Update on Perry’s health

In my last post on this subject (click here) I reported about Perry’s ‘turns’.  We have had further developments.

On the 4th July, Perry had, what I would describe as a ‘Twitchfest’.  He twitched, though not violently, off & on all day, but settled by bedtime.  I was on edge the whole time, anticipating that he would get worse.

Perry

Perry’s next, more significant, episode was on Saturday, the 22nd August.  At around 11am, he began twitching, & a couple of those were major enough to propel him off the perch.  At one point, he was hanging from the perch by one foot.  He seemed okay after about 15 minutes.  However, about two & a half hours later, the twitches began again, but this time they were throwing him off the perch, on average every 30 seconds (sometimes the frequency between was longer, sometimes shorter).  Lennie was sensible & went into Dalai’s cage, so I locked him in there for the duration.

For about an hour the twitches continued, at varying levels of intensity.  Each time his movement was from his left to the right, so I could predict where he would go/land.  Sometimes he would have a few minutes where he was just twitching & able to stay on the perch.  He pooped throughout, but a watery substance.  Through it all, he did not make a sound.  He was completely aware & scared as he clearly did not know what was happening to him.  The times he landed on the bottom of the cage he immediately made his way back up.  By 3pm they were subsiding & he was able to preen & behave a bit more normally, by which time, Lennie joined him again.

Things had settled down by the Monday, but nevertheless, I spoke to the vet, & she suggested adding calcium to their water as they were both still moulting.

New cage set up L to R: hospitalisation cage, ‘home’, Dalai’s cage

The next episode was Saturday the 12th September (I am starting to dread Saturdays!). He seemed extra quiet that morning & when I offered him a spinach leaf, he had to turn his head at a strange angle to eat it.  This alerted me & I decided to dust off the quarantine cage & prepare it for possible hospitalisation purposes.  Later that day, he spasmed, fell to the cage floor & was rolling around.  I carefully picked him up & put him in the spare cage.  He came out of the spasm & I placed him on a perch, where he was very still.  His balance was very off & he fell off the perch a few times but at least did not have far to fall in the newly set up cage, & the bottom has extra padding.  Occasionally, he would turn his head from side to side & his eyes were flickering.

As the evening progressed, he was more aware of where he was & wanted to go back ‘home’.  I put him back in with Lennie, hoping for some sense of normality.  They both ate some millet, but Perry started losing control of his movements again & leaning back off the perch.  I placed him back in the spare cage.  Though Lennie was upset that his mate was not with him, he was far less stressed when Perry was in the other cage, & was able to eat & preen.  I decided it would be best for Perry to sleep overnight in the spare cage.  There was some unrest with them both, but they settled when I covered them over & also placed the cover down between the cages.  It was after 10pm that I noticed Perry eating the millet (I could see the bottom of his tail bobbing & the husks falling, so at least he had had some sustenance to keep him going during the night.

I went to bed late (even later than usual!) & checked on him every hour during the night.  The next morning he seemed better but now agitated as he wanted to go ‘home’, so I put him back in with Lennie.

Perry & Lennie eating

Since then, we have had no episodes of a spasmy, twitchy nature, but in the last week, Perry has been drinking lots of water & his poops have turned into a gloopy mess. Initially, it occurred to me that I had not seen Perry drink any water & wondered if perhaps the trip to the water bottle was awkward for him with his growing lump.  I held up water to him (in the Thomas bath) & he glugged it down & he has been drinking lots since.

Because of this change, I called in the vet on the 28th September.  She took a fecal sample for testing (still awaiting results).  A urine test using a dipstick was positive for glucose which could be linked to stress, infection or diabetes.  A blood glucose test was borderline for diabetes.

In the meantime, both seem in reasonable spirits.  Perry likes to eat from my hand to save the effort going to the seed pot.  I offer water to him several times during the day.  I have plans to make more tweaks to their cage to help Perry get around easier but neither of them come out, not even into Dalai’s cage for a change of scenery.  I am reluctant to force them out after recent ordeals.  Lennie seems a bit ‘nervier’ than usual, but that is probably to be expected as he has witnessed his friend’s random episodes.  On the positive side, a week ago, I witnessed Lennie giving Perry a head preen – first time I have seen that!  Also Lennie has regurgitated to Perry a couple of times which seems like a nice thing to do.

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Obligatory poop photos:

Perry poop 13/9

Perry poop 22/9

Perry poop 28/9

Perry poop 2/10