Another Household Hazard or Not?!
HELLO! My name is Jake and I am
a 6 year old African Grey Parrot. At the beginning of January , 1998 my Mom and Dad
noticed that my breathing seemed a little raspy. Mommy made an appointment at the
vet in Edmonton, Alberta, which is a 3 hour drive from home.
January 5.
In the morning when I woke up it was
-40 degrees Celsius....really, really cold! Mom was concerned about taking me
out into the cold so she phoned the vet and they decided it was too cold to travel 3 hours
because if the truck broke down I would be a dead bird rather than a sick bird.
The next morning my breathing was really
bad and Mom got upset and phoned the vet again. The vet was not in that day so mom
got a name of another avian vet in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The vet in Saskatoon
said "Bring him as soon as you can we will wait. " Mom and Dad
both raced me to the hospital in about 3 hours! Talk about a long drive!
After a lengthy discussion with the vet
they felt it was best to leave me there for tests. The next day they performed
every test possible. They took blood and fecal samples, then they anesthetized me and did
x-rays, deep tracheal swabs and put an endoscope down into my lungs to have a look.
My white blood count was only slightly elevated and my fecal test was good. The ray
showed my lungs and air sacs
good but the endoscope exam showed slightly suspicious looking spot
at the bottom of my syrinx right where it divides to go to each of my lungs. It
didn't look like anything bad though. They began treating me for a bacterial
infection figuring that was most likely the problem but they were also waiting for the
cultures.
I stayed in the hospital until the 8th
then my Mom came and picked me. The vet said she would phone and let us know what
the cultures showed. When we got home, I got a room all to myself with an air
cleaner and a humidifier running steady.
On Monday, a week after the first signs
of illness, Mom thought I was getting worse. She phoned the vet and found out that
"pasteurella" was growing in the culture. This is a bacterial infection
but was resistant to the broad spectrum antibiotic I was taking. The vet was going
to send the medicine up on the bus but then I started regurgitating my food and my Mom
phoned the vet and said she was bringing me back.
When I arrived back at the hospital,
everyone agreed that I was getting worse. They decided to keep me and give me
injections to get me over the infection. By Thursday, I was even worse! The
vet was sure there had to be something else, especially knowing that
"pasteurella" is usually a secondary infection.
On January 16th, my vet phoned another
vet in Florida and also one in California. They discussed my symptoms and test
results. It was decided based on a lot circumstantial evidence that I probably had a
fungal infection, which is very serious. The vet had mentioned this upon my initial
visit but blood test didn't indicate it nor did the ray.
My course of treatment changed. It was
yucky! You see, fungal infections are very hard to cure so they 'blast' them, kind
of like treating cancer in humans. I under went extensive therapy, including nebulization
with Amphotericin B twice daily, intra-tracheal injections with Amphotericin B (which
required me to be anethesized ) twice daily, oral itraconazole 2x day and antibiotics for
the Pasteurella infection. I toughed this out until Jan. 23 at which time it all got
to me and I started regurgitating my food. The
itraconazole was suspected to be causing me to feel ill so it was
discontinued.
I became more depressed and by the time Mom
and Dad came to visit again on the 25th I didn't even care that they were there. The
doctor then put an intravenous catheter in me and started me on IV
fluids to help flush my system. More x-rays were also
done. I perked up a bit by the next day so therapy was resumed this time with
intravenous Amphotericin B and now ketoconazole. Unfortunately I didn't like this
drug either and went off my food. In the next few days I lost 60 grams of body
weight so I was taken off all medicines and they began to tube feed me to help me gain
back some of my body weight.
My Mom did not like this so she came and
got me on January 29. On this day they also finally got a positive culture growth of
aspergillus fumigatus. Aspergillosis is a fungal infection caused by molds and
affects primarily young birds and those weakened by age. Not me! It affects
the respiratory system because the pathogen is normally inhaled. The fungal spores
that cause "asper" are found everywhere in the environment. It cannot
spread from bird to bird. A bird can only be infected when exposed to a huge number
of spores or when their immune system is weakened. Chronic disease condition, poor
diet, poor ventilation, lack of sunlight, overcrowding, antibiotic therapy, respiratory
irritants and stress are some conditions that could weaken the immune system.
Birds should not be exposed to damp
nesting material, PLANT POTTING SOIL, peat moss, wet shavings or other litter, and
contaminated corn and peanuts. Well, guess what! I played in one of mommy's
plants, in the dirt and she and I didn't know that it could make me so ill!
Anyway I am now at home, a skinny bird
that will be on medicine forquite some time. I still hate it and still regurgitate
from it but I am eating some. When they put me in the little nebulization chamber
twice a day, I pluck my feathers from my chest and shoulders. They are now starting to
grow back in but I haven't decided if I will let them or not. It gets so
itchy!
Anyway, is there a moral to
my story.....but of course. To all the mommy's and daddy's of other birds, please watch
carefully what we get into and please be aware of any different changes, however slight,
in our personality, droppings, vocalizations or activity. I think I was lucky
because my breathing problems got noticed before my fungal infection got out of
control. Yes, you can die from aspergillosis! We thank God that I was one of
the lucky ones!
