Heavy breathing and belly lump in my little budgie parrot ( parakeet )

Konstantin

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Almost one month ago I noticed that my little budget has suddenly stopped to make noise. Before that, he was jumping all around the cage and he was repeating a lot of words. He was a very funny and happy creature.
We were letting him out of the cage for a few times per week so he can fly around the room. He is a male and he is about 3-4 years old.
It was all ok. Then there was a period when we cant let him out of the cage for a few weeks because we were remodeling something in the apartment and I noticed that he is very quiet.

He stopped repeating words and making noise.

I saw that he is breathing heavy. I thought that it will just pass. A few days later I opened his cage and he didn't want to go outside.I took him out and I could feel that his legs were very hot.He had a fever. He was breathing even more difficult and he was standing with semi-open wings because he was overheating.

I took him to a vet( there is not a really good vet in my town) and he gave him some kind of a weak avian antibiotic.

For a few days, i had an impression that he is little better. Also, I noticed that he cant stand firm on his legs. He didn't have enough power to squeeze his fingers so he can stay stable.
Today he had the worst day. Breathing heavy on the bottom of the cage. I took him in my hand and i started examining him to see if will found something strange. And when i turned him upside down I saw a big lump on his belly between and little toward his cloaca. It was hidden in the feathers but it is really big.
It is about 1,5 cm in diameter.

That was probably the reason why he had difficulty standing on his legs. Maybe he feels pain or it is disbalansing him. Maybe he feels pain when he is squeezing his legs
I took him again to the vet a few hours ago and he said that it could be cancer or some kind of tumor :(

My son started to cry and I told him that we will do everything possible to try to help him. We call him Miki.
So this time the vet gave me enrofloxacin. It's an antibiotic and antiparasitic medicine used for birds.

Tonight I will try to put some in his mouth and in the water.

Maybe it is just an infection, so maybe this antibiotic will help. He had a fever recently so this can be a possibility, I don't know.
Then I was thinking to put some Iodine on the lump and see how will it react.

He will be on this medicine for one week. I will monitor his condition and see if there will be any changes.

If he is not getting better after a week I will try to put some iodine in his water. Very small quantity and see how will he react to that,
I read on few forums that iodine can be administered to parrots in water.

I just hope that he is not suffering too much. Also, I will try to find some avian vet if that is even possible here and see what will he said.
 
Konstantin said:
I just hope that he is not suffering too much. Also, I will try to find some avian vet if that is even possible here and see what will he said.

Very sorry to hear that your parrot isn't feeling well, Konstantin. :( I am not an avian pet, so unfortunately can't recommend anything concrete. But I will ask avian vet at work tomorrow. But here are some thoughts. If your parrot has a fever, then it is possible that this lump could be an abscess, and your parrot's suffering could be lessened by opening up the abscess and cleaning it. Good antibiotic, or even a combination of them could also help. But it could be a tumor as well, hard to say without seeing the bird. Also, if you want to add iodine to his water, I think that Z mentioned the dosage for birds in one of the previous threads. Not sure which one, though.

Will let you know what the avian vet said. Good luck to your birdie! :flowers:
 
Keit said:
Konstantin said:
I just hope that he is not suffering too much. Also, I will try to find some avian vet if that is even possible here and see what will he said.

Very sorry to hear that your parrot isn't feeling well, Konstantin. :( I am not an avian pet, so unfortunately can't recommend anything concrete. But I will ask avian vet at work tomorrow. But here are some thoughts. If your parrot has a fever, then it is possible that this lump could be an abscess, and your parrot's suffering could be lessened by opening up the abscess and cleaning it. Good antibiotic, or even a combination of them could also help. But it could be a tumor as well, hard to say without seeing the bird. Also, if you want to add iodine to his water, I think that Z mentioned the dosage for birds in one of the previous threads. Not sure which one, though.

