I have a 7 & a half year old budgie called pepsi that is suffering with megabacteria. A local vet who is also a bird specialist, has told me that it looks as if pepsi's stomach has been permanently damaged by the bacteria. He used to pass un-digested seed in his droppings, but that stopped happening a month or so ago & instead he's now vomiting nearly everytime he eats. His crop looks very puffy/swollen. About once every couple of months, he brings up what I can only describe as white mucus. He also has trouble swallowing quite alot, his head often bops up & down (sorry that's the only way I can describe it)

 

The vet did say to soak his seed over night, to soften it up as that might help his stomach to digest it, which I'm still doing, I also have some antibiotics for him which he is on all time time now. I know pepsi's condition is terminal, but he's my baby & I don't want to give up on him & I'm wondering if anyone on here has any tips for me, because It feels like I'm fighting a losing battle to keep his weight up He was 33 grams just the other day, but I had managed to get his weight back upto 38 grams a few weeks ago.

 

One way I've managed to stop him vomiting so much is to feed him a few seeds at a time, then wait a few minutes & then let him have a few more, doing this has cut down on the vomiting. Is that the only option I have, or is there more I could be doing to help him (food recommendations?) Is this vomiting linked to his damaged stomach, or could it be something else, the vet did mention the possibility of a tumour or maybe an enlarged gland or something like that which could be causing a blockage.

 

Do any of you think birds suffer alot of pain when they have this megabacteria illness, maybe he's in alot of pain & it's wrong of me to try & keep him with me, but in my heart I don't want to say goodbye to him yet. He does rest alot, but does chirp & play with his toys sometimes too.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Paul

Oh your poor baby. Someone on here did have a bird with megabac, and I am sure they will be on sometime today to give you some tips.

I believe it was Karen, the topic was pinned in the health section, here is the link, http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index.php?showtopic=5548

 

Welcome to our forums, I wish it was on better terms. I can tell you really love your little one, and know that whatever you do he loves you so much in return. I hope the above helps, and I know there will be more advice.

 

Please keep us updated.

Edited February 26, 200619 yr by lovey

I'll pm Karen so she sees this post then, and budgies are great, you can pm Karen as well if you like, she'll be happy to help

You poor thing, I wish, you and your budgie strength in this hard time.

Hi Paul, wish I was saying welcome in better times but unfortunately it's not the case this time.

 

I have read your post - thanks for the pm Lin - and it sounds like your guy has the slow acting megabacteriosis. There is not good news I'm afraid and yes, your little guy would be in alot of pain & is suffering tremendously.

 

With his stomach already damaged there really isn't alot that can be done other than putting him to rest.

 

Apart from ordering Megabac-S from Australia http://www.vetafarm.com.au/show_product.as...em_number=0042E , the only other treatment I know of is somehow melting a cough drop (yes human medicine). This may sound simplistic but it is the Amphotericin-B in the cough drop which kills bacteria. It is exceedingly difficult to melt a cough drop without diluting the effects but it is possible.

Another hint I have recently been given is to dose the birds water and seed with white vinegar - now the only problem with this is the dose rate was not able to be provided to me so you would need to experiment (I dose at 10ml to 100ml water).

 

Actually white vinegar is good for healthy birds too - it helps keep up the acidic levels in the gut to help digest food.

 

If both of your birds are together or have been together, then the other needs to be treated as it is likely the other bird is also infected.

Edited February 26, 200619 yr by Karen

i also had a budgie die from megabacteria. megabacteria is a very horrible disease. The cause of death of a budgie suffering megabacteria is usually starvation - as any food the budgie does eat cannot be digested due to the damage caused by the megabacteria in the gut.

 

I think the kindest thing to do in this case would be to give him a peaceful send off to rainbow bridge. treatment is limited and amphotericin B is actually toxic to the kidneys. the best treatment would be megabac S as karen said, but if he cannot digest food at this stage i think the damage has already been done.

 

talk to your vet about it. if i had a second chance with my budgie i would have had him put to sleep because he was dying for just over 24 hours and was very distressing to watch.

 

i feel for you i really do ((hugs))

Hi Paul.

 

I have a dose rate on the "applecider"vinegar from a avian vet. It is 1,5ml vinegar/dl water. (1 dl= 100 ml)(It helps the acidlevels(Ph) in the gut to help digest food, but you shouldnt give them that for long periods, max, 10 days)

 

My budgie had the same problem, with undigested seed in his droppings. My bird is probably lucky becuase the megabacteria hasn´t spread to the crop but has stayed in the proventriculus. (He has a chronic version of the megabacteria.)

