Sick Birds

[Rispa]

It seems like I'm having problems with sick birds lately.

I have a young Cockatiel who got a seed stuck in her nose, which then became runny, then the other became runny. She also got more seeds/hulls in her nose. I did a nasal rinse to try to get any particles out. The second nostril became better, but the first was still runny. I did another nasal rinse and both seemed to dry up and seem better, but her nostrils looked a little red to me, now they look a little dark to me. Also I think one may be running a little again, but not the the point that it's obvious, or maybe she just got something in her nose briefly again. I'm not really sure, but she's in a cage with a heat lamp and doesn't go to it. She still get's baby food, but I've seen her eating. Once she stops being a dinosaur I'll stop hand feeding her. I feel like I should go at her pace and let her wean when she's good and ready. I'd like your opinions on what to do about her. I'll post pictures tomorrow in case they can help illustrate things better.

I have a Cockatiel who is about 7 months old and has a beak problem. Because people thought that Mustard's problems sounded like worms we decided to try a round of Worm Away as a precaution. I didn't know how to do this with the babies, so I mixed it to the appropriate dilution, then used that water to make baby food. This was fine for all, but one baby. The prior mentioned Cockatiel apparently threw up his food. I actually did one group of birds the first day and the rest the second day because I didn't have enough to treat everyone the first day. So when my babies in the first group were done eating, I used that food as a base to make the food for the other babies. I believe the Tiel had a bad reaction. I didn't realize it at the time, but I didn't notice that his chest was messier than I remembered. I think he threw up food that evening, then during the meals the next day. The last meal I noticed that he threw up everything as soon as he was done. I thought I saw him eating and I don't know if I thought he was weaned and that was why he was throwing up or if I was afraid to feed him and have him throw up, but I didn't feed him the next morning. This was a horrible decision. That afternoon/evening my youngest sister and I were out and my mom called us and told me to come home ASAP because the Tiel was very weak. I came home as fast as I could and fed him and he held it down. He was so skinny though and he was very weak. I was so worried that he was going to die on me, but I kept telling him that he wasn't allowed because he bonded with me over glasses, he likes to chew on them and I wear them, and he makes growely noises. Well I gave him a little food in case over feeding him or something like that was the reason why he'd thrown up. I then fed him a little food every few hours with probiotics since having hardly any food might cause his flora to have died, and thrive to keep his energy up. After the first feeding he pooped a mass of black pudding. I now love poop because of that. I did a ton of research on poop because of that and inspect my bird poop a lot now. It turns out that his poop wasn't actually black, probably more dark green because it was full of bile. I was worried that his system would quit on me, but I thought he would pull through because the first 3 years of my life I threw up everything I ate due to allergies and still survived, just in an anorexic state. Well he pulled through and his poop slowly normalized and I was able to increase the amount I fed him. Now more recently he had crop slow down and threw up again. I have taken out the probiotics and thrive in case the extra additives were bothering him. I stopped the probiotics first, then the thrive. I also added apple sauce the feeding after I noticed the crop slow down. When I looked in the cage in the morning there was more throw up. I think the first time he threw up was because of the food sitting in his crop since morning, the second time maybe because I over filled him. Both times it wasn't a whole meals worth which was a relief. Since he gained strength he has been able to grab the syringe and eat on his own. I still make him eat the last bit if he doesn't on his own, but I give him 8-9mL total per meal. I'm also feeding him twice a day. Do you think I should feed him more or less? He has tried mouthing other things, he just isn't eating on his own. He also drinks on his own, though I think he prefers some cups to others. He has an underbite which is how I got him in the first place. He may never be able to eat comfortable on his own, so do you guys think baby food is okay or should I try making my own food for him since he isn't a baby. He still likes to sit under the heat lamp and gets cold when out for too long, but he's a lot stronger. This morning mom brought him to wake me up and we were cuddling and I was scratching his head and I think he was purring because it was like a growl, but he was obviously enjoying himself. He also managed to grab my nose ring faster than I could move away. Today we also brought him upstairs to be with his best friend who he came with and some other Tiels and a Splendid. He really enjoyed it, but for the night we put him and the above Tiel into their warm cage to make sure the other birds aren't bullying them away from food and water and that they are warm enough. I feel like he's definitely doing better, I just want to know if I'm going everything I can for him and if I'm doing it right.

