Calcium & Vitamin D3 deficiency in my parrot

Hi Lilyalic,

I'm just seeing your thread today for the first time and wanted to comment about a couple of things that might be helpful.

I have a Amazon parrot who is 25 years old. His name is Bleriot. I can totally relate to being stressed and upset when our feathered companions aren't feeling well. My heart goes out to you both.

And I understand about not being able to hang out with friends/family for too long of a period of time. Because I have to get home to tend to Bleriot's special needs.

I also travel about an hour to take him to an avian/exotic vet. I finally resorted to a specialist vet for Bleriot about 2 years ago and there isn't one close to me.

I had inquired about a light/lamp a couple of months ago, but the vet recommended against it. He said that birds can develop cataracts because of too much exposure to the light, especially over long periods of time. So be careful not to expose Lui to the light for too long. The vet said (because we live in Florida) taking Bleriot outside for 15 minutes a day 3 or 4 times a week is sufficient. But he is out everyday. He eats breakfast on the patio.

The other thing the vet said was that seeds should only comprise about 10% of their diet. So I cut way down on seeds over a year ago. He gets pellets and various healthy people food.

Bleriot suffers from a chronic respiratory problem and the vet has tried everything and the last resort now is x-rays and possibly surgery, which I am hesitant about for several reasons. The vet thinks there MIGHT be something lodged in his sinus cavity. All his blood work came out normal.

Daily I have to keep Bleriot's nostrils clean and nebulize him each evening after dinner. The steamy nebuliziation chamber is good for the sinus cavities in birds. Also he gets 11 to 12 hours of sleep each night in a dark room with his cage covered.

Bleriot's spirits are very good, he eats well and is active for his age. He seems happy and content through all the nostril cleaning and he loves the nebulaztion chamber.

So I am doing all I can and the best that I can do for him. We just might have to live with his condition.

Sorry this turned out be such a long post. All my best to you and Lui.
 
I do hope your quaker is on the mend, I'm sorry to hear, I just saw this post. I also have birds: 2 canaries & 2 African Greys.

Take a look at this website for food, here's some info about what they do. I love their products and highly recommend them:


www(dot)thebestbirdfood.com/why-our-foods

Understanding the "Why" Behind Our Foods

We believe that after decades of all of us feeding highly processed commercial bird foods there is one fact learned, there is no one food that offers total nutrition without adding fresh foods to our birds’ diets. Exotic companion birds require some amount of fresh, raw foods added to their daily diets in order to thrive.

The same holds true when feeding BirD-elicious! Origins Wild Diet!™

Although we have gone to great lengths to ensure that our foods contain all of the essential nutrients your bird needs in order to thrive, including the most basic proteins, fatty acids, essential carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, there is nothing that can compare with Nature’s fresh, raw nutrition. And even though we take care to gently dehydrate our foods, ensuring that the active and live digestive enzymes remain active and alive, adding additional prebiotic and probiotic foods to your bird’s daily diet will only help ensure quality, vibrant health!

So while we believe that our foods are the best on the market for your exotic companion bird, we strongly encourage you to feed the following foods to your bird on a daily basis to ensure your bird continues to thrive:

Organic hard-boiled egg whites (no yolk) for “animal protein” and the basis for building collagen.
Fresh, organic dark berries for the high amount of anti-oxidants they contain and the polyphenols in the way of anthocyanins; strong anti-cancer properties.
Fresh, organic tropical fruits for the high amount of “Lysine”, an essential amino acid lacking in so many foods the body cannot synthesize on its own.
Fresh, organic tender, young greens like barley grass and wheat grass. These are teeming with digestive enzymes and naturally occurring vitamins and minerals as well as chlorophyll a very powerful antioxidant.
Fresh, organic red bell peppers and red grapefruit for the high amount of beta-carotene, the pre-cursor to vitamin A.
Fresh, organic herbs. Herbs are known for their anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal properties. When fed fresh they provide natural digestive enzymes, naturally occurring vitamins, minerals and volatile oils similar to what birds would consume in the wild. Also be sure to feed fresh organic basil for the naturally-occurring iodine for good thyroid support.
Additional organic flax seed oil and hemp seed oil at the ratio of 2:1 respectively to support your bird’s high metabolic energy requirements. This will also help the skin remain supple and the feathers shine. If the uropygial gland (preening gland) is plugged this will help unplug the gland.


Limit these foods, but be sure to feed occasionally:

Sprouted organic seed for the naturally occurring digestive enzymes, vitamins and minerals they contain.
Sprouted organic grains specific to the location your species of bird originates from. But feed in extreme moderation.
Sprouted organic legumes specific to the location your species of bird originates from. But feed in extreme moderation.


