Head-shaking

Perry was exhibiting some strange behaviour last week.

On the afternoon of Tuesday 12th March, he started doing some random head shaking movements. He appeared quite distressed. It looked like he wanted to vomit but nothing came out (see videos below). After each head-shaking episode, he sat very still & seemed to breathe heavily. I was alarmed enough to ring the vet, however, she was not available that day.

I arranged to visit a local vet early evening instead. However, an hour or so later, Perry seemed to be fine, so (stupidly?) I cancelled the vet visit. Naturally, not long after I did that, he was exhibiting the same odd behaviour again but the local vet was now fully booked.

As it looked like he may be having breathing problems I thought it would be a good idea to nebulise him with F10 (as I have been doing with Dalai). It seems though, that Perry is more highly strung than Dalai & was so stressed covered up in the travel cage that he vomited. I vowed never to subject him to such a horrific experience again!

So, I continued to monitor him the rest of the evening, & overnight. The next morning I was able to get an appointment with the usual vet, who visited early afternoon. That morning, I saw Perry do the head-shaking thing again, though only once. Did this mean he was getting better?

The vet gave him an examination & also viewed the videos I had taken of Perry’s behaviour. She could not see any obvious reason for what was going on. His temperature was fine, as was his heart rate. Unfortunately, during the examination, she found a small lump on his lower belly, that he has been starting to pluck. It is not visible unless the feathers are parted. This is clearly something we need to keep an eye on.

It was possible that Perry had a seed husk or something that had gone down the wrong way & it was irritating him. It was also possible that Perry had an ear infection, & it would not hurt to have some antibiotics, so the vet prescribed 5 days of Enrobactin in water.

So, we have now finished the antibiotics and Perry seems fine. Since the morning of the 13th, I have not seen any more of the head-shaking. Hopefully it was just a one-off happening & we are now back to our version of normal.