on a good diet with out forcing him on pellets or taking away his seed. Â It's great to hear that he is faring better. Â All the best for merlin
May 25, 200520 yr A lot of people seem to have luck by soaking the pellets in pineapple or orange juice before offering them to the bird. Your budgie may not know that pellets are food so that might not work but it's definitely worth a try. Â The slow but pretty reliable method a lot of people use is to offer seed a few times a day but only leave it in the cage for an hour at a time. Leave pellets in the cage always. Eventually the bird will peck at the pellets and once he starts actually eating them, you can give him less and less seed. Don't remove seed from his diet completely, just make sure he's getting mostly fresh foods, pellets, pastas, etc. rather than a ton of seed. Â Good luck!
May 25, 200520 yr Well, the antibiotics should help, but if it is psitticosis they will be given longer term. I semi-converted mine by mixing pellets with seed, actually burying the seed under the pellets and only having a few seeds showing. It took about 5 or 6 different brands of pellets before I found any they would really even try. You may have to try a few, but if you can get Harrison's from your vet that is the best. If pellets really are a bust, you will need to add a lot more veggies into the diet. I am trying to get mine to eat a cooked diet as well, but they mostly just walk in it and eye it with disgust right now. I'm trying different flavors of Beak Appetit, but will order some Crazy Corn and try that if they don't start eating what they've got soon. I mix some of their regular veggies in with it, and sprinkle some seed on top so they know it's food.
May 25, 200520 yr I don't know about the spelling but here goes.  Coccidiosis  Symptoms: intestinal inflammation, bloody feces, weight loss  Description: Various species of coccidiae occur in birds. These protozoan infect the small intestine of the bird. Coccidiosis seldom produces sudden death but death may occur following heavy infestation for several months.  Treatment: Amprolium at 3 ml/l water for 2 weeks or sulfaquinoxaline 0.05% at 6 g/l water for 7 days. The latter dosage must be increased by 50% for small birds, and a second treatment may be required.   I could find sidicosis and coxidia in my ailment section for Aviary birds. I'll elsewheres.  Chest sidicosis I found to do with Humans Coccidiae are common to Birds, dogs and cats.  From this information, it would appear that geting merlin to the vet was the right choise. It says it shouldn't be seriuos. So lets hope all goes well. Edited May 25, 200520 yr by daz
May 25, 200520 yr im glad you managed to get to the vet and that he is being treated. All being well you will be reunited soon and he will be as fit as a fiddle. x
May 25, 200520 yr Thanks Daz Lets hope thats all it is... Â Rainbow, our vets stock Harrisons, but I've found that Merlin found it too hard to break up the pellets. We had the one in the reddy orange(?) bag... He didn't like them as they were too hard to break up, but the crumbly types I think would be okay, its just you can't tell that its being eaten! Â We don't have many treat type options available for birds nor pellets really. I will have to save up to go to Bird City to have a try of some of their stuff
May 25, 200520 yr Oh dear I missed posts when I replied before, I was in a flap and missed people! Thank you Eterri and Budgeover. Â Some slightly good news, there is no confirmed diagnosis as yet, but apparently, he "likes doing acrobatics with his legs" according to the vets. That is typical Merls, so a good sign. He *might* come home tomorrow night, if not, home on friday but it sounds like what they are doing is helping him improve even without a diagnosis.
May 25, 200520 yr thats brilliant news. it sounds like he may have just been under the weather. im so happy to hear he is getting back to his old self. You will have to post some photos of him. x budgeover
May 25, 200520 yr *bounce* *bounce* Just gotten off the phone to the vets... He's been eating YAY and has perked up, and is being treated for coccidia as he has been exposed to that and psitacosis as well. They are just waiting for him to urinate so they can test that. They told me he could come home tonight as they've treated him up to our "budget" but they actually haven't they didn't note down the change. But he's sounding perky and happy, so we shall go visit him this evening! Sounding very positive  They said that we have to change his diet... so we will be discussing that with them tonight, but I am sooooo relieved he should be able to come home!!!
May 26, 200520 yr His name is Merlin :(Laughing out loud): <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Whoops, so sorry, put it down to old age..I did not mean to offend. (my friend has a 'Herman' How is Merlin today Cindy
May 26, 200520 yr Sure He's a fussbum so it's going to be a looong road to get him on other stuff. Will put up a new post after I go visit him tonight
May 26, 200520 yr Great news! Be sure to tell us everything the vet says so we can all become more smarter!
May 26, 200520 yr thats a nice thing to read first thing in the morning. Let us know about this diet thing. We all want the best for our budge budges.
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