We strongly discourage feeding the following:

Cooked grains: These are high in gluten, lectins and dead starches. Gluten is an indigestible protein birds cannot digest and absorb. Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that do not allow carbohydrates to be used correctly.
“Lectins’ stickiness allows them to bind with the lining, particularly the villi, of the small intestine. Perhaps the most insidious impacts lectins can leave in their wake is this: leaky gut.
Leaky gut is a term for the breach in the intestinal lining created by lectins hand in hand with other antinutrients. Once the intestinal breach exists, lectins and other particles (like partially digested food, toxins, etc) can “leak” into the bloodstream.” (Ref: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/lectins/#axzz2bJI2Puba)

Dead starches lack “amylase”, the digestive enzyme that aids in the breakdown of starches. Because birds lack this digestive enzyme in their mouth, an enzyme that humans have in their mouth, birds cannot efficiently breaking starches down until the lower gut where amylase is present in the endocrine system. This places a strain on the overall endocrine system and may lead to pancreatitis, diabetes and/or hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease).

Cooked Legumes: These are high in lectins and starches and should be avoided for the same reasons as cooked grains. In addition cooked legumes are also high in the amino acid “Arginine”. The FDA has now taken Arginine off the list of essential amino acids due to the fact that living creatures consume such an abundance of foods containing Arginine it is no longer considered an “essential” amino acid, i.e. one that requires consumption in order to complete the complete protein nutritional profile. In other words, Americans are consuming so many grains and legumes in all of the highly processed foods we consume, all high in Arginine that we no longer need to find sources of Arginine for our diet. The same holds true for the highly processed pet foods we feed to our pets.

Vegetables that are in the “true” botanical classification of “vegetables”. These are extremely high in the indigestible fiber “cellulose”.
Cellulose is mainly used by the digestive tract as a mere laxative and offers no nutritional value at all. In fact it actually leaches nutrients out of the digestive tract as it passes through scraping and scrubbing the digestive tract.
While humans with our long and wide digestive tract may need a good and thorough cleaning of our digestive tract, especially for those of us that consume meat products, birds have a short and narrow digestive tract and consume mostly plant matter. Therefore they do not need laxatives. Nature has provided them mostly berries, fruit, tender grasses and herbs to gently flush their digestive tract with pectin and hemicellulose.
When we force-feed our birds vegetables with cellulose tightly woven in, such as broccoli, carrots, turnips, etc., our birds are forced to consume the cellulose if they want to obtain the nutrients contained in the remainder of the vegetable. Unfortunately the cellulose leaches the nutrients of the vegetable from the digestive tract as it passes through rendering very little overall nutritional value when all is said and done.
But when foods packed with pectin are feed the pectin acts like a sponge, both delivering nutrients and flushing toxins at the same time. This is why when you compare feather color between birds on a high fruit diet to birds on a high vegetable diet you will see deeper, bright feather color in the birds fed a high fruit diet! Vegetables leach nutrients; fruit saturate the body with nutrients.
Click to expand...
 
Lilyalic said:
I feel like an idiot, considering how much I fell. I hardly came on the forum at all, I watched programs all day, I even got drunk one night and that's something I hate doing. A few weeks ago I just felt depressed for about 4 days and was battling my mind. Strangely at the right time, a member shared something on facebook about the "inner critic" and I kept reading different articles from that one, decided to start journalling again, do EE and reading "When the body says NO". Yet I'm still wanting to dissociate.
Click to expand...
Sorry you are feeling down Lilyalic, try not to beat yourself up about it. At least you have noticed that behavior in yourself and you know the things you can do to get back on the horse again.
When I'm feeling like that, I find that taking a little L-Theanine and Rhodiola helps me calm down and supports my adrenals.
And I'm a fan of lists, lists, lists! Perhaps make some to-do lists that will keep you on a schedule. :)
 
Update on Lui

I went to the vets yesterday and they came back with his blood tests today:
The vet rang me today and said he doesn't know what's going on as his liver bile is within normal range (although high end, it's back up to around 70 compared to 1.2 last tests) but his cholesterol is very high for a bird of his age. Also, he always seems to be dehydrated (Although he does drink water everyday) and there's something wrong with his white/red blood count.

There is also the assumption that he's possibly had a stroke within the time of being ill which would explain his inability to fly and his struggle with balance sometimes. Thus, causing neurological damage - he is essentially a dumbed down version of himself.

