Bird Gas and Blockage

[CandoAviary]

Okay... kind of gross story but thought I would share any ways...may help some one else.
I have a 2 1/2 year old male gouldian and 2 year old female with 2 chicks that were 12 days old. They were being great first time parents though they had several unfertile eggs. About 4 days ago I noticed before lights out the daddy was on the botton of the cage looking miserable. If it had ben the hen I would of sworn severe egg bound..but it was him... A male in his prime.
I watched him and he kept picking at his butt...I then noticed he had most of the feathers pecked off his bum and it appeared to be a little wet looking. I caught him up and he felt really hard and his belly looked discolored/dark. I rinsed the area off as it was red and irritated where he had pulled all the feathers out...the area of a quarter size around his bum hole
I put him in the hospital cage under heat and started trime-sulfa med.... wasn't sure what was wrong but I suspected eggshell impact.
Also I had increased the pellet mixture to the seed mixture and thought maybe just a severe case of constipation. Next morning he was eating but still very preoccupied with his bum. I caught him up and wet the area with warm water and started to try and feel the bloated/hard area..... Then a very loud finch fart I never would of thought.... Then a little white urates followed..... I put him back in the cage and gave fresh meds...... He looked somewhat relieved.
Afternoon...saw him really pumping his tail and turning and pecking his bum with his beak. I again caught him washed his bum and masssaged the area gently.... emerged an eggshell that was the size of this small o. Followed by some more white urates... no blood or pus.
Later that afternoon///still no droppings on the paper towels in the hospital cage.He was somewhat active and perching which was a great improvement from the day before. The bird was eating spray millet, some finch see and water... would not eat the eggfood nor poop.
That evening I washed and massaged again and some whites liquid emerged.
Next morning he was again tail pumping and bobbing up and down... I caught him, he had gotten use to this routine by now, washed his bum and massaged.... a hard pellet the size of this === came out and looked like gerbil pelleted food. Fresh medicine and off to bed he went.
Next day I saw poop...giant poop on the paper towel. The size of a bb and hard I gave fresh meds and checked the redness of the skin...decided to rinse and leave alone. A few hours later... a super giant poop... I can't imagine this was inside that poor bird. It had the dimensision of one and a half this O and was at least 3/4 inch long and hard like a compressed pellet.
Today he is great. No more preoccupied with his bum. Redness gone.. though area still bald. Tummy normal colored and softer. He is getting fidgity in the small hospital cage. I will keep him here and on the meds for a couple of more days..just in case there is irritation internally ... I am sure there must be after all that stuff was impacted in there. He is going to make it. I am glad I decided to manipulate his belly..... I just don't think he could of passed the gas and massive poop without the help.
Also more good news is the Mom gouldian has been feeding the chicks all on her own beautifully. Glad now that there was only 2.
Anyway...just thought I would share a success story.... most times when I have a finch looking this miserable they are hard to bring back. I was so tickled yesterday with the passing of the giant poop that my husband just had to laugh at me. I think he was even surprized that this little fellow made it.

[Sally]

ROFLMAO!! Sorry, Candace, I know it is a serious story, but the visual of you holding that little finch and him letting one rip is just too much!

This is such an interesting story, though--how many have posted with similar symptoms, especially the pecking of the butt area? I'm so glad you told this whole story, I think there will be lots of benefit out of it. Others can try doing exactly what you did to help your bird. And so glad your little boy is going to be fine.

[Pukasand]

Good story, and good lesson!

[Domenic]

HAHAHAHA! Sally I agree with you!

[JohnBoy]

Candace that needs to be published.

[Ursula]

Wow! Thanks for sharing this, that could help some day. Who would have thought that a bird can have that type of blockage. Do you think he ingested something that he couldn't actually digest? Could there have been something in the pellets?

[Animal Quackers]

I'm thinking like Ursula - what would cause this little bird to get so impacted? It is something we can all learn from.

[L in Ontario]

Aww poor boy! I'm so glad you were able to help him and share your story here. A little humourous, I agree but definitely could be of great assistance to us someday... though I'd probably fall over laughing if a finch farted audibly while in my hand! And of course it had to be a male as we know females never fart!

[CandoAviary]

though I'd probably fall over laughing if a finch farted audibly while in my hand! And of course it had to be a male as we know females never fart!

LOL... I was holding him very close to my face to look at his but carefully (aging eyes) I folded the tail back with my thumb and a rather large sounding fart emerged...... I was surprized by the loudness for such a little fellow... I just looked at him and said.. . Really

I am not sure what made him so impacted. I wish I had of photo the dropping now. it was unbelievable. The only thing different was I had increased the small ABBA pelleted finch food to the seed and eggfood... I usually do when they have chicks. I always keep the mineral, eggshell dish filled. They may get empty for a few days but not ever long enough that they would gorge themselves.
He was acttively feeding chicks, and only foreign material in the cage would of been millet spray stems and coco fiber nesting material. The compressed poop looked like pelleted grain

I put him back in the cage with the hen and chicks today. I thought after 5 days that she may be disturbed by him but it was the sweetest thing. She flew to the perch he landed on and looked real intently at him...like she was making sure it was him and not someone else. There was a couple of tweets and then he flew to the nest and looked in. He immediately flew to the bottom and started eating millet spray and within a few minutes was feeding th chicks..... Wow... first time parents too. What a good Daddy he has turned out to be.

[L in Ontario]

Such a good boy - sounds like a keeper!

[B CAMP]

Candace
Do you think this was caused by to much pelleted food

[CandoAviary]

Candace
Do you think this was caused by to much pelleted food

I would doubt it as I always mix pellets with the seed.... I just usually increase the amount of the peellets and the amount of eggfood I give when they are feeding young... I find that the fledglings can handle eating the pellets and millet spray easier than some of the other millets and canary seed in the diet...though these other seeds are offered in the fledgling mix also. I just notice that the young fledglings consume more of the small pelleted food than when they get older they seem to prefer the seed.

I suspect the problem was that rather large eggshell that I massaged out. I feed the fine crushed hatch but I also save all of my boiled egg shells and raw shells. I bake them and chrush them weekly. Some I don't chrush as fine because the grasskeets prefer larger bits. This gouldian swallowed a rather large piece because it was still rather large coming out. I think that this is what caused the blockage. The seed and pelleted foods just became compacted behind the shell. I think this because other than some whitish liquid and the notorious fart the only thing that was passed/massaged out was the piece of shell. The rest of the hard poop followed. I will be more careful at the size of eggshells that they receive.