[ Post a Response | budgie cafe board ]
Posted by Bev on 4/15/2008, 7:56 pm
First of all I'd like to apologize for not coming back to let you all know how my little Sadie is doing. I received a very kind email from Clare yesterday and just had a chance to email her back to provide an update. So here it is . . .
After visits to three different vets, the third one finally nailed the problem. She's the vet I wanted to go to in the first place but she was off for a few days so I had to take who I could get during the first two visits.
We saw the third vet yesterday and she listened to Sadie's breathing for about 10 seconds and said, "It's her thyroid. That's a classic sign of a thyroid problem in a budgie and it's the only thing I know that makes them breathe that way . . . and it's treatable."
Apparently thyroid problems in budgies are fairly common and is most often seen in birds who are seed-junkies.
Sadie shares a cage with my cockatiel, Pierre and they get healthy foods to eat on a daily basis . . . seed mix, pellets, sprouts, grains and a mash diet full of very healthy foods. I never realized how little of the good foods Sadie really eats. With two birds sharing the same cage and food is being consumed, I wrongly assumed that both of them were eating what was being offered. Apparently, Sadie has been eating mostly seeds. What a terrible way to learn a lesson!!!
During the first vet visit the dr. took xrays and he saw a change in her lung. He thought she might have pneumonia or a mass (possibly cancer). I asked the vet yesterday about that and she said it is likely that the enlarged thyroid is pressing against her lung and that's what the first vet was seeing.
The best outcome of all of this is that it is easily treatable. The thyroid is malfunctioning because of a lack of iodine in Sadie's diet (darn those seeds!), so we need to add a small amount of iodine to her drinking water (three drops to an 8 oz cup)According to the vet, she should be OK and we should see improvement in her breathing within the next 7-10 days.
I never posted on this board before I asked you all about Sadie . . . so I appreciate your concern so much. I felt so helpless and desperate to find some kind of information about what was going on. My husband and I are so relieved . . . . for Sadie, for ourselves but mostly for our cockatiel,
Pierre! He & Sadie are the best of buddies (they really do adore one another) and he would have been devastated if anything had happened to her.
Well if any of you got this far, thanks for reading my rambling!! Bird lovers are a special breed of people and you proved that by keeping Sadie in your thoughts! Thank you again.
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