So, at this moment, we're in a "I don't know" stage and the vet is going to speak with a specialist in California. I don't know what comes next as I won't find out until Thursday what the other guy thinks, and I won't find out what other procedures and tests need to be done.
 
Lilyalic I'm really sorry to hear Lui still isn't OK. Poor little fella, it must be tough for both of you. He's in a lot of pain whilst you're suffering seeing him in pain and being unable to ease it.

What caught my attention is this sentence from your opening post:

Lilyalic said:
His health deteriorated since I moved to this house and he just wouldn't fly as much at all, if he does he'd fall onto the floor.
Click to expand...

It makes me wonder what is different about this new house that could have made his health deteriorate so badly and so quickly? I'm no expert on parrots - or animals in general - so it's probably a blind shot on my part but maybe he's sensitive to some water undercurrents or something? Lots of neighbours with wi-fi? Or windows facing a different direction than in your old house?

Also, did you live in the same area previously or somewhere further? For example I can't drink tap water where I live now and I have to filter it but I'm fine with it in other parts of the country. Not to mention that the same city may have different water suppliers who may provide varying quality of water. Mineral water tends to have quite a bit of calcium in it, maybe it would be worth a try to give it to Lui? I buy a brand called Aqua Panna as it's the only one I found that comes in glass bottles and doesn't have fluoride in it.

Thank you for the update, a big hug from me Lilyalic :hug2:
 
Hi Ant,

I don't live in the previous house anymore - we used Ethernet cables there and there was only one neighbour with WiFi so I wouldn't imagine it to be that. Also, I provide him with filtered water everyday and have done for years now.

I might try your suggestion for the mineral water in a glass bottle though, thank you very much. :)
 
Thanks for the update on Lui, Lilyalic. The 'wait and see' period can be really difficult if we're having to watch someone we care about suffer, so I hope the vet figures out what could be going on soon. Take care. :hug:
 
The vet rang me again to say nothing is 100% (we still don't know) but there are a few assumptions.

It could be atherosclerosis - "plaque formation in the arteries", the mini stroke may have caused this.. he could have that already or it could be oncoming.

Richard (the Vet) is gong to find a mixture of supplements that he can get in the UK from the guy in California who treats birds with atherosclerosis or the prevention of.

Lui is too high risk at the moment to do X-rays or heart scans, his risk of death is too high for anesthesia. So we're sticking with, at the moment, milk thistle and everything I'm already doing. Will start the new mixture of supplements when the vet gets that in stock.

If his neurological symptoms get any worse (flying issues, balancing), then we can suspect Avian Borna Disease - which attacks the nervous system.

...So it's still "we don't know" and I think it'll stay that way. We're going to do another round of blood tests in 3 months from now (if the situation doesn't get any worse) and go from there...

People have been donating money to the cause I put up on a website (Luis vet bills), and I can't help but feel guilty for taking these funds. I know it's their decision to donate the money, but it just feel strange. A lady donated me £300 in total and I've never seen her in my life - she would just send me emails thanking me for taking such great take of Lui. I didn't even know how to send a sincere thank you.

I know it's really helpful and I'd be in a lot of financial trouble without the donations. Sometimes I feel bad buying myself a treat because there are people donating money to help Lui and me. The whole situation with Lui has been stressful, and continues to be. I find myself imagining what it would be like if I woke up & found him dead and it's almost unbearable to imagine. I don't know why I feel so strongly about his health and why I'm so attached to him, I just can't help thinking that the worse may come. I know there's a possibility for him to fully recover, it's the not knowing that is the most frustrating.
 
Lui died last night around 5:15am. I've been waking up all hours in the middle of the night for the past few weeks, and now I know why.

I woke up to him falling, his leg giving in and him slowly getting worse to eventually either a heart attack or a stroke. He wouldn't relax unless I held him like a harness, I ended up wrapping him in a blanket and leaning him again his wooden stand. It was unexpected according to the Vet, and me I think. I told him last week, whilst somehow giving him energy (I was holding him and crying, heat was coming from my hands) and I told him if he needs to go at any point, that I'll be OK.

Before he died last night, an hour before I think, I was crying and I didn't know why at the time. I haven't experienced grief like this in a long time but I am truly devastated and traumatized.

Thank you for everyone's support here over the last few months whilst he's been sick and nobody knew what was wrong.
 
Sorry to hear about this Lylialic.. my deepest condolences and a big big hug your way. Take lots and lots of care :hug2:
 
Very sorry to hear about Luis' passing, Lilyalic. At least he went knowing that he was cared for and loved. Hugs :hug2:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Trending content

Back
Top Bottom