Trained Parrot BlogParrot Wizard Online Parrot Toy StoreThe Parrot Forum

Truman is Not Eating Well

Talk about bird illnesses and other bird health related issues. Seeds, pellets, fruits, vegetables and more. Discuss what to feed your birds and in what quantity. Share your recipe ideas.

Re: Truman is Not Eating Well

Postby el-parrot » Wed Aug 18, 2010 4:58 pm

oh Michael, this doesn't sound good. I really hope he starts eating good very soon. :thumbsup:
User avatar
el-parrot
Poicephalus
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 262
Location: Dordrecht, the Netherlands
Number of Birds Owned: 8
Types of Birds Owned: budgie, lovebird, senegal parrot, quaker parrot, congo african grey parrot
Flight: No

Re: Truman is Not Eating Well

Postby pchela » Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:08 pm

How's Truman doing this evening? Any improvement?
"I bet the sparrow looks at the parrot and thinks, yes, you can talk, but LISTEN TO YOURSELF!" ~ Jack Handy ~ Deep Thoughts
User avatar
pchela
African Grey
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 1281
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal -Pippin
Red Belly - Nicholas
Lesser Jardine's - Rupert
Timneh African Grey - Isabeau (Ibby)
Flight: Yes

Re: Truman is Not Eating Well

Postby myakando » Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:27 pm

Michael.... have you tried to give Truman mini-peanut butter sandwiches? Most birds LOVE those. I actually feed my flock organic mini-almond butter sandwiches and they go crazy over them! If you use a good quality grain bread, Truman should get some decent nutrition from it. Having said this, I agree with what others have said.... all bets are off for the moment. No *food or drink rules*. Just let Truman eat what ever foods that appeal to him right now. You can break him of any bad habits after he has recovered from this crisis. Good luck to you and Truman.
myakando
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 22
Number of Birds Owned: 11
Types of Birds Owned: Umbrella cockatoo, Goffin's cockatoo, Severe macaw, Red Fronted macaw, Peachfaced lovebirds, Fisher's lovebirds and cockatiels
Flight: Yes

Re: Truman is Not Eating Well

Postby lzver » Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:41 pm

Keeping this thread up near the top. There are people here thinking about you and Truman.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laura's Bird World Blog - http://laurasbirdworld.blogspot.com/
Jessie - Senegal
Lucy - Red Bellied
Kylie - Meyers
User avatar
lzver
Amazon
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 788
Location: Guelph, ON
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: 1 Senegal; 1 Red-Bellied; 1 Meyers
Flight: Yes

Re: Truman is Not Eating Well

Postby birdvet » Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:59 pm

Michael wrote: They also charged me $45 for Sucralfate Compound which costs more than the original medication. They said this is supposed to help line the stomach and prevent ulcers or clean up the overdose. Basically something like that. Once again, a major expense incurred specifically as the result of the screw up.


Sucralfate is a good idea, would have been my next recommendation :D . Hopefully when the hospital manager gets back she'll sort out all the charges. I think they should cover this one too...

Worst case scenario, if Truman doesn't start eating enough you'll have to resort to crop feeding him just so he doesn't reach a critical catabolic state which will make him sicker. If you have anyone who can help or preferably do the feeding that would be even better so Truman doesn't associate you with the man-handling. However, having said that, I currently have a sulphur crested cockatoo under my care and she has bonded with me during her time in hospital and forgives me every single time after crop tubing (twice daily) ;).

You mentioned getting some Kaytees handrearing? Harrisons also make a hand rearing formula however I HATE the Harrisons one, it is sooo gloopy when mixed up, like glue. I'm a fan of Kaytees for handrearing. If you get the macaw formulation than don't use peanut butter, however, adding some peanut butter to the exact is a good idea.

If his reluctance to eat is due to reduced appetite and not just stubborness or pain I'd push your vet clinic to check him over again and do follow-up blood tests (at their expense seeing as they prescribed the incorrect dose), alternatively, if it is pain related, they could try other pain meds eg. butorphanol. Most are restricted but they might be able to sort out some sort of plan. Maybe even something like tramadol? It seems to work well in bald eagles...

Again, good luck with the little man, hope he's ok!!!
User avatar
birdvet
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 122
Location: New Zealand
Number of Birds Owned: 4
Types of Birds Owned: Nanday Conure, Indian Ringneck, Crimson Wing Parakeet, Sun Conure,
Flight: Yes

Re: Truman is Not Eating Well

Postby Michael » Wed Aug 18, 2010 8:59 pm

Let me just clarify the medications Truman is on:

Sucralfate Compound - to prevent ulcers from metacam overdose
Torbugesic Suspension - For pain relief

Tonight he was pretty good (behavior wise). He still isn't eating well but he does get something into him every day. Once again he hardly ate any pellets so all of the feeding depended on me. I got some warm oatmeal into him and some almonds. Even if I stick a pellet in his beak he won't eat it and spits it back out.

Today is actually 2 weeks since accident. He seems to be standing on both legs and putting more pressure on the bad leg. However, I'm not sure if this is because his bad leg is feeling stronger or because his good leg (which took a bad injection and has been shouldering the burden for 2 weeks) is hurting too much to stand on it alone. Most of the time he is resting in his tub, he is kind of crouching in a position that looks like a nesting bird. He's kind of on his foot but his belly just touches the bottom. He gets up when I walk in though. He screams a lot but no matter what I do he keeps screaming so I don't think it's a specific request for anything in particular (food, water, coming out, attention).

