Are you supposed to hear cockatiel's heartbeat

[Nastya92]

Ok, I am freaking out. I am paranoid. My little boy was a healthy one for almost 18 years until 2 weeks ago, when he got seriously sick. Now the worse is behind, but I can not help but feel guilty that I was a horrible owner

So my baby is having difficulties when breathing. It's like he is using his whole body for it. Especially when he is in a relaxed position. There are no sounds, unless you listen to his spine really closely, and then there is something like click, click.

Other symptoms:
He was sneezing these past days, now he doesn't.
His tongue is pink as well as his feet are pink.
He is active (especially when evening comes) He is much more active in the evening than in the day.

He eats well.

Here are some videos of him:

https://youtu.be/wT20cIiY8Lw

https://youtu.be/vbaVL-rLGkI


We went to a vet 2 weeks ago, when he had constipation and diarrhea. There were no problems with breathing though.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum and I am so sorry your bird is doing so very poorly. The 'click click' you hear in his chest is not his heartbeat, it's what it sounds like when birds 'cough' - well, it's not really a cough because birds cannot cough the way mammals do but it is the sound their lungs make when they are highly compromised. Please take him back to the vet because, if your bird is having such labored breathing, he is suffering. Is it possible he has air sac mites? Did he get a bile acids test when he was at the vet recently? Because advanced liver disease would impair their breathing as they accumulate ascites in their abdomen. Congestive heart failure would also cause them to breathe with difficulty as they get a build-up of fluids around the heart. Also, in my personal experience, two weeks of antibiotics doesn't do it with birds that are very sick, they need, at the very least, three weeks... I don't know how long he got the treatment but I am mentioning this because, in my experience, avian vets always give only two weeks worth of meds (I always ask for three weeks).