Morana

Guys, does anyone know a site, store, anything.. from which to buy at least one of these type of food in Sweden? The official site from Totally organics had the links for Europe and I think one of them was for Sweden but now they are gone so I need help. Any info will be greatly appreciated:-)

I can understand vet schools buying dead animals but I do not think they do it via e-bay. If you want to sell it to the vets and institutes then you offer animals to them-not via e-bay. The only thing with less taste would be if the seller had an auction for the birds:-(

Done. Really shameful!

Yes he would, because I saw him poop the pieces!!!!! So watch out for your birdie!!

No, I'm trying to awake what else could my precious parrot eat while I'm not looking so I can get rid of it right now ;-)

Well, I know it can build up over time depending on what he eats in the future.. That is why I'm keeping an eye on him. And he'll be going on his total check up so we'll know more but I was afraid of him dying here and now and since he didn't change his behavior or his eating, I'm hoping he is really fine. Thank you for worrying. I'll call my vet again.

Well guys, haven't been in touch because Zak and I had some things to resolve. Long story short, I had a state exam and Zak was my moral support and a personal cheerleader:-) He was doing great! Sometimes he even stayed late by my side while I was studying. I passed the exam and Zak passed the questionable period. It means, if he had any intention on having metal poisoning he would already have done it and according to the vet, since his "bag" (where he puts his food) didn't swell he is out off the danger. If his "bag" had swollen that would mean he didn't get all the pieces of the zipper out. He's been playing, showering,cuddling, eating normally, drinking his fluids,all OK so we are out of the woods. The shirt with the zipper went to the trash asap and I'm watching him closely so he wouldn't eat something else he is not supposed to. So, I'm sorry I didn't post sooner, I was waiting what will happen with him because I wanted to avoid the x-ray at any cost and this exam was killing me and all the time with it. Thank you all for sticking in with us!:-)

I know it would. I don't care how much it costs. I'm just deeding the stress that comes with it. That is why I haven't done it already.

Thanks for asking:-) Well, he s the same. drinking quite enough yogurt but not pooping out new pieces :-/ Playing, singing, screaming a bit when hungry... I'm worried that he is not pooping the pieces out.. I don't know. We'll call the vet again.

So, I'm officially on the sick leave so Zak and I are little bit on the down side together. He eats plenty of yogurt in the evening (have no idea why). He ate so much that I thought he would pop! The bit I don't like at all is that his poop became really green today. He doesn't have a diarrhea, but very dark green poop. I don't like that one bit. And he didn't poop any new zipper pieces:-( I'm very worried again.. :,-( But on the bright side, he is still playing, he cuddled a lot today. Haven't seen him/heard him drink water..? Maybe I just missed it. Will keep an closer eye on him tomorrow. I slept a good part of the day today anyway (but he didn't go to the cage at that time-he kept an close eye on me;-))

No new pieces guys but he is looking and acting fine. He ate a lot of yogurt today. Kinda threw all the fresh cheese away but I have feeling he's gonna like it because it is similar taste to yogurt. Now he is just being picky (like his parent;-)). I even bought a baby food-mashed fruit without sugar. It is denser than the regular juice so he didn't like it ( he didn't like my home made version also). It was my attempt to get him to like some other shapes of his food. Will try again. Ate a bit of oat. Well, all in all we are hanging in there! Thank you all once more for being so supportive and caring. It means a lot:-)

I get right on it:-) Thanks:-)

of the zipper!

zak just pooped two of the pieces!!! :-)

My vet answered my last email. She said something like, if Zak did eat a lot of heavy metals, symptoms would be visible right away, so sooner rather than later,and if he did take little inside him, the chronic poisoning I can stop by being careful about his surroundings-I threw all the zippers away,and I'll have to change some locks on the cage too. He has a padlock on the top of the cage which he doesn't touch but I don't want to risk it. Any suggestions where I could find a type of lock which is made from a safe material? Also she says that the pieces must come out but haven't found anything yet. Well, that is not entirely true, on Sunday I found 3 little, flat, brown pieces but I ruled them out as part of the zipper. Can he really melt the metal with his stomach acid? I haven't thought of that till now. He still eats normally, drinks OK- not to much, sings/plays. Everything seems normal except me freaking out:-/ So, the right away poisoning kinda puts me little bit at ease (since it didn't happen-he doesn't have any symptoms), but we'll see.

Zak seems fine. He has been talking his ass off since I came from work. Ate a lot but not the stuff he really should. Fresh things he ate but yogurt he doesn't want at the moment. I'll try again soon. He'll get oat and yogurt for dinner. Fresh cheese tomorrow when he gets hungry again. Didn't pop out anything interesting but watches me very suspiciously when I get through his every poop. No diarrhea. We'll see how it goes. I'll keep you posted. He is perching quite happily on my shoulder but I'm still in constant fear. Thanks guys so much for your support! Don't know what would I do without you all!

