Valentine Vet Visit

***Warning: Some gory photos are included in this post.***

As described in my previous post, Perry has an abscess. When part of it burst, I contemplated a vet visit, though suspected we would have a continuation of the ‘wait & see’ approach. Unfortunately, during February, Perry’s seizures increased, which is what made me decide to book the vet visit on the 14th of February.

Perry has been on anti-seizure medication (Epiphen) since October. His seizures stopped. Initially, he continued to have ‘pre-seizure’ symptoms like head-twisting/tilting, head tremors & unfocused eyes, but even those stopped after awhile. He has continued to have some mobility problems but is much improved.

Perry

After a couple of days of being unable to get Perry to take his medication, he had a seizure two nights running (11th/12th December). This indicated to me that the medication was definitely working & it was not coincidence. He then had another seizure on the 24th December, then nothing until February. Between the 1st and today (date of posting 17th February) he has had 9 seizures. On two of those occasions he had 3 seizures during one evening – cluster events. Worrying. This is despite him still taking the medication.

The vet thinks an increase in medication would help, but appreciates the difficulty in administering small doses, i.e., how can a small amount be reliably increased by an even smaller amount?!

The vet examined Perry’s abscess. She tried to wiggle a section off, but it was not quite ready to fall, so that is expected to fall in days. The rest of it should also come away at a later date. No action to be taken – just let it heal naturally, hopefully without any major incident. The lump on Perry’s belly that the abscess is on, is bigger, which also made the vet wonder if it may be pressing on nerves that are triggering the extra seizures. Given we expect the lump/abscess to reduce, we decided to wait a few weeks for it to fall away & see if that has any impact on the frequency of Perry’s seizures. If so, then we carry on with the anti-seizure medication as normal. If not, then we will consider increasing the medication.

A Biennial Occurrence?

***Warning: Some gory photos are included in this post.***

Perry

Two years after the drama of Perry’s abscess, he has developed another one.  There was speculation on the last vet visit (6th December) that a newly balding lump on his belly could develop into an abscess, so it was not entirely a surprise.

It was on the morning of the 28th of December that I noticed some blackening on his belly lump.  It looked suspiciously like the previous abscess.  I sent some photos to the vet & she agreed it could be the same thing developing.  The only options at that point were:

• Do nothing & wait for it to burst,
• Soften the black ‘scab’ area with warm water & try & squeeze it gently to see if anything comes out or
• Surgical intervention under anaesthetic.

I opted for the first one.  A week later on the 4th January, I sent more photos to the vet & she thought it looked less inflamed & ‘nice & clean’.  Not that this suggested we were out of the woods.  Over the days & weeks it has gradually changed.  The area is quite large, & seems to be developing at different rates.  Part of it is under his feathers, so more difficult to monitor.

Beak Trim and a Bald Patch

We had another vet visit a couple of days ago on the 6th of December.  It was booked primarily to give Perry’s beak another trim, but with Perry’s catalog of ailments, there were other things to review.

Perry resting

A few days prior to the visit, a balding patch on Perry’s belly was showing a visible lump.  Though the area has been looking ‘patchy’ for weeks, the recent changes meant the vet visit was timely.

On examination, the vet said the lump was hard & was sat on top of a soft (probably fatty) lump.  There is no way of knowing what it is without doing something invasive, so as usual, speculation was the only thing to do.  Given Perry’s history of a burst abscess, it is possible another one may be developing.  Currently, it looks stable & the skin in that area looks healthy.  It does have an impact on Perry’s mobility & balance.  I continue to monitor it.

Perry sitting on one foot

Perry had his beak & a few toenails trimmed.  His weight was 47 grams so he is maintaining weight, which is good as he still does not eat from any seed pots!  He has evidence of slight bruising on his legs which would be from his occasional falls.  The vet said he actually looked better than the last time, when she was particularly alarmed by his heart rate.

We continue to give him Epiphen to manage his seizures/mini-strokes.  I have adjusted the routine slightly in that I now give him a smaller amount twice a day rather than half a drop once a day.  He has it on a thin slice of celery in the morning between 10-11am & in the evening on a slice of apple at around 9pm.  Most of the time he co-operates!  Because the dosage is even smaller to spread it out during the 24 hours, I literally dip the syringe into the medicine & dab it onto a plate, where I can soak it into the celery or apple.  To make sure I know which end I have done, I cut a tiny notch in the slice & this also differentiates it from the other slice given to either Lennie or Moriarty.

So, we carry on.  Dealing with each day as it comes.

Perry soldiering on, on one foot

The cost of keeping a budgie (veterinary bills)

For some time now I have wanted to write a post detailing the possible costs with keeping a budgie.  Compared to bigger birds & other pets, budgies are relatively cheap to buy & I think it is easy for someone to think they will be cheap to keep.  Maybe some are…  But sometimes they are not!

I want to focus specifically on veterinary bills as these can be particularly expensive & are difficult to avoid if you have concerns about your budgie’s health.