 

My bird had undigested seeds all the time until I changed his diet. He now eats Harrisons pellets. I know it is hard to change the diet of a old bird... it took me 1 year to get my birds to eat Harrisons properly without loosing weight. I now need to medicate him with Megabac-s about once a year. I now only give my bird a little amount of seeds every day, maybe 1 teaspoon or less.

 

My avian vet recomended to boil the seeds. (to soften them). I also give my birds a lot of human foods wich has helped them, boiled rice, pasta, dark bread, vegetables. (mashed carrot is really good for birds with cropinflammations) a.s.o.

 

I hope that this helps Pepsi, megabacteria is a bad illness, and as you say it damages the birds stomach and if you are unlucky it spreads to the birds other organs. I think that it is only you who can decide if you bird is suffering and when it is time to say goodbye. You know Pepsi best...

 

Good luck.

I think that it is only you who can decide if you bird is suffering and when it is time to say goodbye. You know Pepsi best...

 

Good luck.

 

Yeah i agree, you kind of get this feeling when you know it's time.

Hi Paul.

 

I have a dose rate on the "applecider"vinegar from a avian vet. It is 1,5ml vinegar/dl water. (1 dl= 100 ml)(It helps the acidlevels(Ph) in the gut to help digest food, but you shouldnt give them that for long periods, max, 10 days)

 

Good advice Xsaga and welcome to the forum. For those that don't know. Mega is the old term for the desease. It is now refered to as Avain Gastric Yeast desease or AGY

 

Treatment

 

Attempts at treating birds affected by AGY have met with limited success. Traditional antibacterial drugs have no effect on AGY. Amphotericin B, a polyene macrolide antifungal drug, when administered orally (100 mg/kg twice daily) was found to be effective at ameliorating fecal shedding of AGY organisms in affected budgerigars. It is considered the standard for treating birds diagnosed with avian gastric mycosis.

 

However, in a follow-up study, several treated birds were observed to return to fecal shedding, suggesting either that reinfection occurred or that therapy was incomplete. Treatment with amphotericin B is also complicated by the need for long-term administration, the cost of the drug and the difficulty of obtaining an oral formulation. Resistance of AGY to amphotericin B has been reported in a flock of budgerigars in Australia.

 

Oral nystain and oral lactobacillus are treatments reportedly showing some degree of success; other studies, however, have found these therapies ineffective.

 

Drug trials using novel antimicrobial agents are under way at Texas A&M University. One drug, fluconazole, has shown promise against AGY. Recently, chickens infected with AGY were administered fluconazole orally twice daily at a dosage of 100 mg/kg in a 4-week study. At the conclusion of this study, fluconazole demonstrated greater efficacy than amphotericin B at resolving AGY infection.

 

However, neither drug attained 100 percent efficacy in its respective group. One possibility being explored is that drug therapy may need to continue for longer than 4 weeks.

 

In the author's opinion, not all birds diagnosed with avian gastric mycosis require drug treatment. Given the uncertainty surrounding the gastrointestinal disease reportedly associated with colonization by AGY, it may not be productive or in the bird's (or the client's) best interest to subject the bird to prolonged therapy. Just as not all microorganisms detected on a fecal smear indicate the presence of disease, AGY may prove to be of little concern in an otherwise healthy bird.

 

In the absence of clinical signs of ill health, consider forgoing drug therapy in favor of monitoring the patient for potential development of any of the clinical signs previously described, and repeat testing for the continued presence of AGY in the droppings.

 

Prevention

 

In light of difficulties of treating birds with AGY, the best way to deal with this organism is to prevent its introduction into the aviary. This requires repeated examination of fecal wet-mounts as previously described. If the organism is already there, then breaking the infection cycle is an alternate approach.

 

We have shown hat cleaned, incubator-hatched eggs from AGY-positive adult budgerigars produce AGY-free offspring, if the birds are raised in isolation. This may prove a valuable way to interrupt the infection cycle in some aviaries.

 

However, aviculturalists should be aware that we do not know whether environmental exposure of the organism can result in infection, and there is strong evidence for bird-to-bird transmission. Therefore, if the clean birds are not maintained in isolation, it is possible that they could be re-infected.

