Left eye balding and abnormal poop

3954 Views 19 Replies 7 Participants Last post by wgerven, Apr 2, 2015

wgerven

Discussion Starter · Mar 28, 2015

Dear TB forum members!

What a great place this is. I introduced our dear budgie Robert in a post some days ago, but will have to turn to you again for some advise on our little friend.

We're afraid Robert has some (hidden) health issue. Naturally, as we only have him now for close to two weeks, we don't really know yet what is his "normal" behavior... But I can say, that in the first three days that we had him, he showed some remarkable aliveness and was quite investigative and vocal for a 'new' bird. We were surprised in fact by how easy he seemed to adjust to his new home.

However, I think that on the night of the third to fourth day (which was suddenly cold) he might have contracted something, due to also maybe lowered immune system because of stress. Since that night, we feel he became less inquisitive, in principle he does not "look" like a sick bird, but he gave us the feeling he is hiding something. He is less vocal, sits more still. More passive. Initially he was interested in investigating his swing, flying towards it, now he prefers to leave it alone. He appreciates us communicating with him, but he is more to himself. He is not fluffed up though, and sleeps on his highest perch. His eating behavior seems normal, and he also lets us feeding him water and seeds by holding his cups close to him.

However, now we have started to see some more indications that indeed something might be wrong with him. Let me include two pictures:

We have grit on the ground, but with some paper we were able to see something is off with his poop:

Wood Pest Metal Rectangle Fashion accessory

This is from one night, so some normal (at least they look normal to me), but then suddenly also some diarrhea.

Also, since yesterday we noticed that Robert's left eye is balding slightly:

So these things quite alarm us.

Perhaps there are some forum member who could shed some more light on his condition? Anyway we got a phone number of a local avian vet, so that is good. We will contact her on Monday. But your opinion would also be very much appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

-Willem

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wgerven

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 28, 2015

Hi AlterEgon,

Thanks for your reply.

As far as the first picture: I don't think he has anything he could get to which he isn't supposed to... The people at the pet store advised us a week ago to have him for now on a seed diet, although I think slowly we could now add some other ingredients. But basically he is currently eating a seed mix. Then also, they gave us some supplement for in his water for stressed out birds. It contains mostly vitamins, but yesterday we also learned it was an antibiotic... Not sure whether that was immediately needed. It's called Velemicin M, not sure whether any of you know it... So we gave that for five days in his water, last time was Wednesday.

Ad for the second pic: Not sure which shadow you mean, but here I have two more pictures which are more clear on his cere:

Thanks a lot!

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wgerven

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 28, 2015 (Edited)

Dear all! Thanks so much for your elaborate answers! It's very much appreciated. So basically you're saying that his cere even shouldn't be looking like this?? Well, that's good to know. To be honest I didn't notice this at first as a possible symptom... Think that indeed he should be checked out then! I will check out the forum section that were recommended to me, and let you know what is the course of action once we talked to the avian vet. I hope she'll be able to take us a step further.

Thanks a lot!

Edit: Guys, I read a lot about discoloration in male cere and cancer... That worries me much... We only just got him, he is a young guy. Could there be any other reason for his discoloration? I'm not sure I remember his cere when we just got him, but this picture

seems to indicate it was more blue back then... This was one day after we got him. So the change seems to be sudden and since we got him. We now have him two weeks... Any ideas what this could be?

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wgerven

Discussion Starter · #10 · Mar 29, 2015 (Edited)

Dear all, thanks for the replies!
I made a picture in daylight, but I don't know if it will help, it's less sharp, and this was the most zoom in I could manage:

You can also see a bit his left eye and above his nostril which are somehow affected by something (it seems). Or maybe he's just untidy and ruffled?

Like his owners.

(Edit: It looks in the picture worse than he looks in reality!)