Using my own experiences, I have done some number crunching.  The data set chosen is from May 2014 to April 2022.  In these 8 years, I spent approximately £5,395!  This averages out to £674 per year.

To get a better feel for what that means, I have broken the cost down by bird.  Costs include veterinary consultation fees, various tests, e.g., blood/crop/fecal, x-rays, plus any medication prescribed.  The table below shows the breakdown of data:

This is the same data in chart form:

There are additional costs not included here:

• Supplements, e.g., Milk Thistle, Calcium
• Food, e.g., seed, pellets, cuttlefish, iodine block, grit, vegetables, fruit
• Transport to veterinary clinics
• Cages
• Cage furniture/accessories
• Toys/Enrichment
• Cremation

In conclusion, be financially prepared!

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Lennie’s Sticky-Out Feather

Lennie had a defective wing feather some weeks back.  It was dangling precariously from his side for about 3 weeks.

Lennie on the door platform

Initially, he spent some time fiddling with it, but then gave up & just accepted it, even when it was flicking around in positions it was not meant to be in.  After the blood loss drama when he lost his tail feather in September (click here for that post), I kept a close eye on the wing feather.  My thinking was that the longer it hung on, the less chance it would cause trouble when it finally dropped.  However, it withstood several vigorous flapping sessions, four occasions when I grabbed Lennie to transfer him to a different cage (click here for that post) & many times when Lennie trod on it.  When the vet came on the 11th of October to see Perry, the feather was still holding fast, so I asked her to take a look at it.

Lennie

Lennie

Lennie

Lennie’s broken wing feather

 

It was not clear what the problem was, but she gave it a short, sharp tug & it was free.  Fortunately, it was a clean separation without any complications.  I am not sure what happened, but I feel it would still be connected to this day had it not been forcibly pulled out!

 

A Challenge and a Bonus

Since the last visit from the vet on the 11th of October (click here for that post), we have settled into a routine to support Perry & his health issues.

Perry

Perry’s anti-seizure medication is given to him every morning. The time varies slightly depending on his mood & whether he takes it quickly. The dosage for Epiphen is basically half a drop, a very small & challenging amount to administer. Fortunately, it is able to go on food, so I use either celery or apple, & Perry, for the most part, eats it. To measure out the medicine, I first syringe one drop out onto a plate, then try to get a smaller drop out (that I can compare to the full drop). I then dip thinly sliced celery or apple into it. Most of the time I offer the medication when Perry is alone & the others are distracted, but sometimes I offer it when Moriarty is around, as if he eats, then Perry may follow too (if he is being a little reluctant). In that situation, I make sure the celery/apple slice is a long strip so one end is ‘loaded’ & the other is free so Moriarty can eat it (if he wishes) & hopefully encourage Perry to eat his end.

Perry snoozing

The medication for Perry’s heart issue (Frusol) arrived in the post a week after the vet visit (we have postal strikes happening). It is to be given orally 2/3 times a day, but I decided, for now, not to give it to him. Coincidentally, I had bought passionflower extract as it is supposed to be good for epilepsy, but read that it is also good for the heart. I had not used it because I was unsure of dosage, but when the heart problem was diagnosed, & I did not yet have the Frusol, I decided to start putting a few drops in his water.

Perry’s water is now like soup – it comprises of chamomile tea, turmeric, milk thistle, Calcivet (5 days) & passionflower extract. I offer it to him roughly every 2 hours & he usually takes a glug or two. He has stopped drinking from the water bottles, hence my offering it to him. He has not eaten from a seed pot in many weeks now, so most of the time I am holding up millet to him (he refuses regular seed), or, if he is on his own, I peg it up but he will only eat it if he happens to be near it. Perry was never a fast eater, but now he eats very slowly, sometimes taking ages chewing/cracking each seed. Other than millet seeds, he also eats celery, apple, fennel, & small amounts of basil & lemon balm.

Myriad of health problems

Yesterday we had another vet visit. This was for Perry as I have many concerns about his health.

The last post I made about Perry’s seizures was in August (click here for that post). Since then, Perry has had approximately 17 “incidents”.

Because of the increase in events, the vet had previously suggested using the drug Epiphen (typically used for epilepsy in dogs), an oral medication to be used daily. There are possible side-effects with its use, in particular damage to the liver, which gave me reservations. However, I eventually capitulated on the 9th of October, when I gave it to him via a sliver of apple. His last seizure, two days prior, was relatively mild, but he had become very wobbly, & his movements, particularly his head, were clearly not completely under his control. There were other issues, such as an overly long beak (again) & feet that seemed a darker pink than usual. He was also lethargic & stopped eating from the seed pots so I was holding food & water up to him all the time.

Perry

Before the vet looked at Perry, I directed her to Lennie, where she quickly sorted out a troublesome feather – details in another post (click here).

On examining Perry, the vet first discovered he had lost weight & weighed 45g. This was not entirely unexpected as he felt lighter whenever he was on my finger. It is actually a healthy weight for a budgie but of concern in Perry’s case because of the loss of about 11g from the last time. More critical was his fast heart rate. The vet suspected heart failure which could be causing him to have mini-strokes, or vice-versa. She prescribed a medication to support the heart. The involuntary movements could be linked to a brain tumour.

