Conference 7.286::pet_birds

    Jim,
    
    Your Grey could have a respitory problem.  I would call your vet
    as soon as you can.  They will be able to determine if you should
    be alarmed or not.  Keep in mind that all birds mask illness very
    well.  This is a natural reaction to protect them from preditors
    in the wild.  When a caged bird does show signs of sickness they
    have had it for some time and in most cases are pretty sick.  I
    would address this problem immediately if it were one of my birds.
    
    Regards,
    
    Jim Buccieri

    The day we went off on holiday, I took Basil to the vet. Unfortunately,
    this vet was not a bird specialist. However, here is a resume of
    what she said:
    1.	It's unlikely that there is an obstruction, since there is no
    	discharge.
    2.	It's not a glandular problem - no inflammation.
    3.	It's not a lung problem - you can tell this by listening closely.
    4.	It could be an allergy of some sort.
    
    	She gave me some penicillin, for one week's application. I passed
    this info and medicine on to our parrot-keeper. 
	We returned from holiday (duration 18 days), and uplifted Basil.
    His breathing is still audible, although not all the time. Basically,
    there is no difference, but my wife thinks that he is looking a
    bit slimmer. His behaviour/feeding is still normal. I rule out the
    allergy suspicion due to his different environment. This leaves
    ???
    	Anybody any ideas ???
    
    Thanks,
    Jim Burke
    
    
	

    ...the story so far...
    
    Well, he still does the heavy breathing. Not constantly, but
    frequently. We havn't been able to link the commencement of the heavy
    breathing with anything (eg. gas fire on, window open, vacuum cleaner,
    etc). It just seems to come then go for no observable reason.
    
    Last Friday morning (29-Sep), we noticed that he hadn't touched his
    food, and that he did not perform his early-morning "let me out for a
    flap" routine. We 'hospitalised' him immediately. 
    Saturday: no change, no feeding, and we noticed an inflammation of his 
    upper right eyelid.
    Sunday: he had eaten something at last, but the inflammation was worse.
    Monday: eating more normally now, and talking a little. However; time
    to call in a vet.
    Our local vet is useless. I called him, explained in detail the problem
    & symptoms, and what does he recommend ?  "Bring him in". I explained
    to him (a vet) that it was not a good idea to stress a sick bird any
    more than necessary. He grumbled that a housecall was possible, but
    offered absolutely no professional advice. End of that vet.
    I spoke to the avian keeper in Edinburgh zoo. He was much more
    amenable, but unfortunately could not think of anything (at least, over
    the phone).
    We called out an 'emergency vet' (after speaking to her over the phone
    & getting the impression that she had some avian knowledge). She was
    very helpful, and had obviously done some homework before the
    housecall. She checked (timed) his breathing - normal; droppings -
    normal; eyes - normal (ie. very clear, a little swelling, but no abcess). 
    The only thing she was not happy about, was that his chest felt a bit
    'boney' (hardly surprising after his 3-day fasting). She and we agreed
    that he was improving, however. She did say something interesting
    (listen, folks): DON'T SITE THE CAGE NEAR CENTRAL HEATING. We had
    hospitalised him next to a (water circulating) C/H radiator. His normal
    cage position is nowhere near a radiator.
    	We do know that some respiratory diseases manifest by eye
    infection. This does not seem to be the case, since the vet ruled out
    eye abcess. She reckoned that he had simply bumped it.
    
    	So; where do we stand ?  Is this heavy breathing connected ?
    I never thought that it would be so difficult to get expert avian
    advice, and even then end up not much further on than when we started.
    
    Jim

    Update:
    	He's back to normal now (incl. the occasional heavy breathing).
    What was wrong with him ?    I reckon one or more of:
    
    1.	Vitamin deficiency (his diet is mainly sunflower seed) ?
    2.	A "one-eye" cold ?
    3.	A bump (he did have fall just before the problem appeared) ?
    4.	Recurrence of a lingering respiratory problem ?
    
    	Anyway, he's back to his old ebullient self, and everyone is
    happier.
    
    Jim

    I had an experence with some pacific parolets that every time I
    vaccumed they would wheeze for 2 hours afterwords.  after swapping
    to a vacuume with an absolute filter no more problems.  to this
    day I still use it and the old one is up stairs and now even I notice
    the difference in the two.

    Yes, I wondered about this too. However, there was no link between
    vacuuming and onset of heavy breathing.
    
    In fact, I have recently bought an air purifier/de-ionizer, and
    situated it near the Greys. The filter certainly picks up lots of the
    fine grey dust, but I havn't had it long enough to post a comment on
    it's functionality.
    
    Jim