Lastly I have a Splendid Parakeet who is having a couple of problems. So he was with a Bourke, but we are almost positive that the Bourke started plucking the Splendid. When I got the Splendid he had only frayed tail feathers and all looked cut half at half length. Well he got two tail feathers that were growing in and they disappeared. He also started to look disheveled, but we thought it was because of the molt at first. Well now the two made us decide that Jelabi (the Brouke) was plucking him. We separated Jelabi and ended up putting Tiels with the Splendid. His two roomies are sweet and don't go after him as far as I've seen. They are also mellow birds which is why they are together. Well I don't believe they are plucking him, but Sparky (the Splendid) is getting worse bald spots. He also prefers to stay on the bottom of the cage, though will go up higher sometimes, and will sleep up higher. I think he feels lonely. He's loved the Red Rump pair on the other half of the double flight since they first came to live next to him. My mom moved their food dishes next to the divider and when they came down to eat sparky paced up against the divider and looked with longing. I tried a bit ago to put him in with the Red Rumps because they seemed okay with him and he flew right in, but they pulled feathers and I had to make him leave their cage and go back to the other side. As of yesterday I put some moulting vitamins and iodine in his water to hopefully help him grow his feathers back, though I only put it in a water dish that I put on the bottom for him. Tomorrow I'll change out the top water too. We've also been giving our birds veggies and I definitely have seen him eating them periodically. I don't think he was interested in the egg food when I tried it last, but I'm going to try again tomorrow because I think he needs it. Do you guys have any advice to help him. I'm looking to get him a mate, but meanwhile I don't want to move him away in case he becomes depressed and too lonely, so how can I help with his loneliness? Today I even saw him defend his spot by the divider from two of the Tiels, so I really think I need to keep him by the Red Rumps until I find him a friend. Do you guys think two males could get along happily? Also what should I do to help his moult? Am I doing anything wrong. Oh additionally he has a heat lamp on the cage, pointed toward the ground in case he gets cold. Oh, one more thing, his poop no longer is green, it's more like a creamy color like the poop of baby birds when being fed by their parents (or that's the color all the babies I've had have pooped). His diet hasn't changed, but I think he might be picking different foods out. My Bourke's poop also changed after I separated him, but I think it's more normal now. I'll double check tomorrow to see if his poop is still strange too. The Bourke had the strange colored poop first, the Splendid got it more recently.

Oh one more that I almost forgot. One of the Tiels has flaky skin on his feet. The new skin doesn't look dry and the rest of his body doesn't look dry either. The flakes are big and it looks like a lizard moulting. I tried putting some olive oil on his feet and it looked better after I put it on, but today it looks like it looked before. None of the other birds are affected, but I'm keeping an eye open. It doesn't seem to bother him and he doesn't mess with his feet, but since it's unusual it concerns me. What do you recommend?

I think that covers all of my bird related concerns for the moment. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow since I finally have a camera. I can't promise though because I've been kept busy with unexpected things popping up (this is also the reason why I haven't been on the forum much lately, sorry about that).

[Rispa]

Oh also in addition to worming I'd like to treat my birds for anything else they might have and be hiding since I'm having trouble with birdy health lately. I've done a day of Worm Away so far. What should I do next? What would be the best plan of action?

For my Canaries I was going to give them Scat because if they have chicks I don't want them to accidentally pass anything on. The female had problems in the past and got treated (though I don't know if it was the mite treatment of the antibiotics given by way of breathing steam), but the male didn't and while they were separated by a divider at the time I worry that it wasn't enough to prevent the passing of potential mites. The female never became 100% better, but she did become a lot better than she was and she still breathes badly under stress. I've worried that I've caught the male coughing, but it's rare and I'm not sure if that's really what I'm noticing or not. Just to be on the safe side and give me a little more peace of mind I was going to treat them. Not yet though because I already had too stressful an incident with them today. But soon.

[Rispa]

So 1) the Bourke and Splendid poop are definitely normal again, so it was a diet thing. 2) I talked to a woman who I knew kept Splendids and she gave me some advice and thinks Sparky is just going through a rough moult. As it turns out she's also the person who bred him haha.

The Tiel with the runny nose still has a runny nose. It's clear and doesn't appear to have any discoloration or anything like that. It looks like they type of discharge you get when you go from a really cold environment to a warm one. I think it started running again because she got something in it again and it's irritating her nose again. I need to find away to prevent this from happening.