So tonight I had him out for the lengthy feeding and medication process. Kili was out as well. She has been flying terribly lately and just busy with herself so I wasn't worried about her bothering Truman. She makes upset noises when she flies and can barely make it across the room. It's either cause she's gotten so fat (I haven't been giving her enough attention lately so I've been providing her more food than usual and because she is molting heavily) or because she has a new primary pin feather coming out. After feeding Truman all the oatmeal he would eat (hardly much at all), I decided to let Kili work for some. All she had to do was a 10ft recall. I kept calling her but she wouldn't come. Before I know it something lands on my hand and it isn't Kili! Truman was on a training perch behind me and decided to fly over instead. I gave him the oatmeal meant for Kili and she got super jealous. You can bet she came the next time I called her.

A bit later, I left Truman out on that training perch and was getting Kili's veggies ready and putting her away. Their cages are on the far end of the room. So while I was focusing on getting Kili in her cage, Truman decides to fly over and see what's going on. I start scrambling to put stuff down and get my arm for him to land on. By the time I shot my hand out it was too late cause he was flying past me. I could just picture him zooming past and then landing on top of the window shades. I wasn't looking forward to another repeat of THAT situation! It's a terrible place for him to land, especially with injured leg and then getting him down is a whole episode in itself. To my great astonishment he went past me, did a 180, headed back to the distant end of the room, turned around, came back and landed on my arm this time. He just wanted to fly some and I don't blame him. This is basically the only time he can get to rest both of his legs. I think it's easier for him to fly to me than step up. He lands very softly and slowly transfers his weight down onto his legs. I can feel this from the way he lands on me and my arm is a fairly soft place to do this. Considering he's flown to me several times today, I think this is a pretty painless experience for him.

After putting Kili away, I went to give Truman some almonds. But I decided to let him work for it, at least to test him and see what he remembers. I had him target for one almond (no need to make a step but has to move his head). For the next one I had him fetch a coin and turn his head to drop it in a bowl. We only got 8 training sessions for fetch in before accident but he sure as heck remembers it. Finally I had him do a short recall and he did it with ease. He just really seemed to want to do some tricks. Mind you I did not push it but he was eager to do them. He ate the first two almonds with zeal but only got through about half of the third one. He'd spit it back out when I picked up leftover pieces of the nut from the floor so I was sure that he was finished and would not eat one thing more. I spent a good hour on this whole feeding thing and then cleaning up but it went pretty well. I won't be at ease until Truman is eating his pellets on his own again but at least temporarily I feel ok that he's going to bed at 315g again. It seems like he has stabilized a little bit in this 306-315g range. However, this much depends on some very involved feeding on my part. I want to see him start eating on his own.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and support.
User avatar
Michael
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 6286
Location: New York
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal Parrot, Cape Parrot, Green-Winged Macaw
Flight: Yes

Re: Truman is Not Eating Well

Postby Azure Hanyo » Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:10 pm

Go Truman, go!!! :thumbsup: Get better soon!
Azure Hanyo
Amazon
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 712
Flight: Yes

Re: Truman is Not Eating Well

Postby pchela » Thu Aug 19, 2010 12:30 am

Sounds like he is starting to feel a bit better which is excellent news! I was getting worried.

I'm sure he will probably take it slowly with the eating so just keep giving him his favorites until you're sure he's stable and before you know it he'll be his old self again. Poor little guy. I hope he isn't crying all of the time because he's in pain. Some baby birds just cry a lot anyway so possibly the accident made him revert back to a younger mental state and he didn't know what else to do but cry. But anyway, I'm happy that he seems to be on the road to recovery.
"I bet the sparrow looks at the parrot and thinks, yes, you can talk, but LISTEN TO YOURSELF!" ~ Jack Handy ~ Deep Thoughts
User avatar
pchela
African Grey
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 1281
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal -Pippin
Red Belly - Nicholas
Lesser Jardine's - Rupert
Timneh African Grey - Isabeau (Ibby)
Flight: Yes

Re: Truman is Not Eating Well

Postby Kim S » Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:32 am

That sounds like some improvement! I need to confess, I was starting to get worried too.
But if he is in a state of mind that he wants to do tricks (either for you or for a treat), he is bound to get better soon.

Hopefully you wont be needing the cropneedle, or the handrearingfood. I'm keeping you and Truman in my thoughts!
Kika: Senegal Parrot.
Guus: Cockatiel, Yellowcheek, cinnamon, pearl, pied.
User avatar
Kim S
Amazon
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 654
Location: Roermond, Holland
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal (1)
Flight: Yes

Re: Truman is Not Eating Well

Postby lzver » Thu Aug 19, 2010 6:11 am

His interest in flying and training last night sounds very promising. Go Truman Go!

Glad to hear that he seemed more like himself last night. I've been worried about him.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laura's Bird World Blog - http://laurasbirdworld.blogspot.com/
Jessie - Senegal
Lucy - Red Bellied
Kylie - Meyers
User avatar
lzver
Amazon
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 788
Location: Guelph, ON
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: 1 Senegal; 1 Red-Bellied; 1 Meyers
Flight: Yes

PreviousNext

Return to Health, Nutrition & Diet

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google Adsense [Bot] and 11 guests

Parrot ForumArticles IndexTraining Step UpParrot Training BlogPoicephalus Parrot InformationParrot Wizard Store