The Long Awaited Update on Jake
The last time I wrote of my
illness, I had just come home from the hospital. This was at the end of January. Anyway, I
had to continue the treatment of Ketaconazole orally 2xday. I felt better for a while....
really enjoyed being at home. My mommy treated me real special and moved my cage into her
bedroom so that the other birds wouldn't bother me. At first mommy tried to hide my
medicine in some special treats but I could still taste it. YUCK! I quit eating the
treats, I could tell. After a couple of days of this my mom was worried and started to
give me my medicine by syringe, down the throat, and eventually I started to eat. Things
progressed along fine and on February 16, I went back for a checkup at the doctors. My
blood work was fairly good with my white blood count coming down and my protein levels
going up, and I had gained 45 grams of weight back. Mom and I were both happy but I still
had to keep getting medicine. Oh well!
Things carried on and by the end of the
month I was starting to feel and look more alive. Mom decided it was time to put me back
with my friends. Mid-March it seems mom thought my breathing was getting a little
worse again, so back down to the vet we went. The vet figured it sounded like more upper
respiratory so at this visit they flushed my sinus' and did swabs to see if anything would
show up. Vet decided to put me on Gentocin drops for my nose while we went home and
awaited the culture results. Well, it seems that me and meds don't get along, and the nose
drops caused excessive urine with me. Mom e-mailed the vet, whose name I really should
tell you is Colette Wheler, and she told my mommy that the medication in the nose drops
can cause polyuria (excess urine production) She was surprised to hear that 2 drops in
each nostril 2x day would cause this but it was her only explanation. After this I
only got 1 drop per nostril 2x day.
The bad news though was the culture
results. It seems they grew some nasty bugs from my nasal passages, Pseudomonas
aeruginose, Corynebacterium and a few E. coli. Don't ask me, I can't even pronounce them.
Anyway it seems the gentocin drops were good for the Pseudomonas, but I also needed some
systemic antibiotics for the other. Oh Brother!!!!! It seems that my immune system is just
not up to snuff, maybe too much meds. Anyway vet sent new medicine up on the bus and it
tasted worse then the other stuff. By this time I had taken up regurgitating when given my
medicine. I was sooooo sick of the stuff! Actually it was the stress of it all. Mommy
would come to get me at medicine and I would feel sick right away. The new medicine I only
had to take for 10 days and April 1 was also to be my last day on Ketaconazole.
Yippy! I was so happy being of meds, I
decided to start talking again, I felt so good I even started to enjoy baths again. I was
due for a checkup on April 21 since that was 3 weeks after meds and they wanted to test
things. Everything looked fairly good there. White blood count 9. which is well withing
normal and my protein way up to 52. Yes I am getting better!
Then CRASH! all of a sudden one day my
breathing got raspy! Right away my mom called the vet and everyone is very puzzled over
me. On mom's insistance, the vet sends out some more anti-fungal medicine. Mommy is scared
my asper is coming back and there was a tiny bit of it in the nasal swab that was done.
This time they put me back on Itraconazole, the first drug I had. The first 2 days were
alright and then I was back at regurgitating. After 2 days of this, my mommy made the
mistake of redosing me after I threw up. She didn't know at that time that the last thing
to go down into my crop was not necessarily what I brought up. I got really sick!!! I was
getting too much medicine and I couldn't eat or perch or anything. I wanted to die! Mommy
was so worried she took me out of the bird room and I slept in my pet carrier. She phoned
the vet and told her she was taking me off the meds and the vet agreed. It was the next
day when my mom was feeding me some pablum (baby cereal) that I regurgitated and my mom
saw that is wasn't the pablum that came up but some seeds that I had eaten earlier. This
is when she finally figured out why I was so sick. She didn't mean to, but she was
overdosing me.
After 3 days of being off, I was being
my old bratty self again and mom started the medicine up again. she gave me a little
smaller dose and when I got sick or spit some out she just said that was fine and didn't
give me anymore. On May 12th I finished this batch of medicine. Unfortunatley on May 14th
mommy heard my breathing again. She is once again very upset and I saw her crying. I think
I am going to fight this! She is giving me two herbs now, Echinacea and Spirulina, to try
to build up my immune system, and raspy breathing or not I actually feel pretty good. I
run around in my room and chase my friends away if they bother me too much, I talk and
mumble and today I decided to take a bath again. Maybe I can beat this yet!! Oh, it seems
my mommy wants to say something now so I better let her have the keyboard. Thanks all for
caring and I will keep you posted.
Jake
Please all bird owners, take heed. If
you have birds, medical bills can get expensive so be prepared. Don't say it won't or
can't happen.....that your birds don't get sick because that is what I thought. Also, do
not redose your bird. If it gets sick, wait until the next medicine time. Their bodies
know what they can and can't take. I have had many up and down days throughout this whole
ordeal with Jake, and I blame myself for so much, but we must carry on. Somedays I want
off the Roller Coaster and somedays I am a fighter. That is just the way an illness can
be. I pray for the day I can say Jake is 100% and I thank all my friends at IRC chat that
have also prayed for the same. Jake is a very special part of my life and I will do
anything to keep him a part of it. Thank you all.
Sincerely,
Tango
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