Raw, Itchy Bum

[Corkysgirl]

I think the cortisone will help her a lot. I'm sure she has no idea what's going on. Her life keeps changing daily when it used to be an even keel.
It does get confusing a little around here because I only drink distilled water...so that's one jug. My husband's father has a mountain spring 2 miles away so we brought home jugs from that, since the well has gone crazy! Then the bird's water was out because I was changing all of them...but I put it way off to the side and it says..."meds" on it with a dark magic marker. HE wrote it. I was his idea to write meds...even though it's vitamins. It's also greenish. He hasn't grown any feathers since so we're all good! Yes, hopefully they will do him good. Oh yeah....I've been pouring out the birds vitamin water into my plants...which are in the same room as the birds. I get lazy and don't water them enough...and also don't want to carry the water dishes all to the sink while full. Since I've done that my plants are growing beautifully. That Hearty Bird sure does make everyone's feathers happy!!!

[MiaCarter]

Yes, I bet the hydrocortisone will definitely help.

In fact --- I wish I'd thought of it --- I have some hydrocortisone spray for the cats. So it's lick-able. I could put some on cotton and dab some on her bum. It works even better than the cream. I actually use it for mosquito and fire ant bites and it kills the itch on contact, whereas the cream can take a few minutes.

I do the same with my bird water!
I hate wasting things, even water. I change the bird water compulsively. (Probably way more than needed. But I go in there a lot and any time I see a poop in there it gets changed! I wouldn't want to drink poopy water, so.)
I started pouring out the water cups into the potted plants and they seem to love it!

[Corkysgirl]

Haha...wish I thought of it sooner. My plants really suffered over the winter.
I hope she feels better by tomorrow. I think she will greatly improve now...and I'm anxious to see! I didn't know about spray cortisone...only cream/ointment. It's hard to find one without aloe...another thing I'm allergic to....so spray sounds interesting.

[finchmix22]

regarding the bottles/pitchers of water being mistaken for human drinking, I have four plastic pitchers and all are labeled with permanent marker Birds Only! I have bright red and pink pitchers for the family water, so there is not any confusion. Even at out sink, I have brushed labeled PETS and others labeled Dishes. LOL

[Corkysgirl]

finchmix22 You've got a great system! My system was...my husband wrote on the bottle...his idea..."MEDS" in black magic marker...and to put it on the side table. But...with me changing their water...and all the commotion in the house with the well going kaput, he just grabbed the first bottle he saw...didn't notice the green fluid, and black letters. If you knew my husband...there is no fool proof method. We have some funny stories in his family...that we hear over and over again... His father drinking chicken soup out of a container thinking it was pineapple juice...and his mother was a little girl (we're talking back woods of Maine) in the early 30's drinking pee... when they left it beside the bed in a glass (I have no idea why in a glass!) and she had a baby sitter...who gave it to her as apple juice. "Dat not apple juice...dat pee!!!" He comes from a long line of mis-drinkers.

[Ginene]

MiaCarter...Poor Priscilla...I hope her little bum is doing better. I just wanted to say, that she is a lucky little girl to have such a wonderful, attentive mommy! Best of luck for a better bum soon

[Corkysgirl]

MiaCarter how is Priscilla doing today?

[MiaCarter]

Ginene -- Thanks for the kind words!

@Corkysgirl -- Ugh.....Not good.
I was up working all night and into the early morning. I just got up and checked on her and her bum looks awful.

It's red and inflamed and the dried blood has expanded. Yesterday, it was just on the area that she'd picked clean of feathers.
Today, the dried blood has expanded to a 1/2 inch halo around her vent, and it's now in her feathers.
I looked and found a small bit of blood on a bit of nesting -- about 3/4 the size of the one in the photo. So it looks like it's more on her than on the nesting.

She is eating and bopping around and her attitude is good.

Looks like she laid another egg last night. I really wish she'd stop, as that can't be making things better. (yet at the same time, it's comforting to know it's not egg binding).
I'm really split right now on whether I should move her out to a hospital cage. Again, I risk deterioration due to stress. I'd move her mate Elvis with her, but it would still leave her freaked.
I need to decide soon, though, as she'll likely lay another egg tonight and another one will start cooking soon thereafter. So I need to remove her from her nest before that to prevent another egg. Or I could just leave her and hope she only does 4 eggs (which is her norm) and trust that if her body is really stressed, she won't lay any more.
(To make matters worse, I'm superstitious. Maggie, her sister, died with 2 eggs. Right now, Priscilla has 2 eggs.)

I'm at a loss right now.
Do I re-start her on some antibiotics? Perhaps Amoxitex, which she's always tolerated well?
Do I re-start her on Nystatin?
Should I catch her and apply a bit of ointment?
Should I try to clean her up a bit? (She's not a big bather -- she dunks her head-chest; that's about it.)
I just don't know. I need to think.

I called the vet but the bird vet isn't in til Thursday.

