New information about Chester

[chjery1000]

Hi everyone. It's been a while since I posted about Chester, so I thought I would update and ask a few questions. After his vet check http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =2&t=19326 he was doing very well and I believed that it was just stress due to the move. However, he started sleeping all the time again, throwing up and not vocalizing again. Needless to say I found a new vet.

After extensive testing I found out that he has a bacterial infection. The culture results are streptococcus. I tried him on an oral antibiotic and that was making him throw up more, so now we are doing antibiotic shots 2x's a week for 3 weeks. He's had 2 shots so far.

Some days he seems like he's getting better, some days he's throwing up off and on all day and sleeping the rest of it. He's still eating pretty well and vocalizing on and off.

I've added pellets to his diet now. He was an all seed bird before we adopted him. I also give him plenty of fresh foods. He really is taking to the pellets and loves to dunk them in water. Now I'm changing his water 3x's a day. All of this great with me to get him healthy.

I have started giving him organic apple cider vinegar in his water and organic yogurt, along with vitamins on his fresh food.

I'm curious if anyone has ever dealt with this type of illness? I would expect more of a change in his health after two shots. Is that reasonable? He very obviously came to me with this illness and although I'm very upset about his previous living conditions everything is spic & span here.

Any thought or ideas other than what I'm doing will be greatly appreciated!

I've been chilling out with trying to tame him for the time being, since he gets tortured twice a week, caught with a towel by me, put in a carrier, in the car to the vet, shotted and repeat. He's not liking me lately. This all after 4 days of forcing antibiotics down his throat 2x's a day.

I feel so bad altogether! Do you guys think we can build a friendship of trust after all of this?

[SunniDai]

I absolutely think you can. With time, consistency and patience.
Good job on what you are doing for him

[InTheAir]

I hope he starts perking up soon!

a couple of suggestions for making things less traumatic:
I really, really, really recommend you read this:
http://www.naturalencounters.com/docume ... fTrust.pdf
it is about building trust and mentions some strategies for vet care that can minimise damage to your relationship with bird.
Also, can you hold the travel cage up to the door of the cage and put lots of yum yums in travel cage so he can choose to enter it in his own time? That's what my boyfriend still does with Sapphire at work most of the time, because it is an open workshop and he hasn't built a stong enough relationship with her that she will let him restrain her (though she does sometimes say that he is allowed to do the restain method).

Once he is healthy again you can start rebuilding the trust account.

[MissK]

I agree with Dana - there may be a setback, but you can overcome it with time. Maybe lots and lots of time. Can you bear to just hand over the carrier and not go into the exam room? I know that's hard, but I would do anything possible to minimize the association of you together with trauma.

I also agree with Claire - let him go in the carrier on his own. It will be *much* better. When I want to crate up Rocky I do go to a little extreme, but it works very quickly and very well this way. I open the cage and the carrier, and place the doorways close enough together so he can just climb from his doorway onto the carrier door, and then right inside. Then I bring out the bribes and give him one or two, then drop the rest into the dish in the carrier. Presto/Change-o; I've got a bird in a box! The hardest part is holding the carrier. I do it this way because if I let Rocky out in the room first then he has to be persuaded that treats in the carrier are better than everything else in the room. The way I do it, he comes across the treats first and he's not about to walk past them, even though he could. It should go without saying that once he's trapped in the carrier he gets a bundle of high value treats AND I handle the carrier gently and thoughtfully - no tilting on the side, no bumping or bouncing.

[chjery1000]

Thanks for all of the suggestions!!

I have to say there is no way he would ever go inside of the crate on his own. We would be waiting until the cows came home. If he even sees the crate he starts screaming. And really there is no one food that he loves either. He's off and on with what he likes, sometimes he'll eat certain foods, sometimes he won't. I don't know if that's illness related or not.

Today we had shot #3. He snapped out of zombie bird a lot sooner. Most times it's taken him at least an hour to move, today he was preening and eating within 15 minutes, so I guess that's something.

He is terribly hard to figure out but I'm working on it. He's not at all aggressive just terrified of hands.

Slow and steady wins the race right? First we get him healthy and then maybe we can try working on being friends.

[MissK]

You've got my sympathy. This can't be easy.

[chjery1000]

You've got my sympathy. This can't be easy.

Thanks you! And no it isn't.

I've only had him for a couple of months, so I don't even know his "real" personality yet. He was very obviously ill when I brought him home.

He has been flip flopping on acting better some days and not others. We have shot #4 on Saturday and then a re-check with the vet on Tuesday. She's going to weigh him again to see if he's gained any weight. If not I'm not sure what the next step is. He was 95 grams at his first visit with her. So he's skinny and the throwing up isn't helping him gain anything.

Today he seems a little better again. Still sleeping a lot but eating a lot and I've only seen him throw up once. He's been vocalizing a bit and he also initiated another bath, so I grabbed my water bottle and gave him a good soak down. He enjoyed it. This is the second time in a week he has bathed in his water bowl. And they are the first times he has done it since I've had him, so I guess that's good.

I hope to find out more next Tuesday and hopefully I can report back with promising news.