Will let you know what the avian vet said. Good luck to your birdie! :flowers:

Thank you so much Keit.
I am also searching for a good avian vet in my area. Yesterday I gave him first dose of the antibiotic. One drop directly in his mouth and few drops in the water. I will go with this for a week and see if there will be any changes. Also, i put some 1% Lugols on his lump externally. I will also do this for a few days.If I see some damage on the skin I will stop iodine and dilute it even more.
There is a dark yellow spot on the top of the lump .
 
Very sorry to read about your little friend, Konstantin. :( I hope that things turn out okay for him and you and your family, especially your son. :hug:
 
I´ve just got an idea after reading your parrot´s behaviour changed after the remodelation of your home. I don´t know what was the cause of my own parrot´s death few years ago, but it certainly happened after we painted the walls of my home, like the vapor of the painting affected his health condition. I don´t know whether you painted or used any other caustic chemical product too, but just in case there could be a clue there I thought I wanted to let you know.

I hope you´ll find a good vet soon. From what I´ve been reading when I bought my parrot, these birds are relatively new as home pets, and actually few research literature has been written till our days around these incredible companions. Back then, I subscribed to a parrots advisers free site, who seemed to be well informed about any kinds of trouble a parrot might suffer and maybe if you can´t find a vet right away, searching for a link in that direction might be another option. Let me see if said site is still working -don´t remember its name right now- and I´ll tell you accordingly.
 
Hi Konstantin. With Australian budgerigahs, the males have a blue nasal opening area and the females have a brown one. You said that your bird is a male.
A vet should know how to tell the difference.

OK. With female birds, it is not uncommon for them to become "egg-bound" which means that there is an egg in there but it has not been laid yet.

I believe an application of vaseline (lubricant) in the appropriate area will assist the egg to be delivered.

See: https://www.beautyofbirds.com/eggbinding.html

You later mentioned that it was a parakeet. Not sure if this applies to parakeets. I'm there are other experts on the Forum.
Also, if your bird really is a male, then cancel what I wrote above.

Good luck with it.
 
MusicMan said:
Hi Konstantin. With Australian budgerigahs, the males have a blue nasal opening area and the females have a brown one. You said that your bird is a male.
A vet should know how to tell the difference.

OK. With female birds, it is not uncommon for them to become "egg-bound" which means that there is an egg in there but it has not been laid yet.

I believe an application of vaseline (lubricant) in the appropriate area will assist the egg to be delivered.

See: https://www.beautyofbirds.com/eggbinding.html

You later mentioned that it was a parakeet. Not sure if this applies to parakeets. I'm there are other experts on the Forum.
Also, if your bird really is a male, then cancel what I wrote above.

Good luck with it.

Thank you, MusicMan.
I am pretty sure it is a male. Nasal opening is a blue color. I am keeping this rase of parrots since I was a child and the first thing that I learned is to distinguish which bird is male and which is a female. Maybe 15 years ago I had a female parakeet. When she laid her first egg the scene was like she was dying. After that, she laid a lot of eggs. And in all these years of keeping a parakeet parrot as a pet, I have never seen such a lump as on this one.

Whatever happens and whatever it is, I just don't want that little bird to suffer.
 
The avian vet asked if you could take a picture of the lump. And also advised to do an x-ray in two positions. Lateral and ventrodorsal. She explained that it could be either a lipoma, or perhaps an enlarged liver that pushes the rest of the organs. X-ray, and if possible an ultrasound can help with figuring this out.

She also explained that his legs feel hot as a result of bad circulation. All in all, it is unfortunately a serious situation, so better act quickly. He is also a senior, so that complicates matters. :(

You probably still need to find an avian vet, so they would be able to do a proper diagnostics, but if you'll take a photo of the lump (take several of them), I could forward it to her.
 
Keit said:
The avian vet asked if you could take a picture of the lump. And also advised to do an x-ray in two positions. Lateral and ventrodorsal. She explained that it could be either a lipoma, or perhaps an enlarged liver that pushes the rest of the organs. X-ray, and if possible an ultrasound can help with figuring this out.

She also explained that his legs feel hot as a result of bad circulation. All in all, it is unfortunately a serious situation, so better act quickly. He is also a senior, so that complicates matters. :(

You probably still need to find an avian vet, so they would be able to do a proper diagnostics, but if you'll take a photo of the lump (take several of them), I could forward it to her.

