Cockatiel with chronic respitory illness

Hello Jessica. I'm really sorry to hear your little guy is having such a hard time. I'm not sure that I can be of any additional help with this. My first question would normally be to find out if you are positive you are dealing with a well qualified avian vet, or at least one that has a lot of experience with birds. If you are, and if there is no way to go elsewhere for a second opinion, the only suggestion I could offer would be to ask your vet if they would be willing to do a phone consult with another vet, and/or a vet school. If you are not positive of your vet's experience or credentials, (avian related) a second opinion would be what I would have to suggest. Understand I'm not making any kind of accusation at all about your vet but it has been my experience that regular vets, no matter how well intentioned, will often do more harm that good. Simply because they do not have the indepth training and experience required to work successfully with birds. The good ones will admit they don't know. Others will continue with a "try this, try that" scenario, accomplishing little beyond making money. I am assuming in addition to any other tests, they did a gram stain on the droppings and did a swab from the mouth/throat area? I'm going to assume they are trying the Amikacin, in case there is Pseudomonas present. Pseudomonas is resistant to the Trimethoprim and most other antibiotics. The Tetracyclin is just a broad spectrum antibiotic and is generally the one tried first. I'm wondering if your bird may have reached a point where it has become resistant to the antibiotics. If by chance that could be the case, I'm not sure if continuing to dose him with them is going to accomplish much or if it might just make him weaker. I am fairly sure that unless the vet has advised you about probiotics and suggested using them, your bird is not likely to have any of the "good bacteria" left in his body. That is leaving him open to other problems. Yeast infection being just one of them. The tail bobbing and wet sneezes are two of the more serious symptoms of respiratory distress and generally by the time they are sick enough to display those symptoms, they really are very sick. It can be a long haul to bring them back from that. Short of him having developed a resistance to the antibiotics though, I don't know why something would not have shown some signs of progress. I am assuming your bird is not hospitalized and is home with you. Trying to think of this situation as if it were my bird, my next step would probably be to make sure I had nothing going on in the house, and was not using any product that might either be the root cause of the problem, and/or exacerbating it. I don't know how familiar you may or may not be with the many toxins that are in our homes and things we must give up to keep a parrot healthy. The problem in being aware is they are all things that are, for the most part, harmless to us and our other pets but can be deadly to birds. Some kill quickly, some are cumulative and kill over time. I realize hitting on one of them will not help the current problem but if you were able to possibly tie down a cause, it may or may not aid the vet in knowing what else might be tried but if you can immediately stop any future exposure, it sure can't hurt. I'll give you a link to a list of those dangerous items but just a few off the top of my head would be, any kind of aerosol product, any kind of air freshener, cigarette smoke, burning candles, strong cleaning fluids, over heating of non stick cookware; using the cleaning cycle of a self cleaning oven, using a hair dryer on or near the bird if by chance the dryer has a non stick surface in the manufacturing process. Coming in contact with any saliva from any animal; human and cat being two of the most dangerous. I think about all I'm doing here is helping you grasp at straws. I hope maybe some of this information will be helpful though. I'll be keeping your bird in my thoughts and I sure wish you the best of luck. Patricia

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Thank you for your prompt response, I really appreciate it. My vet is (supposedly, without actually seeing his certifications) an avian vet. When a fecal examination was done yeast was present (this was prior to medications), but he didn't mention any sort of findings beyond that. In addition they just keep telling me that in his condition any diagnostic work could potentially kill him so they have not done any, it's just trial and error at this point. I have a family of four birds, the sick one is the dad. None of the other birds have shown any symptoms, and I have seperated them since daddy bird got sick. Having had them for five years I can rule out any toxins as I am pretty familiar with and conciencious about them. I do thank you for the links though and will make sure to check them out. I did ask my vet about supplementing acidophilus as that was also a conern of mine. He told me that he has never had any trouble with birds after being on prolonged antibiotics and didn't feel it necessary. I don't know if I actually agree with him on that, I imagine as a vet he may not be too familiar with acidophilus. I may be wrong. My question was pretty broad, so I understand it is difficult to answer especially without examination of the bird. I was honestly looking for more specific information in regards to nebulization efficacy and the dangers & benefits of a sinus flush. Everything I ask the vet to do gets the same response, "It could potentially kill him." At this point I probably don't have much to lose, it's better than not trying anything. I would like to give you a good review, but don't know if I feel an "accept" is warranted. Simply because many of my questions were not addressed. Again, I really want to thank you for taking the time to respond. If you should think of anything pertaining to nebulizer and sinus flush, or if anything else comes to mind please get back with me. I may very well "accept." :) I hope you can understand. Take care.

I totally understand your position. And your frustration. The only (second hand) experience I've had with either the nebulizer or having a sinus flush was, in both instances, on a much larger bird. Therefore, I don't have any meaningful experience to share with you on either. In the instances I'm aware of, they were both used very successfully. However, I also think the situation had not progressed with that bird, as far as it seems to have, with your bird. I'm not throwing that in just to get you to accept because I still don't have any concrete answers for you. I just wanted to let you know why I didn't touch on those two issue before. I just hope something will happen to cause a quick turn around with your little and he will be better soon. Patricia

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If I've helped, please click the ACCEPT. Even if a deposit was made, I won't get paid until you accept. A bonus is always appreciated and leaving feedback benefits us both.

I just wanted to thank you again. I think I am going to just call different vets tomorrow and see if anyone is willing to talk with me. I am feeling more and more apprehensive about my current doctor as nice as he is, and I feel guilty saying that, but if it were my husband who were sick we would probably go and get a second opinion. So I think I will do the same for my bird. Take care jand thanks again.

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