So, my poor Perry has a myriad of health problems. We continue to support him by making sure he is comfortable & has what he needs as far as food/water, time to rest & sleep, & when alert, love & stimulation from his friends Lennie & Moriarty.

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Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

At 11pm on Saturday the 3rd of September, I peeked under their covers, as was routine, to check all was okay before dropping the big cover down further.  Perry & Lennie’s cage liner on the bottom had been changed about 2 hours earlier, so I was surprised it did not look clean.  When I looked closer, I realised it was blood.

Everywhere.

I spotted Lennie’s tail feather laying across the seed pot.  He had lost his other one a couple of days earlier, which seemed odd to me as it had only just grown in.  He had lost both tail feathers just weeks ago (click here to read that post) so I was not expecting the new ones to drop so quickly.  I assumed this was a blood feather problem.  Had the bleeding stopped or was it ongoing?  I took the cage liner away to reveal the clean one underneath so it would be easier to check.

Blood splattered cage liner

Lennie’s fallen tail feathers

Then I saw a big clot drop.  I knew I had to take immediate action.

Carrier cages

Under the flight cage, I have three small travel cages for emergency evacuation (one each in red, white & blue).  The one on top just happened to be the red one.  Cornflour was put into a wide container.  I caught Lennie & basically covered his lower section in the cornflour, not really knowing where the site of the bleed was, & then placed him in the travel cage with a cover over.

After a few minutes I checked to see if he was still bleeding.  It was difficult to judge how much blood had dropped because the base of the travel cage was red, but I could see blood mingled in with the white cornflour that had fallen off him.  I doused Lennie again in cornflour & put him back.  He was still bleeding so I carried on dunking him in the cornflour (literally, I dunked him in & ‘bathed’ him).  I discarded the red travel cage & alternated between the white & blue one.  That way, I could wipe around the one not in use, so each time he was placed into a clean one, making it easier to judge blood loss.

Pear-shaped Perry

On the 2nd August, we had another vet visit.

Perry last had his beak trimmed on the 2nd March & it had been gradually growing since then, though at a slower rate than before.  I could have waited a little longer before getting it trimmed but Perry had a bad night on the 28th July due to his ‘turns’, so I booked the vet visit earlier than planned.

She trimmed his beak & toenails.  His weight is stable at 56g.  His original, hard lump has grown a little, though fortunately it is still growing outwards.  He has more fat on his belly & the vet described him as being ‘more pear shaped’.

Without doing any tests, we can only speculate as to the cause of Perry’s seizures, but the vet does not think they are caused by the lumps.  Working on the idea that his liver may not be processing toxins efficiently, we continue to give them Milk Thistle in water.  Because the last episode of Perry’s seizures was more intense than previously, the vet also prescribed an additional supplement, Nutramarin+, a powder to be sprinkled on seed.

I have mixed the Nutramarin+ with some seed that I offer by hand.  So far, Perry has rejected that seed, picking one or two up, then dropping them.  I will persevere for a bit longer before consigning it to the ‘Medicine Refusal Box’!

Pear-shaped Perry

 

Working through the Avian Medical Encyclopedia…

Last week, on Wednesday the 2nd of March, we had another visit from the vet.

Perry & Moriarty

It appears that Perry is working his way through an avian medical encyclopedia & I told the veterinary nurse that I had lost track of what letter he is up to.  She suggested that he might be at ‘L’ for leg.

So yes, he has a problem with his leg.

About a week prior to the visit, I had noticed Perry holding his left foot up & barely using it.  I could not see any visible signs of injury.  He could rest it on the perch but only lightly.  As the days progressed it got a little better in that he could lift it to scratch the side of his head, which suggested there was no problem with the actual foot.  My concern was that perhaps one of his lumps was beginning to press on the leg & causing the problem.

Perry

The good news is that the problem is not lump-related.  He must have caught his leg/foot & sprained it as his knee joint is swollen.  Otherwise, all appears fine with his foot.  The vet gave him an anti-inflammatory injection to expedite recovery, but basically we just have to wait for it to heal, which could take 2-4 months.

To help with any pain or inflammation, I have been putting cayenne pepper & turmeric in his water, that he seems to like.  I noticed the cayenne pepper does not dissolve fully, so I wait for it to settle & then skim off the top, without bits, to put into his water.  Before giving it to him, I taste the water to check for ‘pepperiness’.  I also put a spoonful or two in my own drink!

Whilst the vet was here, she gave Perry a little makeover by trimming his beak (it was longer than it was the last time she trimmed it) & his toenails.  She also weighed him & he was 55g, which is a bit less than his last weigh-in but nothing to be concerned about.

In this video you can see, about halfway through, how long his beak was:

 

With a little extra help, Perry is still ‘out & about’.  I just hope he will put aside the avian medical encyclopedia for a bit!