kyparamedic Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 I just got my CAG from a coworker. She's 3-4 year's old and is plucking her feathers. He said that she had been doing this for the last couple of months and it has gotten worse recently, he thinks because he hasn't had any time for her, which is why he wanted to find her a new home. You can see her bare chest which looks scaly and dry in a lot of places and part of her back looks kind of raggedy. I have placed a humidifier near her cage and have been trying to give her lots of attention. The first 2 days I would leave her cage open to see if she wanted to come out, I wouldn't go in after her. When she did, I would walk up to her and see if she would let me pet her. She would lower her head down and let me pet it and let me pet her beak, but then sometime she would grab my finger. Normally it was a soft nip but other times it could be hard. A couple of times when I've gone to pick her up she's bitten hard enough to draw blood. She doesn't talk as much as he said she did, which he said was normal around new people, but she has started saying more things, like her name, and other stuff that I don't understand. She also makes lots of bird noises now. I bought some moisturizing spray with aloe vera that's supposed to help with plucking. She absolutely hates it though. If I even go near the bottle she starts squawking and flapping her wings. I try to get it without her seeing it but I feel like I'm tricking her and making her mad and this may not be the best thing. What should I do? I'm going to schedule an appt. with the vet but would like to try to do something in the meantime. There's always small white feathers in her water bowl and she'll shake, sending what looks like a dust storm everywhere. Also, sometimes when she's out of her cage she'll stand on one leg, pull the other one up and extend it out along with that wing. I don't know if she's trying to show off or what. Any ideas? Thanks, Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaffyToons Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Give her some time to adjust. African Greys are notoriously afraid of any kind of change. Keep the humidifier close by her cage. She is probably very afraid of the spray bottle, so, for now, at least until she is better acclimated to you and your home, I would forego it. A trip to an avian vet is a good idea, too. Go slow, slow, slow with her. Let her build her confidence in you that you are not going to hurt her. Also, when she stands on one leg and extends the other leg out with her wing, she is just stretching. All my birds do it. ) Please keep us posted! Jen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 Ohhh Kyparamedic ... it sounds as if she's feeling rather poor, no? (with the plucking and all) - Or is this just my impression? Hopefully she'll feel settled and at ease soon and things will go better with that (plucking). Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyparamedic Posted February 8, 2007 Author Share Posted February 8, 2007 Thanks for all the advice. She's doing pretty good now, except for the plucking and biting. She seems much more comfortable and always wants to come out and visit. She likes me to scratch her head and always lowers it down but then will randomly try to bite me. A lot of times it's not a bite, just a soft nip like she's tasting my finger or something. It's hard to tell what she's going to do so it makes me nervous when she does this. She loves to chew and shred paper and I'll hold it up to her to let her shred it but I'm wondering if this is encouraging her biting or she thinks it's a game. The other night she'd try to bite, I'd pull away, and then she'd act like she wasn't paying attention and try to get me. Her skin seems very dry and she scratches a lot and when she does it looks like "dandruff" is going everywhere. I've stopped spraying her as she obviously doesn't like it. Something else interesting is that the other day my roommate was in the room and petting her and she just jumped off and grabbed ahold of his pants and started trying to climb up him until I went over and she climbed onto my hand. This is the 2nd time she's gone after him. He hasn't done anything to provoke her that I can tell, and she lets him pet her although he's extremely nervous about the whole biting thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 I think the beak of a bird is somewhat like a human being's hand... touching, feeling... that's probably the reason why so many of them use this part of their body to 'connect' - until they're told it's forbidden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaffyToons Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 I would encourage paper shredding, as it may keep her busy with that instead of biting or plucking her feathers. My one CAG, Sylvester, spends almost his entire day shredding rope toys. I pick up handfuls of string that he demolished during the day. It keeps him busy! You can buy safe paper toys for your bird to shred. That will ensure the ink (if any) is bird safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyparamedic Posted February 8, 2007 Author Share Posted February 8, 2007 FairY, how do you let them know it's forbidden? From what I've read, the best thing to do is ignore it and just take it. However, even when I try my hardest to ignore it, it's pretty obvious I'm not enjoying it and I think she knows this! I think she gets some perverted pleasure out of this. When I have yelled at her, she just kinda gives me this look like, what are you going to do about it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 Kyparamedic, I've seen Brdiecat write here that she just stops giving attention to the bird if he does something forbidden. I think it doesn't really matter if your Grey notices you don't like it, it matters what you do with it. What Brdiecat writes sounds very logical to me, knowing that bad behaviour results in no attention anymore seems to me sufficient to let him stop. No? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyparamedic Posted February 14, 2007 Author Share Posted February 14, 2007 Well, I thought I'd give an update. After a $620 vet bill, I've found out that my grey probably has an aspergillosis infection. They're sending lab work and cultures off to the University of Miami but it will take 4-5 weeks for results of the cultures to come back since they have to culture it for 4 weeks. He became concerned after her xrays showed distended air sacs and a small spot around her lung. He also wants to rule out heavy metal toxicity. He said the next step is to scope her to see exactly what's there and to possibly get a culture. I go back next week. I can't wait to see the bill on that one. In the meantime I'm getting her flucanazole orally every 24 hours and spraying her 4x day which she hates. It's this product called Pluck No More that's homeopathic. He said it's only one of 2 products he's ever endorsed but that it's the only thing he's seen work consistently. I put it in her water as well. So I guess we'll find out more next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Kyparamedic, I'm so sorry, poor birdie (poor wallet as well :blush: ) What a pity a culture takes that long to show results... