# Cockatiels whistle going silent



## Big Bill (Jul 28, 2010)

My 3 1/2 year old cockatiel has been loosing her 'whistle' or voice if you will.
She usually has a very loud whistle when greeting or getting attention, but now is more of a quiet 'squeak'. She seems healthy, no sign of respiratory issue as far as drainage or discharge and is eating o.k.
I will say that she had laid 4 eggs a few weeks ago for the first time and is still very active with her nesting routines, she is the only bird we have, no mate. She still loves to be handled and seems active as usual.
The breeder we got her from believes she may just be stressed from the egg laying.
I sure would like some advice from you guys and certainly hope I don't have a sick bird on my hands.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Hi and welcome to the forum 

I'm not sure how to answer. Could it be hormones that was making her more vocal, and now that she is laying she has quieted down?


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## Big Bill (Jul 28, 2010)

Thanks for your reply....I am guessing that it is not a common thing for a cockatiel to lose her 'voice' by the lack of responses to my thread.
Still hoping it is not a health issue.


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## Big Bill (Jul 28, 2010)

I may add also that she just laid another egg a few hours ago, any idea if the loss of her voice may be connected to the new set of eggs?


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

I have had single hens be more vocal....Many times to the point of whistling like a male. Most times this in the very early stages of the hormones acting up they will get more vocall and call more hoping that another bird will respond or show up. Once they attracted a mate or started to lay they became less vocal.


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## Evelyn (Feb 22, 2010)

Hope you are letting her keep the eggs until she is tired of them, if you take them away she will keep laying and become very weak and ill..Good luck, seems it might be the stress of laying.


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## Big Bill (Jul 28, 2010)

Thanks Evelyn- Actually I let her stay on the egg for a while then have my wife leave the room with her and remove the egg. I have heard it is not a good idea to leave them on the egg. What is your advice that I should do with the egg?


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## Evelyn (Feb 22, 2010)

They should not be removed until they are tired of them and get to where they are not paying attention to them, each egg you remove she will lay another, if by any chance they are fertile, you can replace with fake eggs (plastic) or shake the eggs so they won't hatch, they usually lay about 4 eggs, so I would not removed them until she is tired of them, my hen is 6 years old and just laid her first eggs, only 2, not fertile, I let her keep them till she was tired of the only took one week, the first on cracked so I had to remove it and she laid another to replace it..some people even use white marbles to replace the eggs..So what I am say leave them or she will keep laying to replace them, and check to see if there is a toy she is in love with, my Liberty fell in love with a toy and was trying to mate with it, I removed the toy and she stopped laying..


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## Big Bill (Jul 28, 2010)

Thanks for all your valuable info! I'll take your advice immediately.
Thanks again!


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

If her voice has changed it could be worth getting her checked out by the vet. Sometimes respitory infections aren't always obvious without being examined with a stethoscope.


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## Evelyn (Feb 22, 2010)

You are welcome, and good luck.


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## Big Bill (Jul 28, 2010)

Thank you people for all your advice.
Earlier I noticed her breathing was very labored and obviously having a very hard time breathing. I took her into emergency at a bird-specific Vet and she is either choking on something in her trachea or has a respiratory infection. 
They are doing bloodwork, have her on oxygen,painkillers and anti-biotics and will do some x-rays tomorrow.
My worst fears came true and have a very sick bird.
I hope anyone else following this post will learn from my expierience if thier bird ever has any of these symptoms.
Thanks again to all you guys and your advice.


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## Evelyn (Feb 22, 2010)

Oh my, sorry to hear this, she is sick plus laying eggs, poor baby, keep us posted, good thoughts coming your way for her and all of you..


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## Big Bill (Jul 28, 2010)

Just a final note to end this thread......our cockatiel died last night while under the Vet's care. It was obviously something much more serious than we thought. They will do a necropsy to determine exactly what it was.
Just want to thank you people once again for your info, help and support.
...Bill & Tracy


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## Evelyn (Feb 22, 2010)

So , So, sorry to hear this, I feel so bad for you and Tracy, hugs to both of you, and please let us know what happened..I was thinking about her all day today..


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## kirbulous (Jul 21, 2010)

Kirby lost his voice when he had some sort of strep throat type infection. I would definitely advise getting her checked out by a vet. Kirby seemed fine when he first lost his voice and I didn't take him in until later. It made it a lot harder for him to heal because he wasn't swallowing so I had to give him injections for almost a month.


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## Evelyn (Feb 22, 2010)

kirbulous said:


> Kirby lost his voice when he had some sort of strep throat type infection. I would definitely advise getting her checked out by a vet. Kirby seemed fine when he first lost his voice and I didn't take him in until later. It made it a lot harder for him to heal because he wasn't swallowing so I had to give him injections for almost a month.


