Lupron in a lovebird

Re: Lupron in a lovebird

claire power — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:17:27 GMT

Thanks very much again Marie. The bird is due in tomorrow for a rechk so we will see. Re: the wbc differential - they said they could not do an accurate one with the wbc that low.

Thanks again !

Claire

Re: Lupron in a lovebird

Marie Kubiak — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 19:45:48 GMT

I would be suspicious of viral aetiology or less so a chronic stress (?unidentified bullying from the other, lovebirds are mean!) with such a low WBCC - with acute inflammation/infection you will usually see a marked increase with relative heterophilia and toxic changes on smear analysis. Bird marrow responds incredibly quickly and a leucopaenia following focal inflammation is not normal. Was the differential count normal?

See how she looks at recheck and whether any further clues are evident. The deslorelin implant is unlikely to make any other problems any worse but may be an expensive trial therapy. Perhaps if you are anaesthetising her anyway to get a repeat haematology to follow up on the WBCC then you could do it at the same time so no additional anaesthetic/risk is involved?

Marie

Re: Lupron in a lovebird

claire power — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 08:51:40 GMT

Marie,

Thanks so much for your helpful and detailed reply.

The wbc count was 0.8, the comment was it was impossible to do an accurate differential with a count that low, but the heterophils and lymphocytes they saw were normal. They initially said there may be a viral component causing such a low wbc count, but then when I spoke to the avian pathologist at the lab he said it was more likely to be the area of infection using up the wbcs.

There are not really any signs of breeder frustration - she has only laid one egg, no sign of hyperostosis on rads, I dont think she is particularly bonded to the owners, more the other bird she is with. It was just the vet I spoke to at the lab said there was often a hormonal reason.

She has had her collar on for a couple of weeks now (she is on metacam and baytril too), so I may be able to see if there is polyfolliculitis - before she was bald in the affected areas so could not tell. I assume it will be healing for now as she cant get to it, but will try and do cytology at least if there is any lesion left. I am not quite sure what to do next - I will look for signs polyfolliculitis, but if not is it worth trying suprelorin in case it works - I guess it is unlikely to do harm ?

Thanks

Claire

Re: Lupron in a lovebird

Marie Kubiak — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 17:58:29 GMT

Argh, wrote long reply and then it disappeared...

Basically I'd rule out medical causes, which you have covered many of, but look at a couple of others especially:

Polyfolliculitis - common in lovebirds, multiple feathers erupting from a single 'follicle' cause intense discomfort and self-trauma. There are vague suggestions of a viral link but there is no strong evidence and plucking or surgically excising abnormal feathers relieves the discomfort.

Primary dermatitis - cytology and culture would assist, MRSA, Pseudomonads, Malassezia can cause a moist dermatitis that can induce secondary self-trauma

How low was the WBC? What was the differential and was there any evidence of a toxic heterophilia? Unusual to have leucopaenia in a bird with active inflammation which does raise the possibility of viral infection (?polyoma, PBFD - which test was used for this screen) or immunosuppression.

Hormone therapy will only help if 'breeder frustration' is a cause of self-trauma and feather destructive behaviour. In these cases there are usually several of the key markers:

Hand reared bird
Inappropriate owner-bird bond (one/both heavily overdependent on the other and demonstrating 'pair' courtship behaviours even if the owner is unaware that they are doing so)
Excessive reproductive activity (compulsive courtship behaviour, chronic egg laying)
Clinical markers of reproductive activity (hypercalcaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, hyperproteinaemia and radiographic appearance of hyperostosis of long bones in female, radigraphic gonadal enlargement in either sex)

Leuprolide acetate can be difficult to get hold off, expensive, unstable and requires repeated injections. If keen to go down this route then hospital pharmacies are often the best port of call if your normal supplier cannot source it.

If confident that hormonal factors are involved then I would be tempted to try an alternative therapy- cabergoline if compulsive laying is seen (or Releaves, but I haven't used this and it is a new and relatively unproven option), or a GnRH implant. The GnRH implant (Suprelorin) can increase hormonal activity in mammals prior to shutdown but no strong evidence that this occurs in birds though it would seem prudent to place this at the same time a collar goes on in case of any clinical deterioration. I don't like collaring birds but in cases like this where the ongoing self-trauma prevents healing then providing a physical barrier is justified. I always put them on anti-inflammatories at the same time as they will still be intensely uncomfortable with the dermatitis, they just become incapable of being able to have a physical response to it.

Marie

Re: Lupron in a lovebird

CatherineThomas — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 11:38:32 GMT

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I've never used it before and don't know how to get it but I do have the exotics formulary with some suggested doses. There are quite a range of doses. one says most species/feather damaging behaviour 100μg/kg q 14 days for 3 treatments. Other doses vary from 200-800μg/kg, all are IM, most say every 14 days but this also varies from q 2 weeks to every 6 weeks.