Vomiting and Melena

[Val27]

Last Tues night Gracie had to be taken to the ER vet. She is a 13 yr old cockatiel. Gracie had seemed fine all day then about an hour after I took her out of her cage to watch a movie, she flew off her cage and came to me. Her head appeared to be wet but was crunchy feeling. She had something on her feathers. My husband thought maybe she was playing in her water because he saw droplets hanging from the cage bars. When he touched them to show me they were mucousy. At the vet she threw up the same fluid so we then knew what it was. They did a slide and found only normal bacteria. Gracie had also lost approx 10% of her weight since June and the vet said her lungs did sound a little raspy on her back. Gracie was put on an antibiotic and sent home. The next day she had black runny stool so I rushed a sample to check for blood. Sure enough there was blood. Gracie had stopped vomiting, as far as I can tell. No signs of vomit since Tuesday. The vet then changed the antibiotic and gave some Sucralfate. By the time I got home to give the new meds Gracie's poop looked like it was getting back to normal. That was about 8 hrs later. I gave the meds anyway. Since then Gracie has been looking better and no more black stools. I have kept the vet updated about everything and am taking her in for a recheck this coming Tuesday. The vet suspects an upper GI irritation or even a cancer due to her age. I thought 13 wasn't too old for a cockatiel. I do realize cancer knows no age though. I am leaving for vacation in 2 1/2 weeks and am scared to death for Gracie. Blood in bird droppings is called Melena. There is no possibility of lead poisoning either (no new toys and has not come in contact with anything that she hasn't been around all her life). Gracie appears to be feeling better and is eating, drinking and pooping fine (except a few runny stools after I give the antibiotics then it seems to gradually go back to normal). She is not under weight yet but 10% is alot of weight loss (she was not overweight to begin with either). In the thread 'Tule threw up' there is a similar situation. Gracie has been purposely scratching her ear on a chewed perch on her play gym. Not vigorously just a slight rub against. Didn't seem abnormal to me. Her ears look clear (the vet looked at them and saw nothing wrong). I didn't mention the scratching on her perch to the vet since it didn't seem like a problem to me. I will on Tuesday though. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of situation? Any comments, tips, or questions would be very much appreciated. Thankyou.