yankeesfan81

His sayings keep ringing in my head "Gotta Go Poop" "Whats Up Buddy" "Come Here Buddy" and all of his wonderful whistles. my fiance and I already discussed another bird, but we can never get another African Grey, it would remind us of Rafikki too mch.

Well the Dr called again and informed us that Rafikki has an enlarged Thryoid gland. He said it was 6 times the normal size and it was putting pressure on his airways. He also said that with an increase in Thyroid came an increased heart rate, so he had a weak heart. They are going to let us know in a week or two whether it was cancer or not. The Dr also told us that there was nothing we could have done to save him. It was a fluke thing that is hard to diagnose. They are sending his ID band back to us for a keepsake so we will always remember him.

The Dr told my fiance that he had signs of leukemia. We should be hearing back from him tomorrow with the results from the necropsy. I will keep you informed.

Well we received the phone call today. Rafikki passed while they were performing his endoscopy to see if he had an obstruction in his throat and trachea. While they were doing the procedure his heart started to slow and they gave him adrenaline and it didnt help. They are going to do an autopsy to find out why and they will let us know. Thank you all for your prayers. RIP Rafikki 1.5 yrs old Matt Post edited by: yankeesfan81, at: 2007/11/28 21:20<br><br>Post edited by: yankeesfan81, at: 2007/11/28 21:20

Alright well we received a not so warming phone call tonight from the Dr. Rafikki has high counts of white blood cells in his little body, meaning that there is an infection somewhere. The possibility of aspergillosis is still there but now he said that their is a chance that he also contracted PDD. Which from what he said and the research that I have done is ultimately fatal. Birds can live for weeks and months after diagnosis but ultimately will die. PDD is a virus and the Dr has no idea where it would come from. But he said that there still is a chance that it wont be that but they will be doing more research tomorrow. Rafikki is chipper and aware and doesnt seem to have any bad signs that he is sick other than weight loss, raspy heavy breathing and loss of voice. It just doesnt seem fair that he has to go through this at only 1.5 yrs old. Hopefully things will get better and he doesnt have PDD. We will know more tomorrow night. Matt

The Dr wasnt too worried if it was aspergillosis. He just said that it would be a long 4 weeks of giving him antibiotics. But we will see. Hopefully it is something as simple as an object lodged in his throat. Hopefully.

Alright well we went to a local vet who had an avian specialist. Very nice people but the vet didnt really have an answer for us as to what the problem was without doing bloodwork. So she sent us to Cornell University, from what I hear the best avian specialists are there. And after a long day of traveling and vet visits, we came home empty handed. Rafikki is being held for testing for at least a day. The doctor told us that the 2 likely problems could be that he contracted Aspergillosis, a fungal infection, or that he swallowed something and the object became lodged in his throat near his trachea. My first thoughts were Aspergillosis because I heard that it can be contracted through eating shelled peanuts, but they must eat alot of peanuts. And we dont have small enough objects that he can get into and swallow. Unless it was a piece of food that got lodged. But we received a message on our voicemail when we got home and the Dr said that Rafikki is doing remarkably well, they have him in an incubator on oxygen. They are going to have the results from the initial bloodwork tomorrow morning and they are going to give us a call.

Yeah we made an appointment this morning so we will be taking him in a couple mins.

Hello, I have had my AG for over a year and never had any problems. Well just recently we noticed that our AG was kind of breathing heavy and noisier than usual. And we just recently went over to the cage and noticed that he is losing his voice?!?!?! Is this possible? He tries to whistle but it doesnt come out great like usual. We did notice that he has been urinating alot more. THe feces is solid and normal color but the urine that comes out along with it has increased but then again his drinking has also so we thought it had to do with his increase in drinking. His appetite has increased a little bit. There is nothing visually wrong with any feathers or the cere. His weight has maintained and not decreased at all. There are a couple other symptoms that I am going to be looking for . But my main concern is his loss of voice? I didnt know if that was possible just like a human with laryngitis. Or whether it may be something serious. Any insight would be great. Thanks Matt