Mr. Meepin - Having Weird Poop. Is he sick?

[Derk]

finchlover24

have you seen this site?
http://beautyofbirds.com/poopology.html
based on this most recent sample:
yellow urine - liver disease

further is states "Any change of color that cannot be explained by the diet should be investigated by your veterinarian."

Here's another site:
http://www.mickaboo.org/sites/default/f ... pology.pdf
"*** See your avian veterinarian if - the feces contain partially digested food, or are smelly, slimy, or foamy. Partially digested food can be due to viral disease. Slimy droppings can be caused by an
overgrowth of yeast. Foamy or bubbly droppings can be caused by bacterial infection such Clostridium, a type of nasty bacteria."

it also says yellow urine indicates liver disease

oops! and possibly a major oops I just remembered about the NV powder you are using. I am not familiar with it and how it might change the droppings. Best to ask Lady G or someone else on the forum.

From Ladygouldianfinch.com http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com/features_poopology.php
Lumpy or Undigested food: Incomplete digestion, Giardia, hypermotile intestine.

"Should the droppings smell?
No. Never. Healthy birds' droppings have no noticeable odor if they are fresh. A fowl smell is often a sign of infection in the digestive track. Most commonly it'll be a bacterial or yeast infection."

Do they smell?

[finchlover24]

Derk they dont smell. His last poop looked semi normal. Its an on and off thing. One minute hes fine, the next his poop is worrying. I wouldnt be surprised if the yellow is the powder. He doesnt have a distended stomach and he seems completely normal. Without the poop issue he seems like a healthy bird. So its hard for anyone to know whats wrong based just on poop. No sleepiness, no discharge from the nose, not losing feathers, no failure to thrive, he still perches and sings and rings all the bell toys in his cage. Im probably panicing as usual but at least im not the only one who thinks theres something wrong :/ i just dont know how it could be bacteria or anything since the cage is cleaned daily.

His poop was like this before the powder just not as much of a yellow color in the urine.

[Derk]

finchlover24
Would you feel comfortable catching him to check his weight? Or better yet, perhaps wait for Cindy to respond.

I am reading more 'poopology.' If I find anything I will post it here for you.

[cindy]

The yellow are you giving any dried eggfood? Also if the seed is fortified or colored are the by chance putting it in their water? Drinking it. Some vitamins and for tied colored seed will change the water color. Just a thought. Certain foods can be passed through feces and leach into the urine changing the color slightly. Colored pellets can do this also.

[cindy]

I have a more detailed illustration of droppings i can get the link for you.

[finchlover24]

cindy Derk they toss the colored bits to the side lol neither one of them eats it. I think the extra yellow is from the nv powder since it automatically turns the water in the bowl yellow. Id love that link if you can send it.

Id love to weigh him but i doubt i can get him to sit still once hes out of the cage and i dont have a small scale. Ill feel his chest when i get home but i know hes been eating spray millet like no tomorrow haha shells everywhere!

Im definitely going to get some of the lafebers seeds. Until they arrive, can I give them Lady Gouldians miracle meal? I know I have some FVite too but I havent used it. & i havent given them eggfood in a few days now since they ignored it or pooped on it. Im gonna give them some today ( unless its a bad idea for meepin?).

[cindy]

Best to keep their nutrition up. It is possible that the NV powder is discoloring the urine. You can pick him up ant bush his feathers back off the belly, if the keel bone is sharp or prominent he may be loosing weight, if he is full in the breast and belly area, that is good.

[finchlover24]

cindy I'll try and catch him at some point. He loves playing with us as long as we don't try to physically handle him. He perches on our shoulders and our hands. I don't think he'll like me grabbing him but I'll have to. I just made some egg for them & they'll get it tomorrow morning since it's almost paper and bed time. Definitely looking into the Lafeber's food. I'll update you guys on his poop tomorrow. Hopefully he is better soon :/

[cindy]

Hope is better tomorrow for you. Keep us posted. He sounds like a sweet little bird.

[finchlover24]

cindy Derk Mr. Meepin has been a little better today. His poop is a medium/dark brown and the white portion seems to be a little more contained. I added some of Lady Gouldian's Finch mix to his seeds for variety. Both him and Ms. Coopin dove right in!! I can't wait to get Lafeber's seeds for them!

Latest moop (its a dark brown, no blood):



I think brown is good but just wanted to double check? What do you guys think?

[cindy]

this is a good guide to go by.... http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com/features_poopology.php

[cindy]

seed only fed birds should have green droppings

pellets added to the diet they will have brown/tan

this is from a cockatiel site most can be applied to finches too (poop is poop).
http://www.cockatielcottage.net/droppings.html

[finchlover24]

cindy Thank you so much. The does have more urine in his poop than Cooper does, but I guess each bird is different. They both have water and food available at all times so I don't think he's dehydrated. I watched him poop (lol lol) and the urine was clear. I think some of the "color" from the poop bleeds into the paper towel (like on the cockatiel site).

Phew! I always thought green was bad! What a relief. Mr. Meepin always has a range of green in the morning, and brown/tan throughout the day.

Bubbles in droppings - gas

The watery droppings (polyuria) i think is from him taking in a lot of water while bathing. I mean jeesh, he's bathing and he splashes water onto me (he's right near my bed) He has a blast in there lol. It's not chronic (on and off, he hasn't had any extremely watery droppings or poop with bubbles (lol) in them) so I don't think it's something like an infection.

I'm definitely keeping an eye on him. He's singing his heart out right now and hopping back and forth Poor thing tries to sing to Ms. Coopin and she just screams at him

[cindy]

I do hope all is well with both of them... keep us posted!! You do enjoy them, I can tell!!!

[Derk]

finchlover24
Glad Mr. Meepin appears to be ok. You should consider getting a little kitchen scale. Starfrit has them for about $10 here in Canada. We can often get them in Walmart or drug stores that carry small appliances and kitchen gadgets etc. To weigh the bird you put him in a small plastic container with a lid. Poke a couple holes in it. You want the container quite small so the bird does not move around a lot. If he moves a lot the weight goes up and down. You should look for a gram scale that weighs to 0.0 grams. A 10% loss is significant in parrots. I would think the same would be the same for finches. Some people buy postage scales but they are much more expensive.

I am wondering if Mr. Meepin might be eating a few of the pellets in the seed mix. It could account for some of the little specs in the droppings and the odd colour of one of the last poops you photographed.

I also read that undigested seed can indicate a fast moving gut. The issue would be to figure out what the irritation was. I read however that sometimes the odd seed will pass through and that is ok as long as it is only a few and does not become a pattern. The other possibility would be that the seed was tossed into the dropping or the dropping just happened to land on a seed on the bottom of the cage.