I called the vet today-it's her boss (mine is on the trip till the end of the week) and I ended up being somewhat puzzled. She said it all depends on how the zipper is made, even it has zink it may be made in such manner that it's not soluble in Zaks stomach acid. Well she said a lot of things but she said that we can't know for sure what it is. She doesn't know where I could get it tested. She recommended a lot of yogurt, fresh food, mushy food like fresh cow cheese, no salad because it is useless, better some other green leaves to get the pieces out. Also, we can make an RTG but it will just show us that he ingested it. There are treatments for the poisoning but unless we are certain we can make some damage with them because some of the drugs are hard on the stomach. Well, she explained it in more detail, I just don't know how to translate it. She also said that from zink some symptoms may include that he gets blue around his beak or his feet turn blue, he may start to drink a lot of water, pee a lot... basically, I was panicking and she tried to calm me down. She is not sure whether their (the faculty lab) lab could even do the blood test and if they do if it is under 250mg (if I remembered correctly) it wouldn't be considered toxic. Usually the tests are made for when a wire is in question because then they have a mixture of zink, lead and maybe copper. So the prevention measures for me (if I understood her correctly) would be administering those food, maybe a half a tablet of active coal for max of two days (but it is usually used for food problems not for this but it can't hurt), wait for him to poop it out and look out for some nervous related disorders, blue feet and around the beak, (I also read blood in droppings and really green diarrhea) and hope for the best. And yes, she said we could do the RTG but I'm not at all happy about it. Because if he goes he'll be a nervous wreck, probably his belly acid may become stronger and solve the zink inside.. I'm just speculating but I'm gonna think about it more. It seems to me they can just count the pieces and then ask me to bring him again after a time to count it again. I don't know. I'm in conflict. I desperately want to help him but I know how bad it got last time he had an RTG so its a hard decision. He seems so fine (I know it can be deceiving). She also mentioned to look out for a strange head posture.. I don't know. I'm still panicking and not thinking strait and Zak sees right through me so I think he is afraid a bit:-( But he is playing, eating normally, drinking OK, not tilting in any way, not blue and poops nicely-no diarrhea.

well, Zak drank a lot of yogurt. I think he would drink even more if I gave but I'm not sure how much is OK. Guys? He doesn't want an oatmeal. I'm now cooking it again. maybe a warm one will be more appealing. Peanut butter is out because he won't have any even from my fingers (not even combined with an oatmeal). He haven't pooped anything interesting yet but otherwise is doing OK. My vet replied but I'm not we understood each other correctly. Have sent her another mail and then we'll see. She is out of Croatia at the moment-business trip:-/ She said to give him a bit of egg-white or active coal (this is a literal translation from my language so I hope I didn't write something very wrong). She recommended an RTG but if the pieces are that small as I say, she thinks they will probably come out through the poop. Maybe irritate the coon a bit. I'm not that crazy about getting him to the RTG because it will be a huge stress for him and we already know what he ate. Am I missing something here? She doesn't know will there be poisoning since i actually don't know which material is the zipper made off. I'll try to find where i can get that tested.

Thanks Judy Oatmeal on itself doesn't stick to his beak but the peanut butter in it does, so I'll try feeding it from my fingers. It actually tastes really good. I think I like it more than Zak does;-) PS: I feed yogurt via syringe (like all the liquid stuff he likes -juices so I don't have many problems with giving medicaments)

Well, Zak didn't poop out anything valuable for now. I managed to find a store that works today so he got his yogurt and oats. He drank a bit of yogurt, ate just a bit of oats and he scraped all the peanut butter of his beak. I think the problem with the latter is that he doesn't like when something sticks to his beak. Now he got some seeds. i kinda figured that it is good if we fill his crop. With the seeds he might poop out a bit of the zipper. He'll get more oats and yogurt later. There is no point in forcing it or he won't want to eat it again.. He is acting completely normal. I'm still waiting for the vet to reply:-(

Uh, I don't have oats home except in a grain. I have crushed barley. Can I use this?

Nothing. I estimate there could have been 20-24 pieces of the zipper. I'll be cooking oatmeal momentarily but since Zak basically hates both peanut butter and oat meal what do you think about green salad? It has a lot of water in it and maybe it would give his stool a "push".

I already checked that yesterday evening when I noticed what is missing and didn't find any pieces!!!! But I ll go and check again now

Well I read the pages but of all the substances that some people advise I am afraid to use any of it although I don't know a lot what they even mean. I'll try with the peanut-butter and see how that goes. I don't won't to buy any kind of drugs without my vet saying something about it first. Zak had two droppings this morning. Both without anything in them.

Tnx guys! I'll try the oat meal and check his poop. Vet has not a answering machine, or anything else because it is a vet at a university. There are a lot of vets here but just two that I know are avian vets. Those two are my vet and her boos and they work at the same place at the same time so no vet till Monday:-(( I know that there are no other avian vets because I already asked my vet to recommend me someone if things go south during, let say, weekend. She recommended me two good people but they are not avian vets and I don't think I would let anyone touch Zak. Tnx for the pages, I'll be on it right now. Zak is his old self but I'm concerned what will happen if that stays in the crop too long.. I'll keep you posted.