# My tiels, who have most likely had psittacosis



## liltweets (Oct 31, 2008)

Are showing improvement but Tweety still acts like, at times, that he doesn't feel well. It could be that he's sore from his last injection? (last Thursday). They are much better than they were, though. No more yellow urine which indicated that it had affected their livers. They're still on Milk Thistle everyday and Dandelion several times per week.

They go back in a few weeks for more blood work and x-rays. I've fought so hard (between 3 different vets) until getting the right med since they didn't show the "classic" symptoms of psittacosis. It's nice to see them feeling better and gaining weight back. Piglet weighs more than she ever has. I still think she's the one that brought it here although she was a carrier also without classic symptoms (and since Susanne said all 'tiels can carry it and be brought out by stress....the rescue quaker I had here for a while until I found him a home stressed them) that could have been it. 

I'm going to post another thread, pictures of their new set up...their bird room!  If I can get "My Pictures" to work, it keeps crashing for some reason. ?


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Iam glad they are improving


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

Which antibiotic are they on?


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## liltweets (Oct 31, 2008)

Hi Jess, they were on Vibravenous, injectable Doxycycline (once per week). Tweety is so much better yesterday and today and Piglet is still non stop.  I think Tweety was sore from the injections. 

I won't have enough to give the budgies their last injection tomorrow. My vet has tried to get more (it has to be shipped in to the states with a special permit) so I'll have to quarantine them and possibly start all over with their treatment. I'm not so sure having them quarantined will help too much if they become actively infected again because it can be carried through the house by the air ducts. I'm thinking of ordering some online for their water, if they'll drink it. It's better than nothing until she can get more of the injectable. The oral here is just too much to give at once. And they vomit it back up (they were on the oral at first).


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

Hi Debbie
Yep I think it would be a good idea to get some ornicure for their water. I reckon they would drink it, it's supposed to be tastless and it doesn't change the colour of the water which can put some birds off.


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## liltweets (Oct 31, 2008)

I ordered some Doxycycline today from Foster and Smith and I'm having it overnighted. It'll be here tomorrow. 
I hope they drink it and I hope they drink enough to get the right dose. Budgies, like 'tiels, don't drink much water. Maybe I should give them a little water by mouth a couple times per day?


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

You could do but only give them a very small amount each time, no more than 0.1ml, that's literally about a drop. You can get doxycycline tablets such as ronaxan 20 but you would need to cut the tablet into 4 pieces so make each piece around 5mg for the size birds you have, crush up one piece to a powder then add a drop of water so you can administor with a syringe, put the other pieces in a container for the next 3 days. I think alot of vets feel it's too much to ask for the pet owner so will offer injections or meds for the drinking water.

Did the vet say don't give them any calcium while they are on the treatment? 
This quote below is about ornicure:

"Mineral salts, citric acid, dairy and ferrous products can all negatively affect doxcycline absorption. In order to avoid this it is best to use deionised or distilled water to dissolve Ornicure. Any medicated water which is not consumed within 24 hours should be discarded and replaced with a fresh solution each day."

I guess if you have a brita water filter or the like that should help.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

From personal experience Doxy in water has a 1/2 life of 12 hours, so the solution must be mixed up and the water changed 2X a day. Otherwise you can have treatment failure (been there)


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## liltweets (Oct 31, 2008)

Hi Jess, I have the 100mg capsules. Do you have any idea how to dose that by mouth? How much water and how many drops? I did a search on Ronaxan and didn't recognize the websites that sell it, most I found were "get cheap drugs here" kind of thing and I don't know if they are scams or not. Maybe a local feed store would have it. Or, I could estimate/cut it (the powder) into 5ths, which may be way off as far as dosing. 

Hi Susanne, thanks for the info. Very good to know. I sure don't want them all to become reinfected. It broke my heart to have to stick them every week. And the psittacosis itself was really hard on their organs. 
Budgies don't have a urine ring around their droppings but as long as they have urates it means they're drinking it, right? 

I wish I could mix it 'xx/ml' but since they are 100mg capsules and I think the least amount of water the entire contents of the capsule would dissolve in would be a tablespoon, which is just about 15 ml. So I would have to dose at 'xx/15ml' :wacko: to give it by mouth.

I have a call into my vet and see if she can figure out that kind of dosing, it's way over my head and too, I think it would probably be too much to give by mouth dosing that way. So for now, I hope they drink.


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

Sounds like you have to break the capsule up and section it into small piles but there would be alot of piles, you wouldn't want to give the much more than 5mg a day.
I think get back to the vet if you want to do something like that, see if they have some doxy caps/tabs of 20mg. I'm pretty sure you could only get ronaxan from the vets, it's made by a company called Merial.
I have seperated antirobe 25mg caps for a Cockatiel (no good for treating pssit though)
had to turn the capsule into 6 little equal size piles of powder as it was 1 pile every 12 hours. I got some small screw top bottles from the vets to put them in, that works well.


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## Cassie (Jan 7, 2009)

Hello. My three are coming up to week 4 of the doxy injections. I tried to give it to them orally but it was a huge failure. Plus two of them are new so I'd rather them hate the vet than me. It costs a fortune doing it this way but at least I know they are getting the correct dose. 

