HELP, PLEASE, my lavender is not acting right

[KarenB]

Okay, so my lavender quit eating yesterday, not even a meal worm, and so I decided if he was going to commit suicide by starvation I may as well let him spend his last day(s) with his flock. He wasn't moving and just sitting on the bottom of the cage on his belly. It wasn't hard to catch him. I think he'd given up. So I put him into the big flight, moved all his special bowls of stuff in with him, including his heat lamp and low perch.

Lo and behold! He started foraging and hopping around right away. I think he had to have been depressed in that hospital cage. His mate came over and nuzzled him, preened him, gave him a little pep talk and told him she still loves him. That must have done the trick. He is still very un-right, but his spirit has improved immensely. I've seen him pick at everything, even the tonic seed he refused to touch before. He ate worms. He picked at the regular seed. He nibbled on some greens.

So it looks like that was a good decision. I still hold out hope that his freaky jerky dizzy stammering will go away, but if not, if he only makes it another week, at least he's got his buddies.

[lovezebs]

KarenB
Good decision Karen. I would have done the same. Let him be happy, no matter how long he has. I hope that things begin to look better for the poor little guy. If he starts eating better and mentally feeling better, maybe everything else will improve as well.

~Elana~

[MiaCarter]

That's wonderful news!

My heart dropped when you said he'd quit eating, but I'm glad I kept reading!

I think we underestimate our birds emotional capability sometimes. We tell ourselves "they're not humans; they're different." But then I hear about cases like this and it makes me realize that I'm right to attribute emotional capabilities.
It clearly sounds like he was stressed. He sounds a lot better now with his friends. I imagine it's like the difference between being at the hospital and being at home with those you love.

I saw a similar change in my girl who had the balance issues. She never recovered to more than 80%. She still had issues flying any distance.
I had Priscilla's group in a big taller cage and her friends would spend 95% of their time in the upper portion, but she couldn't make it up there easily. So she spent her days on the low perch by the heat lamp.
Then I moved them into a 30x18x18 cage and she gets around without any troubles and gets to socialize more. She started eating better and acting happier and more content and no longer parked in front of the heat lamp. So I don't underestimate the power of friendship. They are social creatures at heart.

So happy to hear that your little guy is eating again and eating normal food!
I agree with Elana; I think he may improve now that his spirits are better.

Can you take a video of him? I'm curious to see what he's doing. Perhaps it will give us another hint at what's going on?

[KarenB]

I started to get video of him this morning before I moved him, and then I just decided that he needed to get moved, and I forgot about doing it. It will be difficult to record him in the big flight, but I can try.

[KarenB]

MiaCarter, here is a video I shot an hour ago. Midway through the 46 second video he jumps up onto his low perch from the ground, and in an attempt to follow him with the lens, the mesh I am shooting through kind of gets in the way, but I think you can get an idea of how much he stumbles around. The whole scene is badly backlit, but you can clearly see him moving around and foraging except for that one segment where the mesh is in the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bv4mC4 ... EqGUNdON2w

[lovezebs]

KarenB
Can tell that he has a bit of a problem, but he seems to be managing alright. He's moving, he's active, and he's eating (which is really good news). I would definitely leave him with his mate and other friends. I think it's doing wonders for him.

I think I've asked this once before (never did get an answer) . Can birds have strokes, like people and other animals?

I hope your boy keeps improving.

~Elana~

[KarenB]

I know birds can die of a heart attack from fright. Not sure about a stroke. Will have to Google that.

[lovezebs]

KarenB
Was just wondering if something like that is possible, and if this might be the cause of the problems your little boy is struggling with (?)

How is he today?

~Elana~

[MiaCarter]

Hmm....it's not as bad as I'd imagined.
But he's definitely not right.

Quick question:
- has this been stable throughout his issues?
- did it start out worse and get better?
- did it start out better and get worse?

I'll try to capture a video of my Priscilla (the zebra who had an apparent bout of twirling). She's very similar. Perhaps a tad bit worse, as she seems to breathe heavy (for no apparent reason, despite workups at the vet) and she doesn't hold her wings against her body tightly as she should.

I love the sounds of your house, by the way (in the Lav video and canary video) The lovely tweets are all very relaxing.
Very different from my house, where it's mostly zebra honks and beeps and budgie skatts! LOL


lovezebs
-- Strokes are very possible in birds. Strokes can occur in any creature with our same general type of circulatory system.

In birds, stroke is usually associated with something called cerebral apoplexy, where a blood clot forms and damages the brain as a result.

I've cared for a couple birds who had strokes/cerebral apoplexy. One was a green cheek conure; the other an African grey.
They had varying degrees of impairment/paralysis, focused on one side of the body (I believe this is because the chances of having a blood clot/defect that's perfectly centered between the two hemispheres is very remote.)

The african grey had a condition involving collagen that made her have abnormal tissues and her vascular system was less elastic than normal. So instead of stretching and moving normally, they would burst. She later died suddenly - about 4 years after her first stroke - due to another massive brain bleed. (She was enrolled in a study at Angell and they offered free treatment with conditions; one was that we'd allow her to be autopsied.)
Cerebral apoplexy can cause death if it impacts the wrong area of the brain (eg the brainstem where your primal functions like breathing and blood pressure are regulated.) In birds who speak, like the Af. Grey, you see the same sort of linguistic impairment that you'd see in a human, which was quite incredible.

The GCC had no obvious underlying condition. He found a forever home and was still alive as of about 4 months ago. He could not fly, but he fluttered and climbed like a pro, mostly using his beak and his good leg. The bad leg was more of a helper leg, for balance, but couldn't do fine motor movements.

I think it would be quite difficult to see evidence of cerebral apoplexy in a finch because they don't speak (it was very obvious in the Af. grey's speech) and their movements are "larger" - much fewer small, complex fine motor movements, which are where you see a majority of the symptoms.
So I would imagine that you wouldn't notice symptoms in a finch unless the bleed was severe.

The key with brain damage is that you see sudden onset and you don't ever see a marked improvement (must differentiate between compensation/adaptation and improvement.)

[KarenB]

MiaCarter, No, it's pretty bad. I don't think the video adequately shows his full condition. He is not stable at all, very wobbly and jerky, acting off balance or drunk. I'm just glad he is eating again. I would say he got worse while he was in the hospital cage and has pretty much stayed the same except his spirit was lifted by being placed back with his buds.

Looking back at photos, I think he had been sort of puffy for a little while, since late summer, maybe. He didn't start acting off, though, until just a day or two before I brought up the subject here. It is really noticeable when the hen is beside him. I guess before that I never really noticed that.

[lovezebs]

Thanks for the info Mia. It's something that has puzzled me for a while.

Karen, I just hope that he continues as is, if not better, but no worse. At least he appeares to be enjoying himself. Quality versus quanity, but then again that's what really matters.

~Elana~

[lovezebs]

KarenB
How's our boy doing, Karen? Any Improvement? Still holding his own I hope.

~Elana~

[KarenB]

lovezebs, I haven't been home all day. We went out right after work and all finches were in bed when we got home. However, our lavender was hiding somewhere because he wasn't down by the heater on his low perch. There was a lavender head sticking out from one of the nests, but not sure whether him or the hen. Hard to tell. I take it as a good sign that he was not camped out in front of the heater as usual. Maybe he was in the nest with his hen, but I only saw one head peeking out.

[lovezebs]

KarenB
Maybe he's trying to make the best of however long he has, and will present you with some grandchildren.

~Elana~

[KarenB]

Ha