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyparamedic Posted February 15, 2007 Author Share Posted February 15, 2007 Well it takes a full 4 weeks to fully grow but they will test it every week. There's a possibility then that it can test positive before that but negative doesn't really mean anything until the full 4 weeks of culturing, i could be wrong about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 That's sounds perfectly logical to me (but I'm no vet either ) Hopefully it'll be treated soon, whatever it is that makes him feel poorly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyparamedic Posted March 4, 2007 Author Share Posted March 4, 2007 Well, I'll give a quick update. She was negative for aspergillus. He felt everything was in order with her and that the feather plucking was psychological and to continue with the Pluck-No-More and change her diet around. That was until I told him that she had regurgitated some food the other day. I asked about blood work before to check calcium and other blood chemistry but he didn't feel it was necessary but would do it if I wanted it. After telling him about the regurgitation though, he said he wanted the blood. It was a good thing we did, as her kidney enzymes were very elevated. He felt the reason for the regurgitation was due to this as a build up of phosphorous and uric acid can cause this. Although he also said that if she did this in front of me, it could also be because she considers me her mate :ohmy: So he kept her overnight and gave her some subcutaneous fluids which pretty much resolved everything which made him believe she may have just not have had enough to drink that day. Anyway he wanted to check her again in a week just to make sure and he wanted to show me how to properly bathe her. This time, her enzymes were triple what they were before. So now he wanted x-rays again. He saw some concentrated uric acid in her kidneys even after an IV fluid bolus. He kept her overnight again and her bloodwork was back to normal the next day. Since I had already paid $1200 in vet bills, he waived the $150 for staying the night and the bloodwork he did the next day. He's trying to rule out all possible causes so we've changed her diet to Harrison's only as he doesn't like dyed pellets and this one is organic. No other foods. We've also discontinued the Diflucan. There are a lot of different causes, the worst of which is congenital kidney disease, for which there is no treatment. Infection can be a cause, but her WBC count was normal the first time i took her in which means it may not have elevated yet or she has no infection. If it wasn't for the kidney enzymes, he would give her a clean bill of help. He said she looks and acts completely healthy. The definitive diagnosis will be a biopsy, but he only wants to do that as a last resort. So she goes back in 2 weeks. Hopefully the elevation was related to food or the Diflucan. In the meantime though, she starting acting a little strange today, regurgitating again. I'm going to start a new post on that. Guess this wasn't really a quick update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaffyToons Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 Hoo boy. I can't imagine how frustrated you are, especially after all the testing (and money!) and still no answers. Prayers that they can find the problem and that a clean bill of health is presented! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tammymello Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Wow! I am just glad to hear you are taking the necessary steps. So many people have birds and do not properly take care of them. Please keep us updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Kyparamedic what a confusing time I hope everything will turn out OK in the end and this will be a passing thing. Your vet do sound like a very thorough professional guy though, and notwithstanding the large sum of money you had to pay already, it's always better to know you're doing everything possible for your pet and he sounds like that's just what he's doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyparamedic Posted March 24, 2007 Author Share Posted March 24, 2007 Well, she just went to her last vet appt. for a while (I hope). After her kidney enzymes were elevated for two visits in a row, they were normal this time. Her fungal culture results came back and were all negative. He thinks it was probably a fluke or related to her diet which we have changed. However, her calcium level was up along with her weight. This, along with the fact that she's been regurgitating for me leads him to believe that she's preparing to lay an egg. He couldn't feel it, but due to the change in seasons and her behavior, he doesn't think it's far off. So we decided to go ahead and give her a shot of Lupron (a hormone) which should hopefully keep her from laying and calm her down sexually. He also hopes it will solve the plucking problem. We shall see. In the meantime I have to start covering her cage at around 5pm to limit the amount of light since the days have gotten longer and observe her closely for any signs of nesting behavior. I'm calling him next week to let him know how she's doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreyMiester Posted March 24, 2007 Share Posted March 24, 2007 kyparamedic, I am suspicious of your vet. It sounds like he is milking you for your money. He ordered all these test and has concluded it's lack of attention? Also, He now wants more test? I would seriously get a second opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyparamedic Posted March 24, 2007 Author Share Posted March 24, 2007 I really don't think so. I've known this guy for 15 years, he took care of my iguana since I was a kid. When I told him I was concerned about how far we were going to go with all this he told me that he knew it was expensive but he wanted to get to the bottom of it and he would help me out if necessary. He kept her overnight to hydrate her and redraw blood and then didn't charge me anything which saved me about $200. He is very thorough and does order lots of tests sometimes but he also testifies as an expert witness in malpractice cases so he knows the standard of care. Kind of sad the veterinary world is becoming like the medical world, but that's another topic. I'm not sure where I said that he concluded it was lack of attention. If anything he said I needed to give her more appropriate attention, limiting the way I interact with her since she's become sexually aggresive. I've already noticed some change since the Lupron shot, specifically she's not plucking as much and is not regurgitating. I'm sure there are plenty of other good vets out there but he's very familiar with her case now and is the only avian diplomat in the state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreyMiester Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 My bad, I misunderstood some details. I just don't want to see anyone get ripped, thats all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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