My bird died while I was states away

[Jasmine13]

My bird recently passed and before scheduling an autopsy I wanted opinions from here. I've left my bird, kiwi, with the shop that we bought him from. I've brought him there once before, last year, and he was fine. He was mad at me but physically healthy. However this time he passed about four days into my week long trip. The owner wasn't going to inform me of his passing but one of the employees said that he would want to know if it was his pet. Last year they put him in the back away from the other animals. This year they put him among the other animals. I was nervous that he would get looked at by the little kids and get scared but I regretfully said nothing about it. When I heard the news of his passing I asked what they cleaned his cage with because they said he passed about an hour after they cleaned it. They said it was only cleaned with water so I asked if the cages around used any chemicals. They then told me that the ferret cage, which were about 5 feet from kiwi at the time, was cleaned with diluted bleach. They said that they think he had a heart attack because he died so suddenly but Im not sure because he was fine last year at the same place. Please let me know your thoughts.

[Pajarita]

Hi, Jasmine. First of all, I am soooo sorry for your loss. There is no way anybody can give you an accurate opinion on this - you need to have a necropsy done (ou also don't mention species, age, diet, last vet appt, etc) also, as I don't know how long ago he died, it might be too late by now because, for the necropsy to be of any help, it needs to be done right after the bird dies or within a couple of days and this only if the body was kept in the fridge wrapped in a paper towel and placed inside a baggie - do NOT freeze, it messes up histological tests. Having said that, it is HUGELY stressful for pet parrots to be boarded -especially in a store- so it is entirely possible he died of a heart attack.

[Jasmine13]

He was a pineapple green cheek conure. I'm unsure of his age because his band had what appeared to me as random numbers and it was open so I assumed he was wild caught. I fed him a diet of mostly pellets. Every once in a while I would get him his favorite fruit as a treat. The package of the pellets said they were a complete diet. I didn't feed him much else because the package said not to and because when he had them he would have irregular poops (e.g. with apples his poop became more watery but only after eating them). I had only had him for a little over a year and regretfully wasn't able to take him to the vet in that time because my mother refused to take me. I cut his nails carefully by myself because she wouldn't take me to do that either. Im usure but I think he passed on July 25ish. The man that I spoke to on the phone said I can get an autopsy is that the same as a necropsy? He was my first ever bird and I'm unsure what that is. I would like to know the cause of death so that if it was because of my own negligence, I can hopefully not accidentally kill my bird in the future. His death has hit me particularly hard because I just moved to this state about 2 years ago and he was my only friend. Thank you!

[Pajarita]

Autopsy and necropsy are the same thing only autopsy is used for humans and necropsy is used for animals. Your GCC was not wild caught because, if it was, the bird would now be over 30 years old old and, as we fed them all wrong back then, it would have died way before that age.

Now, GCCs cannot be fed pellets regardless of what you might have heard, read or what the pellets manufacturers or vets tell you. They are mostly fruit eaters and they are supposed to have watery poop, dry poop for them means they are dehydrated. A diet of only pellets will destroy their kidneys and liver so, most likely, that's what happened. Mind you, this is not your fault. He was, most likely, fed wrong before he came to you... The pet food industry is not regulated and the manufacturers can do whatever they want and cannot be legally liable for anything. Vets -not even avian vets- do not learn about parrots dietary needs and breeders and pet stores recommend pellets because feeding them a good diet is so hard and expensive that, if they knew, most people would not buy them.

Again, I am sorry for your loss.

[Jasmine13]

Before I got him they were feeding him an only seed diet. And when I said watery poops I meant mostly water (idk if that's normal or not) all the pictures of health conure poop looked like what he normally did so I thought nothing of it they weren't dry per se but with apples particularly they appeared to be more water than poop. I was unaware that I was to feed him mostly fruits I saw online that everyone fed their conures vegetable chop for breakfast but I was not allowed to use the produce in my house so I would sneak him some apples and sometimes grapes and other things. If I had known he was to eat those things all the time I wouldn't have gotten him because I know I can't access those things. I feel so bad. In regards to his band the last digits were something along the lines of 84 which to my knowledge would have meant he was almost 40 years old and as conures don't usually live that long and he did not act old I assumed he was wild caught. When I got him they were unsure that he was even a boy so I'm not sure of that either. Thank you for the valuable information!

[Jasmine13]

The necropsy came back and they told me he had brain hemorrhaging and a bruised head with a bit of blood. I asked her if it could be caused by him being in the cage because they never took him out and they said it's possible. I feel awful. The place I left him with said they could provide me with camera footage of his last moments. I am devastated.

[Pajarita]

The year digits of when the bird was born are always separate from other numbers and etched cross-wise but open bands do not have years on them UNLESS they are from USDA, in which case you would also find the letters identifying the entry station where they were processed.

ALL parrots need raw produce every single day, some more than others -South American birds all need more than African, for example, and conures even more. I don't know who did that Poopology page but it's all wrong in the sense that every species has different diets so their poops are not all the same - for example. budgies have a nice, neat, almost dry little poop while, lorikeets poop is almost all water.

If the bird died with blood in its brain, he most likely hit it but it would not have been the cage - birds don't commit suicide by hitting their heads against the bars of the cage.

[Jarroffrice]

The necropsy results came back, and they told me he had brain hemorrhaging and a bruised head with a bit of blood. I asked if it could be caused by him being in the cage because they never took him out, and they said it's possible. I feel awful. The place I left him with said they could provide me with camera footage of his last moments. I am devastated.