Sick bird - red droppings

[Ameza]

Hi guys.

I am having trouble with one of my birds.
He has been having rather abnormal droppings, from small to large and most of the time reddish.

I have been treating him with a kind of nature medicene that is supposed to get rid of most internal fungus or bacteria.
But still he is this way, and shows no other symptoms.

So I was wondering if any of you know of some stronger medicene that I could order that I could try instead.

Thanks!

[Mozelle]

are the droppings watery? or formed? Any changes in feed lately? How is the bird doing otherwise?? eating/drinking/energy?

[ac12]

The food you give him could also color the poop.
Green veggies = green color in some of the poop.
colored Zupreem pellets = red/orange colored poop.

[Ameza]

No the bird is fine otherwise. He eats and drinks and is energenic. His droppings are not watery, just from dark red to pinkish. And it's the solid part(feces) of the droppings that changes colour, the urates is still white.

And no, no changes in diet. Their normal diet is seed based with millet, dry and fresh eggfood and vegetables.

[Mozelle]

Maybe this will help:
http://www.wingwise.com/droppings.htm

Another member posted it a while ago. Good info

[ac12]

Take a look at this link
http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com/features_poopology.php

[cindy]

It sounds like something is troubling him in his digestive tract or kidneys. I have a couple of different sources to check, let me look and see if they have anything written like you discribed.

[Ameza]

Yes compared to those websites it sounds like internal bleeding or kidney disease... Though it is also stated in an article in the lady gouldian site that "Listlessness, lethargy, weight loss, blood in the droppings or elsewhere in the body, diarrhea, and dehydration are all common signs of Coccidiosis."

Though no other symptoms fit.
One thing though I have noticed and forgot to mention before, he tends to have drooping wings from time to time, it might be connected.

[cindy]

Ameza, after dinner I am going to sit down with a avian medical journal and look it up, it sounds like he is active and eating but their is a clumpy red stool and the urine/watery part are normal right?

[Ameza]

Cindy, thank you.
Yes it seems so, put I'm going to put some white paper under him now to make sure.

[cindy]

This is going to sound odd but are they eating cuttlebone or eggshell, is the eggshell ground or whole?

[Ameza]

They have cuttlebone and when I boil eggs for them I give them the eggshell in small pieces.

[cindy]

This is going to sound silly but what if he was ingesting pieces of shell and it went through his digestive tract, he trieds to poop it and it cut his colon inside....is this happening a l lot of every once in a while. I have heard of this happening with birds, even puppies that chew things lie sticks.

Did you catch him and check his vent?

If you have a small food processor or coffee grinder you can try to powder the shell.

[Ameza]

Well that's an interesting idea. Might be.
He actually seems better now, his droppings are returning to a more normal colour, though his urine is rather yellow.

I'm just going to keep him in the hospital cage a while longer and see how he progresses.
Hopefully this was just something temporary.

[cindy]

That is good he is better, I have heard of cockatiels having issues with eating pieces of cuttlebone and trying to pass the pieces, it scrapes their insides and they bleed a little as they pass droppings. As for the yellow are you feeding any type of pellets or colored mineral?