Leaderboard

I agree on your assessment of the AVB test. It was completely useless when we lost our Jardines to it 5 years ago. If they have it, you're screwed. I haven't heard of too much advancement in treatment for that disease. Lots of false positives (carriers abound) with the test when we were dealing with it.

Hello All, I am new here with a 16 year old Female Timneh Grey. We rescued her a month ago, and have seen some recent new behavior. Everywhere she sits she fades out or melts or hunches or slouches over after a few mins on a perch or your shoulder or your finger or anywhere she sits. She basically is sitting on her tummy with her feet pulled under her and not upright. Sometimes she hunches so far over her head is lower than her tail. On her perch when she tries to sleep she "melts" forward and then wakes up and catches herself. Sometimes she sleeps with her head turned back in her feathers like normal and and she is fine that way. We look her to the Vet, she did an exam and took a blood test and did a yearly check-up and they said that she had a bacterial yeast infection and gave me an anti fungal and a pain killer to give her. The vet said that she also may have hurt her foot. This was 2 weeks ago, and things have not gotten better. Her balance is terrible, and sometimes she falls off her perch. We moved her into a smaller cage where she is sleeping at night, so that she cannot fall down too far off her perch, and we put a pillow under the perch in her night cage and a towel under her large cage that she is in during the day. Here is a video of her in her day cage : https://streamable.com/2z57k She is eating fine and her poop is fine...She is talking, playing, climbing, taking a bath and acting fine otherwise. I am really stumped and concerned that something is terribly wrong with her. We have a follow up Vet appointment on Friday. Has anyone ever seen this type of posture / behavior? I have attached some photos of her in her smaller night cage. I also have a video I can upload in a little bit that is her in her larger day cage. When I took these photos there were no perches for her to stand on. Just added a couple of pictures of her slouching on her perch in her large day cage.

Greywings, how did you treat it? I was going to suggest more sun but some people can't do that.

Not being a Vet it does sound like a vitamin D deficiency. We have a Congo Grey that arrived having balance and seizure issues, she was low on both Calcium and Vitamin D. No seizures any more and now she only falls occasionally when playing too hard with her toys.

Alfie got a little flustered today. He had been out for a while, flying around the room and playing. I rolled a bottle across the sofa for him and he chased it pushed it around for a while. Then he started drooping his wings and making clucky noises. (See the video) I immediately removed the bottle and hid it. I didn't want to encourage the behaviour. I was also a bit worried as he picked at his wings as he was doing it. He's not typically a plucker. He nailed me pretty good on the arm soon after, so I'm guessing he was feeling pretty frustrated. Is there anything I can do to help him and prevent him from getting frisky? I never touch his back or wings, he only gets head scritches. I'm not letting him play with any small round toys in case he treats them like an egg again. I also won't try bottles again! 20181004_212220.mp4

Thank you all! He was back to being his 'old' self by mid morning. Eating, playing etc. Will be interested if the gram stain grows out anything. For now he'll continue on with the antibiotics.

oh oh...let us know how he's doing.

Good evening everyone, Thank you for your responses to my post above. I took Cookie to the vet yesterday and was told that it does look like she is over-preening in the area where she has the bald spot. The vet seemed much more concerned about doing a wellness check than what I had gone in for. She then tried to sell me on the idea (fear) that since she had fallen {I explained that she on occasion has night trashes; she said she has not heard that they are common in greys} perhaps we should do the avian bornn virus test. I declined since Cookie does not fall often and had all the tests done on her first visit there 11 years ago. The doctor then tells me that the test is much more accurate today (I don't like it when they try too hard to sell me on something I don't need. Anyhoo, I digress and will keep monitoring the area for any new signs of over preening and call the vet if it worsens. Thanks again!

Yes totally understand that. She spent 1hr this morning in the sun before it got really hot and she came back inside a new girl :) full of energy and even swinging upside down on her stand...she has never done that before!

Yes we are. Our vet is very capable. We got her some flat perches today :), tthank you!

Thank you so much! Yes we have a follow up on Friday will keep you updated.

I think it's sensible to get it checked out. It looks like she's either been over-preening or picking at that area, which means it might be bothering her. Better to be safe and get an avian vet to give her a look I think. Do let us know how you get on.

None of us are vets so can only advise what we would do in that situation. This does seem like very strange behaviour and not something which I have witnessed with my own bird. I would pester the vet again and if I wasn't happy with the treatment plan I would find a second avian vet for a second opinion.

As Greytness said, make sure you are seeing an avian vet. One comment I'd make is you might want to go to flat perches rather than round. Perching low like that can rub their keel and even split it with time. My TAG has a seizure disorder and a neurological condition, and that's the first thing the avian vet told me to do, get him off round perches.

Could you take her to another vet for a second opinion? The fact that she's no better idicates that her previous treatment plan hasn't worked. Fungus is a bear to get rid of, so if she has a fungal infection, she'll need long term medication. She looks like she's feeling badly. My vote is for a second opinion. Do you have a board certified avian vet in your area? Please let us know how she does.

I think you did the right thing to make an appointment with an avian vet, looks like she is picking at that area and it could be infected, most times when birds pluck or pick at a certain area it means something there is bothering them and an avian vet will be able to determine what is going on. Hope it turns out to be something easy to deal with.