I first posted this here a year ago when the symptoms first appeared, and the consensus then was that I shouldn't worry as long as he is acting normally otherwise. But now I'm a bit concerned about an apparent worsening in recent days -- after a year-long period of having stabilized and even lessened slightly. He still seems 100% healthy, yet for the past several days I'm seeing him drink more than ever, and having larger, gooier droppings than ever.
These symptoms first appeared last November, when this bird was housed with his then-mate and their 3 newly fledged chicks. He did 80 percent of the feedings, so is it possible he picked up something from one of his chicks' crops? Would yeast cause something like this?
But none of these other 4 birds ever developed those symptoms, so it seemed logical that -- whatever it was -- it wasn't contagious. I separated them by sex in February, and he has been housed with his son ever since. And he isn't showing any of these symptoms.
I did have an avian vet examine him last fall and do some fecal tests. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and the tests were inconclusive. She did have me administer a round or oral antibiotics directly to his beak once/day -- just in case. He would never open his beak to accept the medicine, but my vet insisted that it would have gotten into him regardless if I simply dropped it onto the point where his upper and lower beaks join. So maybe he got the benefit, maybe not -- who knows.
His symptoms actually briefly worsened somewhat after the antibiotics, but over a period of several weeks gradually began lessening slightly, by about 30%. He seems to have learned to live with this, and is none the worse for it -- in terms of his appearance and behavior. Even though his symptoms had lessened somewhat for the past year now -- he still has continued to drink MUCH more than normal, and his droppings have remained large and gooey, and he always looks down between his legs immediately after he poops. It's almost as if he's saying, "What the heck was THAT?!"
Occasionally over the past year I've also seen him pump his tail several times immediately after pooping, as if to shake it off. This behavior has become routine in the past few weeks, so he is now doing it every time he poops. Occasionally I'll also notice him pruning in the vent area. But every time I've visually examined it, I've never seen any evidence of dried poop -- he's always very clean there.
For the past several days I've also noticed these symptoms increasing to the point it is now as bad as it was when they first appeared a year ago. Rather than taking 2-3 sips of water at a time like all my other birds have always done, he often takes 20-25 sips -- throughout the day. His droppings are much larger than ever -- larger even than a hen's during egg-laying mode -- and also gooier than ever (see photo).
He seems very happy and sings often through the day...but obviously something isn't quite right. Yet in the absence of sick-like behavior or fecal tests that show anything conclusive, I'm at a loss. My fear is that, by waiting until he is acting sick, by that point it may be too late to do anything about it. He's by far the friendliest of any bird I've ever had (I know -- just 7 total, but he really is an extremely special little bird). Recent photo of him here.
Hoping someone out there has seen this before, and has some ideas.
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It seems to be mainly just the act of catching him that stresses him.
