caleb's vet visit

[steptoe91(tozie)]

okay... caleb's vet visit take two.    stupid darn internet explorer.   :pipen:

okay Caleb did very well. he was his typical lovey cuddly 'too self. The vet checked him over and took blood for some bloodwork. his wound doesnt look obviously infected but the only way for her to be certain is to take a biopsy. So after she and i discussed all the possiblities, we decided on a reasonable starting point for his treatment. He's on azythromyacin for possible infection and meloxicam for anti-inflamitory.  His left breast muscle under and around the wound is showing a bit of atrophy (aka more spongy than the right breast). There is some indication that its possible he has an old injury that didnt heal properly. But for now, we're gonna go with 3 weeks of antibiotics and two weeks of anti-inflamitory. Then she'll take a look at the wound and see if there's any change at all. The next step is to knock him out and do xrays and a biopsy. She also was a bit concerned cause he didnt have as much powder down as she expected he should. especially considering his aversion to bathing. That along with a couple feathers on his back that was somewhat clubbed, made her decide to pull a couple feathers and she's sending them off to check for beak and feather disease.    lovely.     like i dont have enough to worry about. overall, his bloodwork was fine, tho she was still waiting on a few more results. they did two gram stains because the first one was not showing the amount of 'life' that she expected. it wasnt that is was bad, she just worried that it was not done properly. This IS a teaching school, so its possible the tech or whoever was doing it made a mistake. She said overall, he looks very good and seems basically healthy. once we rule out any injury or infection or (heaven forbid) beak and feather, we will focus on behavior management. she said that with time, assuming it IS behavior, hopefully being out of the 'poisonous environment' will help him heal emotionally.

[Sondra]

Prayers for good results.

If it is behavioral you will be able to bring him around because you have that special thing all of us wish we had, that special gift only few of us are born with. I don't know what to call this gift you have, but you do have it so Caleb is in excellent hands. If you have any questions or want advice give M2Mom at Second Chance Birds a PM. (I don't normally advocate other sites, but M2Mom is the BEST)
http://www.secondchancebirds.net/forum/

Read about her bird Bo and what she went through with him and his hole in his chest, the story is long and be sure to have tissues handy, Bo was AWESOME.


http://www.bobosplayhouse.com/sunshop/bobo/bo_story.html

[Ditty]

Beak and feather is a scary thought

Hoping it is behavioral.,  But it very well could be that an injury occurred and he was poking at it and it became part of what he does, ya know.

Often birds will pick over an area of hurt or disease, say a kidney or liver etc and that is why it is only one spot.

[wishforabird]

B&F? OMG!!! I hope not    how soon will you know?????????

I am SO glad he behaved so well!!! (a female vet, I presume?) 
gold stars and stickers for you Caleb!!! 

I am glad you took him, they seemed very comprehensive and kind!!
how does he do taking his meds?   

how was he once he got home?

when will they do the knock out and biopsy?

[BuffaloParrot]

Positive energy for good results on the way

[steptoe91(tozie)]

not too sure on the results for the B&F test. she was still trying to find the name of the place that does the testing for them when i left. i dont think they have too many clients like caleb...and probably NONE like me         She wasnt even positive i'd let her run the test at first cause it wasnt part of our original discussion. I wasnt in the room for the exam, its probably best for me and him both. The last thing they need is a worried, hovering, backseat, amature vet.    The resident did come in, when he and i were just chilling out and waiting, to see him. She said "he doesnt like the word T-O-W-E-L.  I asked a tech to hand me one and he completely freaked out."    And he let her give him a couple scritches then suddenly the crest came up and he warned her away. Of course, she understood. The biopsy and the xrays are contingency plans, IF the antibiotic and anti-inflamitory therapy doesnt work. I havent given him meds yet, they gave me a couple ideas on how to do it, tho. We had a bit of misunderstanding. since the antibiotic is a 21 day regiment, and the meds are only good for 10 days, i'll have to get a refill or two. i was asking if i could get a script for the refills so i dont have to drive all the way back to town to get the meds from them. and the student thought i meant i wanted a script for the initial bottle too. so i got it called into work...BUT our WONDERFUL (insert dumptruck full of sarcasim here) central fill people lost the script. so i had to call her today and ask her to call MY store and circumvent the central fill team. THEN, lucky me    , we had to order the meds. So i wont start him til tomorrow. She wasnt too worried about waiting a day or two to start him on it. she said "its no problem, he's been like this for a while, a couple more days really shouldnt make any difference one way or the other."  I'm also open to any suggestions ya'll may have. The vet said "if he were a cockatiel, we'd have a different conversation.    but that beak can snap any syringe in two with no effort! so we have to try to kinda sneak it in there. and because its medicine made for human children, it should taste okay. so with some luck, he'll actually like it. "  The meloxicam is a much smaller dose so, it should be easier to give him....i hope.  

and yes, it was all women. When the actual vet came in, i dont think caleb was sure about her gender, cause he started his muttering.    then he was like    

the one concern i have is that yesterday he lost 8 feathers, including a flight feather...one of the few whole ones he had. I dont think he molted them, i wonder if he was stressed from the vet visit and pulled 'em. or if he DOES have pain, maybe he was hurting from being confined.    not too sure on that one, but when i go back in 3 weeks i'll be sure to mention it to the vet. And went we got home, he was absolutely exhaused. i'm hoping he napped alot today while i was at work.