[Corkysgirl]

Is anything hanging out her butt? I am frantically trying to find a link I saw yesterday...and can't. I would put another egg...if you have it, or a fake egg in there to keep her from laying again at least. I'll try to keep looking but this is the crazy hour...burning dinner...doing birds, my daughter calls to report her daily troubles.
If it were me, I'd start Amoxitex. You will know quickly if it's dealing with the infection. I personally wouldn't put anything else on it...as it didn't help...and may have irritated it. Can you do a warm salt water spritz and then make sure she has a heat lamp so she stays warm and doesn't get cold? I have run my Little Fawn's sore bum under running salt water and it helped, but it could traumatize her. I really would use Rescue Remedy if you have it...drops in the water. I won't hurt your other birds at all, even the one with alcohol. It evaporates quickly. I use it all the time in my bird's water, even the fledglings when mine was sickly and no one has had an issue at all with it.
I would only try one thing. Starting the Nystatin too...you won't know which worked...and she's been on two fungal killing meds...the sulfa, and that. The Herbs should take care of any fungus. Probiotics are a real must. Not sure about the Vinegar right now...maybe it's too much with her sore bumm. NV powder for sure. That's just what I would do but you have your gut instinct. I'll write more to your response in a bit.

[MiaCarter]

Corkysgirl -- thanks Corey!

Great minds think alike! I was also thinking the same on the Amoxitex.

I was watching her for a bit and she's acting a bit sicker than I realized. Once things calm down, she starts closing her eyes and puffing slightly.
Edited to add: ....and now she's sleeping on the floor.
Not good. So here's what I did....

I caught her and spritzed her bum with the hydrocortisone spray for cats (so it's lick-able) to knock out any itching.

Then, I buttered her bum with a light coat of antibiotic ointment. It actually did seem to help as once I applied it last night, she stopped picking at the area. Same tonight.

I tried to clean her up a bit, but it's much too irritated and very much stuck on there. It will require a bit of a soak in warm water. I don't want to stress her with that. It looks awful, but the underlying skin can still breathe, so we'll just have to leave the dried blood for now.

I switched the water. It now has apple cider vinegar, NV powder, Amoxitex, Calcium Plus and multi vitamins.
Do you think I should make up a new batch without ACV?

Still has gobs of herb salad.

Good thinking on popping a couple additional eggs into the nest. Good call! I'll do it right now.

Sent husband to the store for a new light for the heat lamp. Just got a new one, but it seems it was pre-broken for us.
So she should have her lamp back within half an hour or so.

I pulled out their veggies, including their beloved cucumbers, since they're very wet and that may prevent her from drinking enough of the medicated water.

I'm really worried about the amount of blood loss. She had a lot of blood in her feathers and as I cleaned the paper towels on the cage bottom, I noticed lots of little spots.
Any ideas of what I can give her to help with that?

She's not actively bleeding. Only when she picks at it, it seems.
I have a few bird e-collars (AKA lampshades) but they're for large birds; even the smallest wouldn't fit her. I called my friend who's a vet tech and she says the smallest ones her clinic has is for a large budgie or small cockatiel.
I know you can make them out of pipe insulation, but she's still too tiny.
I'm going to research and see if I can find a tiny finch-sized e-collar that I can have overnighted!
Otherwise, I'll need to fix what's ailing her in order to get her to quit picking at it.

[MiaCarter]

Oh and no, nothing hanging out of her bum. The area is rather swollen and irritated, but there's no prolapse or anything like that.

[Corkysgirl]

Oh good, no prolapse. I would take the apple cider vinegar out of her water. I'm afraid if she avoids the water for any reason she won't get the meds. That's the most important thing...and really important because of the blood loss is the NV powder...the electrolytes. Good idea about getting rid of the watery vegetables. Laraine actually told me not to give my girl greens/wet, while I'm giving her antibiotics so she gets full doses. The ACV is not so necessary right now. The heat lamp should help a lot...make sure she's warm enough. The good thing for blood loss is chlorophyll. It has been given as a blood transfusion during wars when blood wasn't available. It could be added to the water. It tastes good, basically like her greens and would replace the iron, and all the nutrients she's lost. If you could get Rescue Remedy from Walmart...it saved my birds when they were near death...twice.
That's really hard about the cone...not sure how to make one. I had the same issue but needed one for my girl's head. I finally just put a band aid. It's a different story when you have a butt...that needs to be open. Something foam cut out...not sure....still thinking. That's great there's no prolapse. I was worried because it was so inflamed and then with egg laying. Some got it with the Sulfa meds.

[MiaCarter]

Good thinking on the ACV.
I'll make up a new batch of bird water for her.

I'm so worried about her. She's on the cage bottom, which is just so bad. Even with the twirling she wasn't on the cage bottom.

It seems like she's gotten worse in the past few hours.

I told husband to see if he can find Rescue Remedy too.

That's interesting on the chlorophyll! I didn't know that! Let's see....greens would have lots of chlorophyll.

[Corkysgirl]

The thing with greens is she might eat them...get her fill and not drink the Amoxitex. But if the Chlorophyll were used as the water base...also mixed with water because it's not straight, then she would still for sure get the Amoxitex. Just make sure she gets her vitamins in her water so if she lost iron and important nutrients for now. If you get RR drops, put two or so drops in her water dish if it's small, more if it's larger. I've would also rub some RR on her back under the feathers so it touches her skin...any where you can get it directly into her blood stream. You're not going to overdose her if you put too much, unless maybe if you pour the bottle on her because of the alcohol content. I do it a few times per day when in crisis mode.

[Corkysgirl]

I don't know if you have a juicer or can borrow one. Here's an interesting article. I didn't know about the coconut water also being used, but coconut is really amazing! I was thinking you could make your own chlorophyll in a pinch if you wanted. http://theearthdiet.blogspot.com/2014/0 ... usion.html This too is an interesting article...just for the fact of pointing out the chlorophyll benefits, with no disease factor. There is a lot of other things in the article also that I may or may not agree with...but wanted to show you about chlorophyll because it's interesting. http://www.phmiracleliving.com/Articles ... usion.html