The Blueboy Ultimatum

My little Blue fella Blueboy has been through the mill recently, ever since October he has been very poorly.

First of all I thought it might be Canker, so the flock got the treatment. Blueboy No better.

Then because of his being unable to eat on his own and constantly neck-stretching I thought maybe Air sac mites. Treated with Ivermectin. No Better.

So I took him to the PDSA and got some Baytril in case he had a respiratory infection. No Better.

I also bought iodine and added it to his water in case it was a goiter, he doesn't use the iodine block at all.

At one point he was not eating on his own and we had to syringe feed him crushed pellets, Guardian Angel and apple juice. Then he started to eat millet so I put some in his cage every night to make sure he ate (still am).

We took him to the Avian Vet and she said that he had Aspergilliosis so gave us fungizone meds to give him once a day for two weeks.  He had his last treatment yesterday. He hated being caught and syringe fed every evening but we got good at it and did it in less than 10 minutes.

He is still neck stretching and is very scared and nervous at nights and sleeps during the day. I have taken to leaving the cover on his cage at night slightly open and he's been better the past two nights. Less nervous and noisy.

I have been advised by the Birdcare Company (and have started him on Calcivet today) that it could be a calcium deficiency due to the following reasons:

Birdcare Company

"From what you have described it sounds like the bird is calcium deficient.  Calcium plays a huge role in the body.  

The first thing that you said, was that he wretches and stretches his neck a lot.  This can be a sign attributed to star gazing, which in turn is a sign of calcium deficiency.

The next thing that tipped the balance is that you said the bird is nervous, and excessive noise is being made.  Again this is a sign of calcium deficiency.

Another reason why I thought the problem is calcium deficiency is that your bird has a wheeze and a rattling breath.  There has been research done on some birds that have these sort of problems, and it has been found that it is due to calcium deficiency.  Birds do not make the mucous properly and also have a trouble coughing it out, this then gets infected and wheezing and rattling breath becomes apparent."

I asked What is Star Gazing?

I have noticed that he does this thing where he goes to the top of his cage and moves his head round one way and then the other, he has always done this.

Blueboy is one of our rehomed birds so we do not know of his history, we have had him for a year and two months.

Birdcare Company said

"From what you have asked, this sounds like star gazing.  It is a technical term for when birds look "over their shoulder".  It certainly sounds like a calcium deficiency that your bird has."

At the moment he's eating on his own and de-husking seed but could do with putting a little weight on.

I have high hopes for the Calcium restoring him to full health.

Special thanks to my friend for loaning me the money to take Blueboy to the vet. You know who you are and I will pay you back.  Slowy but steadily.

Also thank you to the Ebay seller that conned me out of £60 I paid for a netbook. I got a refund and it helped to buy more things for Blueboy. My Blueboy is worth more than a netbook.

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Money spent on Blueboy so far:

Blueboys health: Priceless.

Item	Amount
Medicine and consult	£68.35
Aspergilliosis meds	£25.00
F10	£9.43
Humidifier	£9.99
Calcivet	£10.25
Probiotic	£7.75
Total	£130.77

We took him to the PDSA he escaped from the box, actually hatched his way out and sat on top of the box - don't worry he was also inside a Ferplast plastic pet carrier:

 Here he is from earlier today