Well, we will contact the vet tomorrow. I'm pretty sure Robert is a male though... He already has a bit of grey around his iris, so he is not a baby anymore, and when we got him his cere were deep blue (as can be seen in my earlier post)... However, we only have him for two weeks now, so it must have happened during this time, which I completely missed actually until you point it out. So perhaps it is indeed related to some hormonal or nutritional imbalance as FaeryBee pointed out. Also, during this time we found out he in fact got antibiotics, which may have impacted his liver? In fact, I'd say it looks a bit like the pictures in "Male budgies who are ill" and then the set related to "Examples for disturbance of the hormone release not caused by a ******** tumour"
Birds Online - General facts about budgies - How to find out about a budgie's sex?

We'll try to shed some light on this tomorrow. Other than that, he seems healthy. He eats good, he trusts us, let us touch his belly, although reluctantly still.

Every day he seems to get 1% more active, very little steps...

Thanks for your insights!

-Willem

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wgerven

Discussion Starter · #12 · Mar 30, 2015

Thanks for the reply Pretty Boy. Yes, Robert is truly a nice character! We're very happy with him. Activity wise he seems to make little steps every day. Every day a little bit more variation in his chirps. Every day a little bit more "bird" behavior. He starts to be comfortable turning his back towards us too now. Things like that. We got him from the pet shop, so probably he is not very much used to people other than the occasional shop helper snatching away one of his friends. Plus he's used being surrounded by his fellow budgies. So quite a change for him. But when we got him he was in front of the window, looking at us, flying around, basically the most active, so we just felt like taking him with us. At least he let's us already pet his belly with our finger

For the last three days his poop seems to be fine, we haven't encountered any new droppings that were of not so good consistency. Also his vent area is now clean throughout the day.

We called with the avian vet, and she invited us to come with Robert tomorrow, so she can check him out. I'm happy with that. His eye I'm not sure about, it definitely does not get worse, but it looks a bit ruffled. We put white paper on the floor of his cage, and the next morning we could not discover small red or black dots on it. But the vet will tell us for sure if there is a pest problem. It's just his cere that are a bit bothersome.

Will keep you informed about our progress, and thanks for all the help!

-Willem

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wgerven

Discussion Starter · #13 · Mar 31, 2015

Ok so we went to the vet and all seems to be fine. Indeed Robert seems to have something upsetting his stomach, so for that she took a poop sample for analysis which we will hear on Friday. As far as his left eye is concerned, with the day it seems to be getting better, and in fact is barely noticeable anymore. So her conjecture was that it might be some final stages of his molt.

Regarding his cere she's not exactly sure. She said he's a male, but too young for hormonal issues. She diagnosed some "hemakeratosis" of the cere, with an so far unknown cause, but nevertheless the bird is in good condition. She recommended to switch food manufacturer, because sometimes a certain type of food can just not work very well with an individual bird. Hopefully the analysis will give more clarity. Other than that all should be very fine with Robert, just getting acquainted with his new home, which will take some time.

Furthermore she prescribed some probiotics for him, and she gave some pulverized volcanic ashes to sprinkle over his food. Supposedly to help his digestion and poop. Also we have to keep him extra warm for the coming days.

Will know more on Friday.

-Willem

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wgerven

Discussion Starter · #17 · Apr 1, 2015

Hi everybody, and thanks for the many positive replies! Robert is ok, though sits much on one place in his cage still.. Does his bird things, but still remains apprehensive. I hope he'll be fine in time and that Friday after the analysis we know more.

As far as grit is concerned: Well, it's not really grit. It's crushed seashells. But if that's also not ok then I'll remove it. But I think the post of Faery Bee seems to imply that such grit is ok. We kind of bought it because we wanted the best for our budgie you know. But often the enemy of good is better.

By the way: Anybody every encountered a budgie that is afraid of broccoli???

Well, turns out Robert is. I mounted some piece in his cage bars above his seeds, and he is pretty distressed with the suspicous green look of it..!! :S

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wgerven

Discussion Starter · #20 · Apr 2, 2015

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, will try it out!

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