Here is the picture of the lump.

In conversation with some friends here I located one vet who lives near me. There are no avian vets here, nor i can make an X-ray on him or any other animal. The vet that i located is living in the same neighborhood as I live. According to people that I talked, he is one of the best in the town. He don't has any clinic or office. He is receiving his patients at his home or his yard. He works with dogs and cats and some bigger animals like cows, ships. I will try to take the budgie so he could see the lump and maybe he can tell me something more about it. He is my best option right now.
 

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Sorry to hear about your birdie, Konstantin and I hope that the vet can be of help to you and of course your parrot!
 
Poor birdie, I'm sorry to hear your pet friend is unwell Konstantin. The limp looks quite serious, I guess the unavailability of vets in your area makes it tough. I wish I could offer some help or advice.

I hope the iodine is helping a bit. :hug:
 
I'm so sorry to hear of the troubles you're going through with your feathered friend, I know all too well how stressful it is. My parakeet's health started to decline in March, and it was never easy.

All I can offer is my support, and wish you and your little buddy well :hug2: :hug2: Also good luck in finding an avian vet! I emailed a couple in different countries when I was desperate.
 
Maybe it is too soon to make any conclusions but yesterday afternoon i noticed that he started to make noise again. I was working something in the kitchen and he was calling me and whistling and looked much better. The lump is still there.

Then in the evening, i was passing near the house where the vet lives. And since i have a picture of that lump on my phone I decided to ask him if he knows something.
He looked at the picture and said that it is an abscess and it is caused by some feather that started to grow inside the skin, inside the body.
I explained to him what am I giving to him and he said that its ok and that iodine can make some difference only on an open wound, not on lump like this, and I am not so sure about it.

Also, he said that it needs a surgical intervention just to make a little cut and squeeze all that puss out of there. And he will do all that without any anesthesia, and that the procedure will be over in 5 minutes.

So, for now, I will continue with antibiotic and iodine this week and see if there will be any further improvements and listen to some more opinions before deciding to go with a painful surgical intervention. And I am even not so sure it is an abscess. If it is shrinking from the antibiotic then maybe it is an infection or abscess.
 
Konstantin said:
Maybe it is too soon to make any conclusions but yesterday afternoon i noticed that he started to make noise again. I was working something in the kitchen and he was calling me and whistling and looked much better.

Yey!! :clap: Great news Konstantin!!

Konstantin said:
The lump is still there.

Then in the evening, i was passing near the house where the vet lives. And since i have a picture of that lump on my phone I decided to ask him if he knows something.
He looked at the picture and said that it is an abscess and it is caused by some feather that started to grow inside the skin, inside the body.
I explained to him what am I giving to him and he said that its ok and that iodine can make some difference only on an open wound, not on lump like this, and I am not so sure about it.

I'm not so sure about the vet's assessment of iodine used on the lump either. The effectiveness of iodine for skin cancer has been mentioned in the iodine thread and iodine is supposed to be used externally for this. Not to mention that iodine is in fact absorbed through skin, just not as well as when taken internally.


Konstantin said:
Also, he said that it needs a surgical intervention just to make a little cut and squeeze all that puss out of there. And he will do all that without any anesthesia, and that the procedure will be over in 5 minutes.

So, for now, I will continue with antibiotic and iodine this week and see if there will be any further improvements and listen to some more opinions before deciding to go with a painful surgical intervention. And I am even not so sure it is an abscess. If it is shrinking from the antibiotic then maybe it is an infection or abscess.

I don't know how good the vet is and how much knowledge he has but it looks like his assessment of iodine only being helpful when used internally was incorrect. Therefore I agree with your decision to wait with the surgery the vet recommended. If someone raises my suspicions in one area I tend to be careful with other things they say too. He may be right about the lump being an ingrown feather but in case he's wrong the birdie would potentially pay a high price for his error.

Hope the little buddy continues to get better from now on!!
 
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