Suze, thanks for that extra information. It's very helpful. I apologize for not being able to get back in here on this sooner. Your little guy is in need of a good avian vet, sooner rather than later. I'm going to give you some links to see if you can locate a true avian vet instead of one who "sees birds". How much good your vet may be able to do depends a lot on just how many birds he has seen and his level of experience with them. Sometimes they do just fine. All too often, regular vets do more harm than good because they simply don't know what to look for or how to treat it. They will "try this, try that", while the bird gets sicker and sicker. This may be bacterial or it may be fungal. More than likely, he came to you ill, from the store. (Those stores make me so angry!) It is going to require a sample of his droppings, and a throat swab, at least, for them to make a diagnosis. If it can be caught quickly, hopefully a 10-14 day course of antibiotics, in conjunction with a Probiotic, will knock it out. The fact that he is eating his droppings would indicate, among other things, a serious vitamin deficiency. I'm going to cover some diet issues with you for his future health but of course, getting him to the vet and getting a specific diagnosis and treatment must come first. If you haven't already, stop with the over the counter stuff and give him his fresh water back. The diarrhea is very serious in a bird this size. It may not have stopped. He just may have run out of "fuel" if he is refusing to drink. You are right to be worried about that. No avian vet will ever suggest that you put anything in their drinking water and for sure, never to take the water totally away. Diarrhea dehydrates badly enough and taking away his water only exacerbates the problem. The greens were not doing him any harm. The lettuce, if it was ice berg, was not doing him any good either. It has no nutritional value at all and for the future, you should give him Romaine instead. But, right now, he is used to the taste so if he will eat some and it will help get moisture into his body, let him have some. Actually, what he needs for greens are not the things you listed. While spinach is a good calcium source, it also has Oxylates which can interfere with their ability to absorb the calciuim. For greens, he should be getting Kale, turnip greens and collard greens. His seeds should not be more than 20%-30% of his dailey dry intake. He needs a good pellet mixed with his seeds. LaFeber is my personal perference but there are other good brands out there. He also needs cooked brown rice, cooked pastas, hard boiled or scrambled eggs, well cooked, unseased bean mixes, veggies like grated carrots, bits of broccolli, zuccinni, yellow squash, etc. I'll also give you links about proper Budgie diet. A mostly seed diet can lead to fatty tumors and fatty liver disease. If he were older, or if by chance you are not positive of his age, then the Hepatic Lipidosis would be my first suspect. But if he is truly less than one year old, that is not a likely suspect, this soon. He must be prevented from getting to his droppings. If he is in a cage without a grate between him and the papers, the grate needs to be put in. If he is eating them from the grate, they are going to have to be wiped up as soon as possible. Your most important thing right now is to get a feel for the level of avian experience you vet has, or, find an avian vet and get him in asap. Get him back on fresh water; offer him any of the diet additions he will eat. You can offer him some plain, or fruit flavored Pedialyte. If he will take some that can help reverse the damage of the diarrhea and start getting his electrolytes back in balance. If he will eat some active culture yogurt, that will help get his intestinal flora back in order. None of those things are cures though. One of the problems we have with our parrots is their very strong instinct to mask all symptoms of illness or injury, from us. In the wild, they are prey and to show weakness is to get kicked out of the safety of the flock. By the time we see any symptoms, it's because they are too sick and too weak to keep up the pretense. A couple of the first things we will be able to notice is a change in behavior, (less playing, less or no talking, etc.), any change in the appearance of the droppings that lasts more than 24 hours and cannot be accounted for by diet. For example, a lot of fruits or veggies one day can make more runny droppings but it should not last more than a day, then go back to normal. Other symptoms are sitting with feathers fluffed, giving up the perches and staying on the cage floor, and sleeping an inordinate amount of time. No more of the over the counter stuff. Make sure he does not get chilled. The closer to 80F we can keep an ill bird, the better. You can cover the top and three sides of his cage to help. He needs to stay as quiet and stress free as possible so keep household traffic to a minimum around his cage and be alert for any of those other symptoms. When it come time to go to the vet, heat your car ahead of time, drape a thick towel over his carrier and he will be fine, temperature wise. I hope all this is helpful but if you have any more questions at all, just let me know. I'll be here, off and on, all day. I'll keep the little guy in my thoughts. Patricia
Click here: Find your local Avian Veterinarian
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Click here: Hepatic Lipidosis Click here: PetCareLibrary - Tumors in Parakeets (pvy.com)
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