My Question: I have an eight month old Quaker named Oscar. I named her Oscar because it suited her personality - I had her DNA’d and it turns out Oscar is a girl. There are a series of things which kind of all started in mid July. Her cage was originally in an open area between the kitchen, livingroom and dining room. Part of the back of the cage was covered with a blanket, but she could see from the top portion (it is a dome top cage). I felt her cage should be positioned better and wanted it so that one side of the cage was against the wall so I moved her between two other parrots (a female Pionus and male Senegal). That did not seem to work very well because I noticed she started plucking her chest area so I immediately moved her cage back to where it was originally. The plucking stopped temporarily but after a few weeks, she started again, but only the left side of her body around the wing area. The plucking was getting worse and worse so I brought her to an avian vet. One additional thing that Oscar was doing was she was crying out in what I would assume to be pain, and either plucking a feather out or biting whatever was closest in frustration and then lifted her left foot up as if to alleviate pain. My vet looked her over and because of some other signs of plucking on her left wing shoulder area, and the wildlife we have around our place/deck (squirrels, chipmunks, bluejays) plus the fact that we bring her outside with us, she asked that I do a mite/lice treatment and come back the following week. So, I went home, did the treatment, thorough cleaning of the cage etc. None of my other parrots show any signs of mites or plucking. A week later, on the follow up appointment, the area which she was plucking was getting a bit better. However she was still doing the crying out and then the lifting of the leg. I must say that the frequency had decreased somewhat. The Vet did an x-ray of Oscar, showed me her body parts etc. What she was looking for was any possible visual abnormality of the ovary – thinking she might have a cyst or something. The ovary was fine and there were no signs of lung infection etc. She said there was nothing in the x-ray that would be considered abnormal or out of the ordinary. She suggested that I put a collar on Oscar in order to prevent the plucking just for a month to allow the area in which she plucked to grow back. My husband and I decided that we did not want to collar the parrot for plucking since she would get extremely upset when she wore the collar. Oscar is still doing the cry and lifting her left leg and she is still doing a bit of plucking in the area. I am not totally concerned about the plucking, but I am concerned about the fact that it seems to be located in one general spot as well as she does the cry and then lift her left foot. It has been about two weeks since the Vet appointmentt and the plucking has not increase nor has it decrease. However, tonight after dinner I had her out and noticed that her left foot was discoloured, it was almost as if someone had taken a ruler and coloured in the three toes the same and the rest of the foot looked normal. It was kind of a light bulb moment, because I am pretty sure that I had seen this before, but at the time could not remember if this was her normal foot colouration. We went back to other photos that we have of her and the colouration is not there. The foot is not cold, but it kind of felt cool but then testing it again, I didn’t. If you have any ideas or suggestions, I would appreciate hearing them.

My Question: I'm sort of at my wit's end on this problem. Can you help? I have a parrot (patagonian conure) who has frequent ear infections and sinusitis. The last time he had a problem, my avian vet instructed me to flush his nares with water once a day. I stopped doing this after his symptoms subsided because he hates it so. A couple weeks ago he started showing symptoms of another ear infection coming on. So I decided to flush his nares. I was holding him in the crook of my left arm while filling a syringe with water with my right hand, and he jumped right out of my grasp onto my ceramic tile floor. (He's never flown because he broke a wing several years ago & it healed without anyone being aware of it. He's a rescued bird I've adopted. So he drops like a rock.) He shattered his thighbone, and that evening received a splint at the emergency clinic. (We're now on our 3rd splint, since he kept pulling them off, but that's not why I've written you...) The vet suggested I put him in a steamy/humidified setting for 5 to 10 minutes a day to give him moisture. I need any suggestions you can offer as to how I can go about making some sort of 'incubator' or enclosed space with moisture for this purpose. He's only 12 so I anticipate this to be a regimen we will use for the rest of his life. This bird has been on baytril now for going on 3 weeks and still his ear orifice is red, swollen, and he is frequently popping his ears and scratching at his face on the affected side. His ear received triple antibiotic in the canal twice a day and it just recently has stopped draining. But I'm really worried about him. He has almost no choanal papillae and I'm thinking he's had ear and sinus problems all his life that were unchecked. I really want to relieve his discomfort. The lady who runs the place where I adopted him from (Safe Haven Avian Placement Services, Pinellas County, FL.) has been couseling me on ways to work with him to meet his needs. But she is very busy running her rescue organization and just recently had to take a paying job in order to make ends meet. I'm asking this forum for suggestions, hoping to relieve the burden on her. Any suggestions you have will be greatly appreciated; it has been a burden on me, too, since I have 17 other parrots. These infections are happening way too frequently and I feel as though I'm doing something wrong, or not doing enough, to keep this little guy healthy.

My vet is on holiday. Cybil OWA untame is 5 years old. She has been here 2 months. She is a rehome. Has come with negative O}Psitticosos BFD et6c. But had prevously testd positibev wice. She fellill shortly afterarrival, and ill for six weeks. Hardly eating spending 23.5 hours in nest box.Vet visited diagbnosed liver disease from her swoillen stomach He started Baytril imediately .03 twicwe a day. WE added one teaspoon nCtrical care in Manduka water.# The swelling is less. The bird is thinner Keel bone protru8ding. In the ten days since antibiotic syringe of |Batril given she has come out of the nest box 3/4 tines. She barely eats. Today twice I can hewr a teasoon or REcovery with a spoon.She took this by lunging at the spoon. She looks ver nthin and weak but her eys are still bright, Vet consoidered we should treat her for psitticosis for 7 weeks. Her bonded partner appears healthy and proective of her. I am adding a few drops live yoghurt to theb|REcovery. IT seems to me I am merely keeping her alive. I have no expwerience of a sick |Amazon. She is in a 15 foot flight .Any ideas about putting on weight ina less intrusive way than syringes. I do not mind how much time I spoend with her but she dos not relish anyn humna contract.