They could definitely be sore from the needle still. It is so painful for them the poor little things. I hate taking them there to get it. Poor Jackson threw up on the way to the vet last week and they said some birds do that because they're so anxious because they know what's coming.  I'm glad they're picking up. It took about 2 injections before Jack seemed like he was coming good and he finally put on weight last week.


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## liltweets (Oct 31, 2008)

Hi Jess, I talked to my vet and she said 5 injections should be enough (that they usually treat between 4-6 weeks) but if I didn't feel comfortable with that I could mix the 100mg capsule in 5cc of water and give .05 twice per day. I feel more comfortable giving it to them, to make sure. 

Hi Cassie, it has to be so painful for them.  I was so glad when their last injection was done. If my vet wasn't 2 hours from here (there are no good ones near me) I would have taken them in every week. I agree, it's much better to let the vet be "the bad person". Yes, at least they are getting the right dose, that's the one good thing. Aww, poor Jackson. They have very good memories. I thought mine were still shivering some but they weren't, they thought I was coming to give them an injection. They're just now getting over that. It really broke my heart. They're still very bonded to me though, thank goodness. I'm sure it'll take a while for them to know I'm not going to give them any more injections. I hope the infection is gone for good. I scrubbed everything and then sprayed it down with F10 and even dusted with it. I washed curtains and mini blinds and sprayed the walls and carpets with it too. My house was very clean.  

How are your other 2 doing? 
And how many weeks will yours be on the injections? Will your vet be doing 6 weeks?

What kind of symptoms did yours have? Did they have upper respiratory symptoms? Mine never did, just lower resp. symptoms. Did it affect your tiels' livers? The infection was also in my tiels' livers and they had yellow urine. That's gone now. The budgies had yellow urine for about a week, that's gone now too. If we had a competent avian vet around here they would have gotten treatment long before they did. Our new vet is well worth the 2 hour drive.


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## Cassie (Jan 7, 2009)

Hi Debbie, I originally had two and I had to have my baby put to sleep, so to keep Bell company I went and stumbled over a new tiel the next day (Jackson). A few days later I found another I couldn't resist (a girl) so I also adopted her. Jack was really quiet the first few days and shivering a lot. I also never saw him eat or drink for the 3 days before they went to the vet for a check up. Jack was the only one that tested positive for psittacosis but because they were quarrantined but still in the same house and sharing the same air-space they all have to be treated. Luckily the avian vet is only 30 minutes from here so it's easy enough to get them there each week. It is so expensive though! All up, Jack is going to have cost me about $800 all up. I could have bought a phoenix for $800!  And to top it off he's not overly friendly yet. He was in a cage full of aviary tiels that had a sign saying 'not tame' on the front. Jack seemed really alert though so I believe he was hand-raised at some time. I didn't want to leave him there to end up in an outside cage and ignored so I took him home. I don't regret it because now he's much healthier... I just wish he'd like me a bit more. I'll keep at it though. He's stepping up easier now which is good.

The vet said they've each got to have 6 injections. They've had 3 already so we're halfway there. I'll be glad when it's over!


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

Alot of pssiticosis info on the web can be a bit misleading, often says sytoms include sneezing, runny nose but talking to a friend of mine who has lots of rescue/rehome birds and different types she said most that had pssit didn't, more likely fluffed up, lost appetite, if it's a young bird might regress back to baby hood and want handrearing formula. Another little reported symtom can be the bird limps like it's hurt a leg, I think this must because the pssitcosis infection enlarges the liver so it can affect the walking.


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## liltweets (Oct 31, 2008)

Hi Cassie, I'm sorry about your baby. 
Ah, so Jackson didn't have the upper respiratory symptoms either. I think more vets should be aware that a lot of birds don't have those symptoms. Mine would have been diagnosed long before they were if the first vet we went to had known that and if he had known that them being on Baytril before they were tested could affect the results. I asked him to treat for psittacosis but he wouldn't. He said that wasn't it. Our new vet treated and they started getting better. The first vet we went to claimed to have a lot of bird experience, he evidently didn't.
I'm glad you're making progress with Jackson, that's great.  

Jess! Tweety had issues with his right leg. He didn't limp but he would sit with his toes out instead of curled around a perch and his grip wasn't good on my finger either. His grip is getting better now. Plus, at times his legs would turn a little red, they're pink again. Radiographs didn't show an enlarged liver but I know it was infected and inflamed. It could have been causing him pain, along with the injections. They were both fluffed, shivery, Piglet was tailbobbing and Tweety had labored breathing and of course the yellow urine and a lot of it. They both lost weight although they didn't quit eating. I'm sure fighting the infection caused some of the weight loss and I'm sure they weren't eating as much as usual. And they were both weak, Tweety was very weak. They both go back in a couple months for repeat blood work and maybe x-rays.


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## liltweets (Oct 31, 2008)

Well, as of today it looks like the doxy powder and water is a no go for the budgies. They both brought it back up. I hope 5 injections was enough. And poor Emma blew it out her nose, even though I gave it to her very slowly. I hope she didn't aspirate any of it.  She was wheezy for a few minutes. If they become reinfected we'll just have to retreat them all. ugh.


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