[InTheAir]

I don't know if Chester has the same taste, but something my birds LOVE is harrisons high potency pellets made into a porridge with hot water. They lick the bowl clean! I usually mix a tiny piece of guava in to it. It might be worth a try.

[chjery1000]

We just got back from our re-check. Chester weighed 95 grams at his first appointment and today he weighed 128 grams, so he has gained very well. I thought he felt heavier but it's hard to tell through a towel.

He has one more shot on Saturday, then we are going to wait a week and redo the white blood cell count to see if it's within normal range. He was 3 times high at his first visit.

Once we get those results back and they are good we're in the clear and I can start enjoying Chester. I'm crossing everything that it's all good. Otherwise we'll have to do more testing.

"InTheAir" Do you feed your guys the high potency all the time? I read they suggest it in times of transition, breeding and stress. I plan to buy them as soon as we go through what we have but I'm curious if it's something you should feed daily forever or just at certain times?

I'm just so happy that he even likes pellets, I know he was never fed fresh foods or pellets. Poor guy was a seed only bird until he came here.

[InTheAir]

That's great news! Chester is such a good boy!

I only just started my guys on harrisons a couple weeks ago. They were eating roudybush maintenance before.
Sapphire devoured the sample of hp and Nila ate some. Since I bought a big bag, they aren't so keen on it unless it is porridge and they think roudybush is the best treat ever!

[chjery1000]

I currently have Chester on Zupreem Natural and he loves it! I never thought that an all seed bird would take to pellets so quickly, but he has. He's a dunker so I have moved the bowls around in his cage to have his water by his pellets so he can eat more. It's worked. I work from home so I just change out his water 2 or 3 times a day to keep it clean.

I plan to get a bag of Harrisons too. I think the high potency would be good for him right now. I haven't tried a pellet porridge yet, I may have to try that. Do you just soak the pellets in warm water and squish them all up together? That might be another good way I can get him yogurt.

I'm also curious for you and everyone to let me know what they think about peanuts in shell. With his bacterial infection and lowered immune system I took them all away and shelled them. He doesn't like peanuts shelled, he much preferred ripping open the shell and eating them that way. We have the roasted peanuts, no salt added for people that we were feeding him as a treat. Should I risk it or not? I know it's kind of a heated topic.

That's great news! Chester is such a good boy!

I only just started my guys on harrisons a couple weeks ago. They were eating roudybush maintenance before.
Sapphire devoured the sample of hp and Nila ate some. Since I bought a big bag, they aren't so keen on it unless it is porridge and they think roudybush is the best treat ever!

[InTheAir]

I make pellet porridge by putting some pellets and hot water (plus fruit or veg I want to add) in a coup cup and leave the coup cup in a bowl of boiling water while I have a coffee and wait for the birds to wake up... When I hear 'peep peep' coming from a bird cage, the pellets are usually a perfect porridge.

I don't know about peanuts, I don't feel their nutritional benefits fit into my birds current diet so I don't feed them. My birds high fat treat is sunflower seed. Try searching it on this forum, I'm sure I've read some pretty in depth links from Melikas posts. It sounds like Chester really enjoys the enrichment of shelling peanuts!

[MissK]

Why not wrap the actual peanuts (no shell) in paper, a few thicknesses might replicate a peanut shell without the crunch.

I sometimes just put a little water in the bottom of a pellet dish and they soak it right up. Right now Lynnie is sitting at his water, dunking his pellet, eating off the soft outside and redunking. Resourceful little guy!!

[chjery1000]

I'm trying a porridge this morning. At first it was scary to my Parrotlets and Chester hasn't tried it yet. The Parrotlets now think it's delicious and are gorging on it

I hope Chester tries it, he is so picky about trying new foods.

I used 3 tbsp of pellets and hot water to just make them float. I put some mixed berries in the food processor yesterday and made them into a pasty liquid and froze them. There is one tbsp of that and 1 tsp of yogurt. I knew the Parrotlets love berries so I figured they would like it. Chester hasn't touched a berry yet, but he loves the pellets. As with everything else if he doesn't eat it this time if I keep offering it eventually he'll at least try it.

Thanks for the idea! What a good way to get them what they need without them knowing.

[chjery1000]

Just wanted to update. Chester watched the Parrotlets enjoy their porridge and decided to see what the rave was all about. Now he's loving it too! I'm so happy with the results!! I'll be adding this to the recipe list for weekly rotation. Thanks so much!

I'm trying a porridge this morning. At first it was scary to my Parrotlets and Chester hasn't tried it yet. The Parrotlets now think it's delicious and are gorging on it

I hope Chester tries it, he is so picky about trying new foods.

I used 3 tbsp of pellets and hot water to just make them float. I put some mixed berries in the food processor yesterday and made them into a pasty liquid and froze them. There is one tbsp of that and 1 tsp of yogurt. I knew the Parrotlets love berries so I figured they would like it. Chester hasn't touched a berry yet, but he loves the pellets. As with everything else if he doesn't eat it this time if I keep offering it eventually he'll at least try it.

Thanks for the idea! What a good way to get them what they need without them knowing.

[InTheAir]

That's great! What brave birdies