sick bird

[Sophie's Mom]

My bird is acting very strangely, she's resting the back of her head on her back and moving her head in very strange ways. She is malnurished and her stools are black and tary and stick to her vent feathers. What should I do? Ihave been Force feeding her with a syringe but she is just getting worse. Should I consider putting her to sleep?
              Sincerely, Sophie's Mom

[ireneo]

I'm so glad to hear she's doing better. Fluids are always a good thing to do when a bird is sick. Helps to flush things out a bit and keep everything working (kidneys). I rarely use the SD dog food myself with birds. For young birds we may use SD kitten chow and soak it till it's soft nuggets. But it's pretty high protein which is fine for a baby bird. As they get a bit older we add other foods to their diets, whatever is appropriate for their species. As your bird stabilizes you may be able to add more normal foods to her diet as well. I hope your vet will find the problem and your bird continues to improve. Make sure they do a fecal for parasites as well and some blood work, check her crit and protein levels at least. Good luck.

[Sophie's Mom]

I just got her about 3 mos ago and she was very skinny then but she just kept losing weight and very rapidly! I believe she was already sick when we got her. We took her to the vet and he said that she just has an emotional problem and that we should force feed her with this metal tube he gave us. I was ok with that but then he gave me science diet dog food to feed her.? I did it but it was not really working. Then she just became more and more ill as the days went by and I was seriously considering putting her down but thank God, I began searching online and found a couple of possible reasons for her symptoms so I started feeding her water w/vitamins and had to use a dropper for that. But suprisingly she drank from the dropper with no problems. I am happy to say that she is doing exceptionally well. I am feeding her Exact a few times a day because she will not eat on her own yet but i don't really have to force her to eat it, I use the dropper and she just takes it on her own. Do you think it was a vitamin deficiency? I'm still not certain but I am getting another vet to look at her in a few days and get some tests done just to make sure! Thanks for your input it is sincerely appreciated.  

[ireneo]

It sounds like a neuro problem. I see it often in birds (where I work) when they've had some kind of head trauma (hit a window) or been poisoned. Are either of these possibilities? Some nutritional deficiencies will cause this too. I see "star gazing" in birds with vit. B problems.  You mentioned that she's malnourished but that takes awhile. How long has she been sick? And black tarry stools could be a sign of bleeding. Force feeding her with what? Exact maybe? Be very careful when force feeding a bird, especially with any liquid type of food because their glottis is right on the tongue. Most people tend to put a dropper or syringe straight into the beak and push food or fluids that way. It's a quick way to get stuff into their lungs and cause aspiration pneumonia. This sounds like an emergency and she should be seen by a vet.