I had a tragedy last month. My citron-crested cockatoo came home from boarding with diarrhea, and he had lost weight. He started gaining as soon as he got home, and he seemed strong, so I gave him a couple of days. In the meantime, I looked for an avian vet. I learned how hard it is to find one in my area.
I took him to a lady who claimed she was an expert. She looked at him on a Friday, said he didn't look bad, took blood, and told me to wait for a call on Monday. She said that if he appeared to have an infection, she would have a pharmacy in Arizona ship him an antibiotic. Because she was willing to take so long to get him medicine, I thought I had overreacted to his illness. She was not concerned at all.
On Monday morning, he didn't look bad. The vet called and said he had an elevated white count, so they would have the antibiotic sent. On Monday night, he was sitting with his beak open, which he had never done before. I drove to the emergency room at the University of Florida, and they refused to give him medication based on the information from the other vet. They insisted on handling and examining him, and he died from the stress.
On Tuesday, the Arizona pharmacy (Road Runner) called to arrange for shipping. Not very helpful.
My other bird, a grey, has also had questionable poop, but he is not wasting, and his appetite has generally been good. I took him to the university, too, and they gave him metronizadole (10 days) and milk thistle. He seems to be gaining weight. His poop is much less watery now. He is very vigorous. His appetite has been great since starting the medication, but today he only ate part of a cheese reward after I gave him his medicine. That's unusual.
I am wondering if anyone else here has had experience with metronizadole. The vet examined his poop, and he said he appeared to have a lot of clostridium bacteria (didn't name a particular type). I have read that some types of clostridium don't respond well to metronizadole, and that ronizadole is used to treat them. I have some ronizadole on hand, but I don't want to make things worse with amateur doctoring.
This is his eighth day on metronizadole. I don't know if the medicine or the bacteria is causing the remaining looseness in his poop. I would like to know if metronizadole has caused loose poop for other parrots.
I have a call in to the vet, just in case.