[wishforabird]

i wonder if you did the old "apple juice in the syringe" trick he would not WANT to bite it?    maybe a stainless steel tube of some kind that the syringe could fit into (like a shield?) maybe some thing at work or in the hardware store that could be repurposed for this mission.

lol, funny he did not know the gender of the vet at first: "mutter mutter mutter....oh you are just an ugly chick.....nevermind..."

good thing he cannot SPELL towel!! we got away with this stuff with the kids until they started school and learned to spell.. them we tried pig latin and finally code. ("hand  blanket")

[Sondra]

I hate to say this but the only sure way to give meds is through a syringe. Get extras. You might try a baby juice with the meds, not citrus. You could try water with it, it shouldn't hurt anything. Actually, you could try plain water in the syringe just to see if he'll take it. There are several ways to give meds, you can get him on a perch at waist level and hold his head from behind, hold him on your lap and hold his head firmly, or towel him. You don't have to put the syringe in very far, we only put it "just" past the beak and press the plunger, then we give water and treat. Make sure you give him a treat afterwards, very important. Powder has nipped the end of the syringe off, but it still works, the trick is don't put it in very far.

Once things calm down with Caleb and his meds, start putting warm, soft, mushy food into a syringe and offer it to the rest of your flock, you can give babyfood fruits or veggies. Do this as part of your nightly ritual. This way you'll be able to give all of them meds without having to force them IF the need ever arises. You may have to use the syringe and put a tiny bit on your finger and work from there.  Also make sure you start playing peek-a-boo with a small washcloth. Hold it up between you and a bird and over time work so you can drop it on their head without them freaking out (they may at first but you'll work past it). Then go to a regular people wash cloth doing the same, then to a dish towel, then to a larger towel. Make a game out of this and pretty soon you'll be able to towel any one of your birds at any given time. Just a side note, you don't need to towel the whole body, most times. You mainly have to towel the head and down to the middle of the wings. Once a bird is comfortable being toweled they won't thrash their wings or their bodies, they'll be relaxed as long as their head is covered.

[patti3birds]

VERY COOL ADVISE, THANKS AGAIN LADIES

[steptoe91(tozie)]

the vet called this afternoon, the rest of caleb's bloodwork came back and it all looks very good. he does have a slightly elivated white count, but we (including the vet) expected that. It will take about 2 weeks for the feather test to come back and they put a note in his file to call me asap as i'm concerned about the safety of the rest of the flock.

i'm about to try to administer the first dose of meds.    wish me luck. 

[Sondra]

Good luck!! I hope he surprises you and takes his meds realy easily!

[steptoe91(tozie)]

  yay!!! he knows how to drink from a syringe. he took the meds, he didnt like it and screached at it when that awful antibiotic after taste hit him. but he took it... well... MOST of it.   then he got his fav treat, a black grape. i'm somewhat sticky, he's probably a bit sticky. i tasted the antibiotic... hey, i did it with my kids    i gotta know what he's tasting. we havent done the meloxicam yet, gonna give him a chance to chill, maybe give him something yummy and sweet in the syringe first, then we'll give it a shot. but the most important thing is he recognized the syringe and had no problem drinking from it.  

on a safety note: when the student/intern/whatever she was (NOT the official vet) came to explain his meds to me she told me he would need 8 ml's per day. i was wondering how in the world i would get THAT much in him at one shot, but was determined to do it. when i got the meds today, the directions that came with it said to give him 0.8 ml's   BIIIIGGGG difference. So i called the pharmacist and asked her if it was a typo, different strength liquid, or what. Turns out, the student told me the wrong dosage. 8 ml's would have overdosed him. so i'm much more comfortable in my ability to give it to him. since its much much less.  also, the student was giving me unmixed powder. not a problem. but she told me to use tap water to mix it. WRONG. NEVER use tapwater in a prescription. distilled ONLY. i probably should have called her on that, but decided i'd done enough amatur vet-ing. 

[steptoe91(tozie)]

well, day one down...only 20 to go.    i got out some nice sweet babyfood, apple/carrot, and offered it to him in the syringe. up came the crest and he began hissing.      so i kinda chased his beak around with the syringe just to get him to taste it and see that it wasnt yucky. finally he got enough in his beak to go    so then i figured, now is the chance for the meloxicam. so i got out the dose, which is TINY, 0.1 ml's, and did the ole switcheroo. first a bit of med, then hide that one and give some babyfood. back and forth with the babyfood being the last taste he got in his mouth. i'm gonna hafta figure out a way to sweeten that antibiotic tho. the after taste it quite bitter.    <sigh> 20 days? its gonna be a loooong February. 

[Ditty]

Yoshi hated Baytril but took it if he was in his cage near his blankie,   If he was out I would have to chase him and towel him etc.  In the cage I put the syringe near him and he licked away, I yelled GOOD BOY!! and gave him a nutraberry.  Did it that way from that point on-, hey whatever works.
He liked the meloxicam though and readily took that anytime.

[Sondra]

 

I had a feeling he'd had meds before! Someone has done a fantastic job with Caleb.  Mix the antibiotic with something he really likes, you're not gonna do anything to effect the job the antibiotic is supposed to do, so if you find a juice he likes mix it with that AFTER you've "made" it with the water. You could always add it to applesauce with cinnamon.