# Is my cockatiel sick...??????? :(



## oblivion (Nov 14, 2010)

I have a 5 year old cockatiel. He's been biting his left foot for about a couple of years now (so yeah it's been a while). I've taken him to a couple of avian vets. The 1st avian vet I went to was completely crap. She gave me not a single cure for my poor bird and sold me some pellets (which his diet already contained) and vitamin powder to place into his water. After, I did some research and found out that putting anything, including vitamin powder, into his water promotes bacterial growth plus it's really dilute. Anyways, the 2nd avian vet was much better. She pointed out that his left foot has a small lump. She kept my bird overnight to try to find out what's wrong, but sadly she could not find out what's wrong. She did give me anti-inflammatory medicine which failed  that was about a month and a half ago. The 2nd avian vet also said it might be behavioral but I highly doubt that. Reason being that he's screaming at the same time he's biting it. It's seeming to really bother him...and he's been doing it for 2 years now... 
During one night, I found blood ALL OVER his cage! I found a cut on his left foot, which was most likey the result of him biting it. Just now, I found out that cockatiels only have 36 drops of blood to lose before they cannot recover...I can only pray that another one of those nights does not happen again.

His cage is clean and is a Vision brand cage. It's large and decent. 
I used to think the perches may have been making his feet sore but I've tried changing the type and style of the perches with no luck. 

ANY HELP WOULD BE SO MUCH APPRECIATED...

THANK YOU!


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

It sounds like he has an infection, could be bumble foot or poosibly he has a a splinter of sometihng go in it at some time. I think really the vet should have given you some antibiotics, baytril first if not Antirobe. Antirobe is a bit more complicated as they come in capsule form you'd need 25mg strength, you have to seperate the capsule into 6 piles and give 2 a day, mixed with a tiny drop of water making the dose up to about0.1ml. Mosts vet thinking people are incapable of doing such a thing or it wouldn't even occur to them so wouldn't even bother to suggest it, yes I am pretty jaded about vets as well. Probably if you go to just a vet that can deal with birds you will get some baytril, make sure you get 2.5% oral, straight into the beak via a syringe, 01.ml once a day or split the dose 0.05ml morning and evening, you probbaly need a course of at least a couple of weeks to see if there's any improvment.


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## fullmetalgirl (Nov 11, 2010)

1 of my budgies had the same thing..
with her it was a behavior iseu caused by frustration+hormones.

an infection or gout is definetly possible.
but an avian vet should be able to determene that 

it's definetly not normal behavior...
and extra vitamines will not be enough to clear this...

maybe you can put something that tastes nasty on the birds feets aswel? (wouldnt know what they find nasty) but bad behavior can become custom... so even though he might not be sick anymore he will still do this weird thing. (just like plucking can be addictive).


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## LilyLynn (Oct 6, 2010)

a few years back, this happened to one of my tiels. he would bite at his foot, make it bleed and then his poor foot would start thumping (just like thumper from bambi) took him to the vet and the only cause that the vet could come up with is hormones. He is caged with a female that he is obsessed with but she wants nothing to do with him, lol. Anytime I notice him biting his foot, which tends to be in warmer months, I put some cream on his foot. I use Avix Soother or Soother Plus Lotion.. works great


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