Budgie help please!

Re: Budgie help please!

Claire Edgington — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 08:51:40 GMT

Thanks Marie! Very helpful.

Re: Budgie help please!

Marie Kubiak — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 20:53:39 GMT

I second the crop swab - yeast and Macrorhabdus (large linear fungal elements) could both be factors in regurgitation and poor condition. Also consider renal and hepatic disease if crop swab doesn't show a heavy population of yeast or any Macrorhabdus but this requires blood tests so is more invasive.

Increased respiratory rate and a click suggests either bacterial URTI (hypovitaminosis A, Chlamydiosis, opportunistic infection), tracheal/syringeal aspergilloma, goitre (iodine deficiency related), tracheal FB (inhaled seed), rhinolith.

Greenish dropping are seen with increased biliverdin excretion (hepatic pathology, haemolysis) or decreased dilution of faecal biliverdin with anorexia.

Ideally I would work this bird up with crop swab first then bloods and rads under GA to assess as many factors as you can. Chlamydia PCR will be very insensitive given the recent baytril suppressing any shedding so serology is your only real option for assessing Chlamydia status- this can be done on a tiny drop of blood from a nail clip if you aren't GA'ing to get a full sample but this is not the most pleasant procedure for a bird.

If the owner declines extensive testing, or you aren't happy doing the work up and referral isn't an option, then you could do just the crop swab and treat based on any abnormalities there plus transilluminate the neck to look for a tracheal FB.

If no abnormalities on tests then you could try F10 nebulisation plus iodine therapy (single drop of alcoholic tincture of iodine on skin), diet improvement, oral probiotics and reassess in 5d if the bird is otherwise coping but many of these birds have multiple problems or a serious underlying condition and a minimal (and non-scientific) approach can lead to poor control. Additionally in a budgie, any reduced food intake can cause rapid weight loss and metabolic derangements within a short space of time due to their rapid metabolism so I would strongly push the owner towards a more proactive approach if possible,

Marie

Re: Budgie help please!

Matt Hilary — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 14:56:52 GMT

[quote user="K Burton"]

I'd be worried about psittacosis...

[/quote]

Worth discussing with the owner at least.

Re: Budgie help please!

Kathryn Burton — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 10:46:31 GMT

I'd be worried about psittacosis...

Re: Budgie help please!

Claire Edgington — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 10:23:16 GMT

Thank you both for your advice. I'll have a chat with the owner.

Re: Budgie help please!

CatherineThomas — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 10:08:03 GMT

I'm no expert on bird medicine but these are my thoughts:

The clicking sound could indicate syringeal or tracheal pathology, I don't know if that could be related to the gastro-intestinal symptoms or if these are concurrent problems so I would investigate both. The least invasive thing you can do is collect droppings to send for faecal examination and culture. Megabacteria is one possibile explanation for weight loss and regurgitation, the best way to pick that up is faecal examination. Chlamydophila PCR can also be done on the faeces. Other things to do would be a crop wash and tracheal wash, which you would need to GA for. While under GA you could also take x-rays and a blood sample. But it depends how much the owner wants to spend and also how confident you are with anaesthetising the bird. You can place an air sac canula to allow maintenance of an airway and anaesthesia while you are doing the washes but if you've not seen or done them before it may seem rather scary.

Do you have a nebuliser in the practice? If not source one while waiting for the results and get some F10 antiseptic solution, nebulising with F10 solution can be useful for respiratory problems in birds alongside suitable treatment as indicated by the results.

When you say the droppings are greenish is it the faecal component or the urates which are green?

Hopefully Ben will give Marie a break soon so that she can come on and give you better advice.

Re: Budgie help please!

Sammy82 — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 09:58:02 GMT

The crop infection could be fungal (yeast), maybe you could get a swab for microbiology. Crop swab are pretty straight forward. Does the food he brings up look funny/ smell sour or rotten?