I guess you didn't read all of the posting, their Tiel died in the Vets care..


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## kirbulous (Jul 21, 2010)

You're right. I only got through the first page, didn't realize there was a second one. So sorry to hear that you lost her. I'd be interested in hearing what the necropsy results are. I'm sure we could all learn from it. 
Again Big Bill so sorry for your loss, may she rest in peace.


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## Big Bill (Jul 28, 2010)

Thanks again to all of you....we are still in shock due to the speed that this whole ordeal unfolded. Any one of us who has a pet like this must be vulnerable to this type of tragedy and it means alot to us to know others are saddened by this.
I will certainly post the results of the necropsy when I recieve them, Thanks to you all once again.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

OMG! (((HUGS))) I feel bad because I didn't even think of something being lodged in her throat. I had this happen only once to a pet tiel that I picked up right after he ate a bunch of millet. He didn't lose his voice but he kept opening his mouth trying to clear something. I suspected the millet, and told the vet that, and to see if he could scope down the throat and remove it. The vet didn't think that was the cause and he died at the vets, and the necropsy showed a millet seed stuck in the trachea.


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

I think the fact that her voice changed to a squeak over a period of time leads me to think it was an infection of some kind. Hopefully the post mortem will give you some answers.


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Iam sorry to hear about you birdie


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## kirbulous (Jul 21, 2010)

srtiels said:


> OMG! (((HUGS))) I feel bad because I didn't even think of something being lodged in her throat. I had this happen only once to a pet tiel that I picked up right after he ate a bunch of millet. He didn't lose his voice but he kept opening his mouth trying to clear something. I suspected the millet, and told the vet that, and to see if he could scope down the throat and remove it. The vet didn't think that was the cause and he died at the vets, and the necropsy showed a millet seed stuck in the trachea.


If a tiel should get something stuck in his or her throat are there any home remedies? Or do you just have to rush them to the vet as quickly as possible? I've had a few scares where I thought one of my birds had something stuck in their throat. Mostly it's Kirby but a lot of the time he is able to spit up anything stuck or I'll place him at the water spout and he'll drink some water to help wash it down. Is that the most we can do for them? I worry that one day it won't be enough.


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

Few years ago I lost a Cockatiel under aneasetic at the vet while they were trying to remove the seed, the big problem here is that not many vets have a small enough endoscope to use on a Cockatiel. Apparantly they cost a few thousands so they don't buy them. After telling another avain vet about this he said another way is going in by cutting into the tracea area, really horrible situation, I don't like to think about it, tragic loss of a lovely young bird.
I thought I was going through the nightmare again earlier this year, all **** broke loose in the birdroom around 5.30pm as I went up the stairs I could hear this terrible noise, can't even describe it like an alarm call of some sort, it was one of the tiels, cut a long story short he stopped doing it when I rang the vets (the bird vet wasn't there anyway)
He started again, I had to put him in another room as my birds were so scared of the noise, still doing it next day, got to see my bird vet, he knocked him out but didn't have a small enough endoscope, they tunred him upside down and tapped him on the back, had a good feel, couldn't feel anything, brought him back round and I had to collect him still making the noise. After ringing many vets I found somewhere to take him, after examining him (he didn't put him out) he told him he thought it was quinsy, he was on baytril and itrafungol. On the way home he briefly stopped then started again. I put him in the birdroom, the others were a bit frightened again but I have quite a loud air filter so that kind of took the noise off a bit, two hours later he stopped. This went on for a few weeks, he would be normal then if they had a fright and he took off quick it was start up again, could last 30 seconds could last 2 hours, I found that if I calmed him down he would stop. The vet explained that when they get stressed their throat constricts so if there was an ulcer or something there that would restrict the breathing and bring about the noise. I looked up the treatment of quinsys on the web, couldn't find anything on birds, looked it up for humans, found that antrirobe was often used. I had some antirobe capsules for another Cockatiel with a sore wing, I gave this to my quinsy Cockatiel and after 4 days there was no more noise. You would never know he'd had a problem now. Either it was a coincidence and he had something there which managed to come out or it was quinsy and the antirobe got rid of the ulcer. Sorry this is a bit long but I thought it would be useful incase it happens to anyone else.


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## kirbulous (Jul 21, 2010)

Wow Jess. Great info! Good to hear that you were able to save your tiel.


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## luther349 (Apr 5, 2010)

birds can be sick for a long time and act normal. by the time you know something is wrong in most cases its to late. they do this being in the wiled a sick bird would be rejected from the flock and predators will target them. its a survivability thing. to bad you lost your bird sucks when you do.

i rember one day i found one of my budgies dead. bird that seemed perfectly healthy and wasn't very old one day just dead. whatever killed her didn't seem to spread to my other budgie he lived for years after that.


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