Do parrots have blood types? In fact do birds in general have blood types? Is a chicken's blood different from a parrot's or sparrow's blood? Just wondering.

Dear Dr. Speer, I wrote to you here some time back about an ear problem with our Macaw. After your response, we took her to an avian vet in Guadalajara, she was X-rayed and the results showed a healed (off-set) old fracture of the lower mandible. That was from the head injury she suffered that I mentioned the first time I wrote. She eats fine, looks good, but does not have normal beak strength (can't crack nuts anymore) or open her beak as wide as before. She has VERY small ear canals, and sometimes they are completely closed. Sometimes they seem plugged with a waxy secretion that I try to gently massage out. She frequently makes "yawning" motions with her beak as if trying to "pop" her ears, unsuccessfully it seems. Should I be concerned about the very small ear canals, and what seems to be a buildup of some substance? The vet she saw didn't seem concerned about the small size of the ear canals.

I am currently studying Amazona barbadensis on island of Bonaire. One of the things we do is regular monitoring of nests throughout the breeding season. A few days ago I came across these lesions (see photographs) on 2 chicks in the same nest. On both chicks they were found on the backs of legs, behind the ears, on the rump and on the sides of the body toward the tail and under the wing (I have no idea what the anatomical term is for this area). On one chick they were also on the side of the head (see photo). Mostly they were concentrated on the area around the legs.



We have seen this on one occasion previously. Do you have any ideas what could have caused them and whether they are cause for worry?

Between February and March of this year, my Monk parakeet, Freddy, started to show some concerning symptoms, by suddenly falling from his perch, particularly in the evenings. When he tried to fly he got tired right away and he would end up hitting the ground, breathing heavily and feeling very weak. I took him to the veterinarian right away, he ran some tests that showed that his liver values were high. He advised, as a preventive measure, to treat him with an antibiotic for one week (Synulox), plus Legalon as a disintoxicant, and Rossovet to help with the asthenia. After a few days I found him in a pool of blood, with his fingernails bitten off an in a very nervous state. At that point, my veterinarian prescribed a collar, and after tree days, after being separated from my other Monk parakeet, he overcame his obsessive phase towards his feet. But he wasn't otherwise improving, and I left him at the veterinary clinic for some more thorough exams, including an x-ray that showed some unclear contents in his stomach, that look like small stones (I never feed him grit, except maybe several years ago for a brief period). By April, Freddy continued with a disintoxicant treatment (Detoxicum), and I kept feeding him with some baby formula to help him keep his strength. He suffered from convulsions that made him fall sideways from the perch, with his wings open and often with one wing that remained stuck upwards. It happened also at night, I would get up, picked him up to try to calm him down, he would recover from these seizures after a few minutes. He went back to the clinic, were he was treated for five days for a suspected heavy metal poisoning. There were no improvements with this treatment, and hi appetite was reduced. After a month of Detoxicum, I changed his diet, switching from the Versele Laga formula, to finely ground Roudibush pellets formulated with a low level of proteins, and a higher mineral and vitamin contents fed with a syringe. Since this change, his asthenic state has improved, and days in which he feels strongly depressed have been reduced. But he is still not well, and his ataxia is still present. There are days in which he feels better, while in others he is very weak. Currently I am waiting to have more tests done. I don't have many hopes for his recovery. I fear that he has suffered some irreversible neurovegetative damages, but we don't know what caused them. Mycotoxins? Heavy metals? For years he shared the same cage and food with his companion, but only Freddy became ill. Although, between the two, Freddy has always been the one more eager to eat the sunflower seeds, and when he was nervous he would bite the cage bars. But I am not satisfied of these explanations. Moreover, I only gave him some sunflower seeds in the last period before he became ill, and not for years. I lowered the perches in his cage. The tips of his fingernails haven't grown back. Maybe he still chews them, or he might have damaged them too much to regrow. He doesn't have a strong hold on the perch, because of the short nails but also for his ataxia that never leaves him. He is always apathic. He responds when I cuddle him and talk to him, asking him to eat his boiled grains and vegetables, and at times he seems to have better reactions. While in other days, he is very still, and I can tell that he is scared and confused by the problems that limit his movements. Fortunately, he didn't have more seizures. He suffers from polyuria, and he has difficulties in expelling his feces when he is weaker and more ataxic, flattening himself but not finding the right position. He starts feeling better in the afternoon/evening, while the mornings are the worst part of the day for him. I am very concerned about subjecting him to more invasive tests, such as a biopsy or an endoscopy. My veterinarian clearly explained that the mortality rates with these tests on birds in Freddy's conditions are almost 100%. I would be very grateful for an opinion.

I have a Noble/Hahn's macaw who is close to 20. He used to get ulcerations under his wings in the summer, right at the wing/body angle. I thought they were yeast because they exuded a whitish liquid and he was prone to yeast infections. When he was treated for yeast, the skin would heal. Because of your advice, my vet cultured the yeast from his droppings and changed medications. (From ketaconzaol to itraconazol maybe?) He hasn't had a yeast infection since, and he went a few years with no skin problem. But this year, he has developed a skin ulceration under one wing. A fecal test showed no yeast and my vet took a swab from his wing and saw no yeast. I have tried both a fungal cream, and Prep H (not at the same time) but there has been no improvement. My vet suspects Ducky is picking at the skin, causing the problem. I doubt that is the case. I have never seen him pick and the ulceration doesn't look like picking to me--the skin just gradually "disolves." What would you suggest?