Edited February 26, 200619 yr by daz

In my search for megabacteriainfo I also found the name Budgerigar wasting disease, and PVD (proventricular ventricular disease).... are this also the same names for the Megabacteria???

 

 

To Paul: How long has Pepsi had Megabacteria? Do you know how he got it?

yep its been called all sorts of things and it seems to keep changing.

 

megabacteria can occur in the gut of healthy budgies but doesnt always cause a problem. it usually causes serious illness when the immune system of the budgie is supressed or there is some sort of stress (breeding, moulting, underlying illness etc.)

Edited February 26, 200619 yr by pixie25

I believe that it is in all budgies as you said Pixie, but for some reason the imune system in some due to stress breaks down and doesn't control it.

It is sometimes difficult to identify the disease as false positives have been reported in healthy birds & false negatives have been reported in infected birds & usually the only was to be 100% accurate is by necropsy - which though expensive can save you money in the long run.

 

There have also been suggestions that Megabacteria might not in actuality be bacteria but rather fungal.

I am awaiting follow up research on this though because under microscope it certainly looks like bacteria to my eyes.

i thought they found it was actually a fungus. thats why they changed the name to avian gastic yeast?

Thank you for all the replys, & thanks for the pm Karen. I know with his stomach being permanently damaged that it's only a matter of time now before it'll be time to say goodbye to pepsi. I will contact my vet again & have another chat with him, I wll give the vinegar treatment a try though, & monitor his weight. If his weight drops much more I'll have him put to rest, at least then I'll know he's not suffering anymore.

 

To Xsaga, It was about 3, 4 months ago that I took him to the vets because he was passing un-digested seed in his droppings, it was then that the vet told us he had AGY. How he got the illness I don't know, but 3 years ago I was given another budgie as a gift from a lady (for capturing one of her escaped aviary birds while I was out one day, actually the budgie I was given was one of it's babies which I thought was really cute) , is it possible pepsi caught AGY from Cassie, my other budgie?

 

They've always been kept in seperate cages, but they used to interact with each other, but now I keep them seperated.

 

Thanks again for all the replies. I've posted a few photos of pepsi in the picture forum, in case anyone would like to see him.

 

Edited February 26, 200619 yr by budgies_are_great

i thought they found it was actually a fungus. thats why they changed the name to avian gastic yeast?

 

As I have been told it is a bacteria with fungus-abilitys. But the "scientists/veterinarians" want to call it fungus couse the bacteria is very a very large/big bacteria... megabacyteria...

Thank you for all the replys, & thanks for the pm Karen. I know with his stomach being permanently damaged that it's only a matter of time now before it'll be time to say goodbye to pepsi. I will contact my vet again & have another chat with him, I wll give the vinegar treatment a try though, & monitor his weight. If his weight drops much more I'll have him put to rest, at least then I'll know he's not suffering anymore.

 

To Xsaga, It was about 3, 4 months ago that I took him to the vets because he was passing un-digested seed in his droppings, it was then that the vet told us he had AGY. How he got the illness I don't know, but 3 years ago I was given another budgie as a gift from a lady (for capturing one of her escaped aviary birds while I was out one day, actually the budgie I was given was one of it's babies which I thought was really cute) , is it possible pepsi caught AGY from Cassie, my other budgie?

 

They've always been kept in seperate cages, but they used to interact with each other, but now I keep them seperated.

 

Thanks again for all the replies. I've posted a few photos of pepsi in the picture forum, in case anyone would like to see him.

 

 

it is possible that he could have got it from his parents when he was in the nest, another bird at the store he was at... like i said above - it is thought that many healthy budgies carry this organism naturally, but it only causes a problem in some budgies for reasons not fully understood.

 

keep us updated wont you

 

pix

What are the symptoms of megabacteria, so that if they are seen they can be acted on quickly?

loss of appetitie, anorexia (budgie grinds the seeds, but doesnt swallow them - can see powder at bottom of seed dish), weight loss, difficulty breathing, sleeping a lot, constantly stretching neck forward as if trying to be sick, frequent regurgitation.

 

and in the later stanges of the disease, white portion of poop disappears - only brown poops, undigested seed in poop.

Don't forget Pix, in the latter stages you also see a mucous type substance "frothing at the beak".

You can also see the breast bone stick out with the weight loss.

Also you know the birds time is near the end if a previouly untame bird will snuggle up to you.