Hi Delia. This is not a good situation, for you or your bird. I have to wonder if you were working with a really good avian vet. There is nothing wrong with doing blood work, if needed but it's not usually necessary to start right out with that either. When it comes to the infections that birds usually have, almost always, a look under the microscope at a dropping sample is all it takes to get a diagnosis. Then about a 10 day course of an oral antibiotic takes care of it. The problem is, if he has had a recurrence of an infection, there is nothing you can do for it and there is definitely nothing in a pet store that will help. Don't let them talk you into wasting your money. If they had something that would help, you could not buy it without a prescription and you would definitely not foul his drinking water with it. If he has been on a treatment of antibiotics recently, he could have the infection back but he might also have a yeast infection brought on by the antibiotics. If the vet did not discuss the use of a pro biotic with you, yeast is possible. Here is some information on that for you and explanations about why they need a pro biotic.

Click here: Avi-culture, The Finest, Live, Avian-Specific Probiotic

Click here: HolisticBird.org: Avian Diet

Click here: Probiotics

Click here: Flock Talk eZine, Issue 141

As you will see, there are some commercial pro biotics on the market. I keep a supply of the BeneBac on hand at all times. But there are also other things you can try. Whether it's yeast or not, this will not hurt anything for you to try. He can have some active enzyme yogurt, some small bites of a real, hard cheese like cheddar. Just make sure it's real cheese. He can have some of that new product by Dannon, I thing it's called DannActive or something similar. Any one of those three will replace the beneficial gut flora that may have been killed by the antibiotics. You need to be giving him good supportive care by keeping him as close to 85F as possible without over heating him. Keep him out of all drafts and keep him as quiet and stress free as possible. You also need to make sure he stays hydrated. If you can get some Pedialyte down him, that will help hydration and will help his electrolytes. Just don't replace his plain water with it. Offer it separately. However, he may need a vet to get over this, no matter what you do. And try to keep him eating by offering some of his favorite fruits or some veggies steamed, then masked up and served slightly warm. In other words, just baby him. I would suggest you call the vet, tell him/her what's going on and tell them you would like to have nothing more than a test run on a dropping sample to see what, if anything shows up first before jumping into the more expensive tests. Ask them to check for yeast as well as any other bacteria. There are also some organizations that are set up to help out with vet bills when we are in a bind but our pets need help. I will give you the links to those so you can see what is available to you. I hope some of this will be helpful to you and your little guy and I will sure keep him in my thoughts. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to let me know. Patricia