FINCHforum

Has anyone ever had a Gouldian act and appear to be perfectly healthy in every way, yet suddenly -- literally overnight -- begin drinking 5-6 times as much water as before, and having large, voluminous gooey droppings...especially in the mornings?

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.

I was given the advice to give the bird citric acid in the drinking water for soft poop.
PROBLEM...I do not remember the specific circumstance nor the dosage.
So someone with more knowledge will have to comment on the CA treatment.

Hmm not quite sure. Hopefully more will see this post and be able to offer some help

Birds can hide their symptoms of illness very well, and unfortunately the process of medicating them can cause more stress than what you're treating them for. I had a little Zebbie of mine, Meep Meep put down because he had been sick, on and off for six months. In the end, treating him via the beak was too much for him.

ac12 wrote: I was given the advice to give the bird citric acid in the drinking water for soft poop.

Thanks, Gary. I haven't tried pure citric acid, but I did try grapefruit seed extract for a week or so shortly after these symptoms first appeared a year ago. It seemed possibly to help very slightly at first, though not too much difference. And the slight improvement ended within days -- returning to same level as before for a while before eventually improving somewhat again -- very gradually -- and leveling off all this year. Until now, when it recently began worsening again. I can't recall now the exact dosage of GSE I used, but I'm thinking it was 3 drops per 2.5-ounce drinking tube. Maybe I should have used more, or for a longer period.

The problem isn't just soft poop though -- it's also typically very watery (which you would expect, given the fact he's drinking between 1 and 1.25 ounces of water daily ).

And you're right, Zebrafincher -- administering medication is definitely highly stressful -- for the bird and for those of us administering it! Capturing him each day for 10 days was something we both dreaded, I'm sure. But he is a real trooper -- in the 2 years I've had him, he's the only bird I've ever had that has never struggled after I've caught him, and at times honestly seems to enjoy the chance to bond briefly with that crazy man who sticks his hand in his cage every day. It seems to be mainly just the act of catching him that stresses him.

I'm still wondering if it is somehow related to his parenting duties, as these symptoms appeared immediately after his 3 chicks had weaned themselves. He did most of the feedings in the nest after they hatched and also after they fledged. I know that chicks can have yeast problems in their crops at times -- could the father have contracted a mild yeast infection from a chick that's persisted over the past year? Anyone ever heard of such a thing?

I'm also wondering if he really did get enough of the antibiotic drops seeping through his closed beak. Maybe that's not as efficient a means of delivering the medication as an injection, and so he never really got the benefit of the medicine? What's been others' experience administering medications in this way -- has it proved effective for you?

The Bird I had to treat was a Zebbie, and I had to paint his beak with antifungal stuff as well as administering medication to the beak. We also tried with the water (me and the Vet) but this didn't help. In retrospect, I don't know if I would do this again, because he definitely got very stressed. I had to put him down in the end because there was no quality of life for him.

Citric Acid is 1/4 Teaspoon per Quart water but is generally meant to address acute diarrhea.
That poop doesn't look diarrhea-y to me, nor does it really look concerning. It's a bit large but if it was first thing in the morning that's not uncommon?