my TAG Biko died last night

[Guest phishingitup]

I came home from work yesterday and he was sleeping, a little weird cause I got home early about 2:00 in the afternoon. but he woke up when I came in.I opened their cages to let them out as I always do. he sometimes stays inside so I didn't suspect anything.

when he didn't come out.

I went to feed them about 7:00 I noticed that he didn't eat any of his dinner from the night before. as I was putting his dinner in his cage he came out and went to the top and he grabbed on the top and laid down and he was panting heavily.. as soon as I touched him he got up and went inside the cage and stopped panting..

I immediately called my girlfriend to tell her he was sick and that I was going to take him to the vet. I put him in a towel and then in his carrying cage. I have a vet right near my house less than 3 min away...they were closed, so I drove to the pet store about 5 mins away. to see if they knew of a vet that was open..and on my way home from the pet store to call the vet., Biko started to choke/cough I pulled over and took him out and he died in my hands.

It was less than a hour from the time I realized that he was sick.

I'm not sure what happened, I'm posting this to see if maybe I overlooked something.

I do have another CAG that seams to be fine they were kept in the same room.

there are a few things that might have caused Biko's passing but I'm not sure what actually happened.

1, My roommate was cooking the other night and burnt his food( no nonstick pots in this house) and had the kitchen quite smoky.

2, I turned on a air purifier and left it on all night to get the smoky smell out of the house.

3, Biko liked to chew on the baseboard next to his cage. I have a very old house and most likely has lead paint. I would stop him whenever I caught him doing it, and he didn't do it all the time ...

4, Old age? he was about 20 years old, I know that some say they live 30-40 years but I also heard that only in some cases. I don't know the average life cycle of a TAG.

 

If any of you can help me to find out what happened so I can prevent this from happening again, or if you have some other idea that might have caused this. it would be greatly appreciated.

and most of all do not wait 1 second if you suspect that your bird is sick.. I don't know if a DR. could have helped but from the time I thought he was sick to the time he died was not long at all.

 

I'm going to miss you Biko

Rest In Peace, God Bless You

[Guest philbob10]

generally mask signs of illness until it is too late. He might have died from lead poisoning, he might have died from smoke inhalation, or any number of things. Unless you have a post mortem done, you won't have any idea why he died and perhaps correct a problem before the other one dies too.

[Guest javacrypto]

I'm so very very sorry to hear about your sweet Biko, JC. What an awful thing to have happen!

 

The only way you can have a chance at knowing what happened to him is to have the vet do a necropsy. Necropsy results aren't always conclusive but they're better than guesswork. If he hadn't been properly stored until this morning, though, it would be too late for that.

 

Once again, I'm so very very sorry.