# Sneezing Cockatiel



## andreanne1422 (Jul 27, 2009)

Hi everyone, I'm new here and think this forum is awesome! There isn't many places you can find such experienced cockatiel owners.

So i'm a brand new first time cockatiel owner and very new to birds too. The first bird I had was a dove, it didn't work out so well because she was very noisy and was never quiet, it quickly got on my nerves.  

This time is completely different tho, I got a whitefaced female cockatiel. She's awesome! After the dove my boyfriend didn't even want any kind of bird but she won his heart as well as mine. She's very quiet and only chips and whistle onces in a while. I got her two weeks ago today and I was told she's between 5-9 months. I think she's 7 months old. Anyways, a week ago yesterday I've noticed that she sneezes, at first I thought it was when she groomed herself but I'm not sure any more. A while day or two after the I first noticed her sneezing she started twitching her head, at one point I counted her twitches in one minute she twitched her head 20 times. This stopped about 3 days later and was replaced by her moving her feet like they where on fire, for the record I've been providing her with different size of perches and different types of perches, this feet thing was like this; she would stomp one foot down and then the other back and forth, she'd even do this in her sleep. But once again it stopped about two days after she started doing that. For a day she seemed like she was back to normal, but now she's sneezing again.  

I think she just finished or is starting to molt, not sure which tho. The pet shop I got her from said that the head twitching was because her top head feathers are growing in. I don't live close to an avain vet, but there is one 2 1/2 hours from me, which I have an appointment with August 18th. I was wondering if there's anything I could be doing, and if these symptons are serious. She's eating great and her droppings seem normal to me. 

Oh and also, we used to have an air conditioner running in our house but during the day it was still really hot, but at night it cooled down a lot. I thought it might be the drop in temperature so I turned off the air conditioner and that's when her head twitching stopped, and the sneezing fainted. 

Looking forward to hearing what you guys think


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Is there any discharge coming out when she sneezes? All that does sound strange, I would keep the appointment with the vet and ask them about it. I would see if they can do a gram stain to check for bacterial infections. Good luck and let us know how she does  Here is a neat link on cockatiel behaviour to check out aswell http://www.tailfeathersnetwork.com/birdinformation/behavior.php


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

As Spike suggested, please do keep your appontment with the vet.

Your vet can run several tests in the office (gram stain and fecal floats) and send bood out for analysis (sp). Take detailed notes and jot down any concerns and questions. This give the vet some immediate background and possibly clues to what is going on. Detail and explain the birds environment and responces to any changes you have seen.

Try and find out within your local, by talking with other bird owners some common ailments they have seen and if similair to you the causes. If the bird is banded try to find out the background of the bird, such as parents orgrand-parents, and were they imported to Canada, and where from.

From your description I have had similar symtoms with my young and recently weaned birds many years ago. Thru in office tests and fecal floats, in my instance it turned out to be a problem of intestinal parasites and/or protozoa. 

Other possible causes could be an alllergy to synthetic vitamins in foods, which would cause a restless acting bird, but also resulted in feather plucking, which you are not seeing. 

Detergents and fabric softeners used when washing cage covers can be a cause for sneezing and respiratory distress, if the smell are over powering on the fabric.

As to the molt, it is harder to tell if a female is finished with a molt than a male. females will molt back in the same colored feathered. if a males there are obvious changes to the flight feathers, tail feathers and facial mask to give a clue as to a young bird molting. And with either sex lots of feathers in and around the cage.

Your observations are the best tool you can give your vet. Take everything into account for discussion. And the vet has the tools to hopefully give you some answers and causes of treatments or changes if needed.


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## andreanne1422 (Jul 27, 2009)

The sneezing seems dry to me, she's had a lot of small feathers and dust like stuff lately, which I think is normal in cockatiel from what I've learned so far. I'll pay more attention to the kind of sneezing and let you guys know for sure.


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## andreanne1422 (Jul 27, 2009)

Alright so today she sneezed in my ear and it was dry. Is that bad or good? Srtiels, you said that it sounds like intestinal parasite and/or protozoa, if it is is it treatable? How serious is it if it's that? And what are other symptoms?


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Do you wear purfume? If so, that could be why she sneezes when on or near you. Tiels are very sensitive to smells.

If she is still doing the hopping you will have to mention that to the vet. If your camera can make a video you can tape a session to show him. Yes intestinal parasites/protozoa are treatable. The vet dies what they call a 'float' to look at the poop under a microscope to see if anything is there.

Some symptoms would also be more watery droppings, and the solid part would be extra mushy. Sometimes there is a earthy odor to the poop.


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## andreanne1422 (Jul 27, 2009)

Thanks, that's very helpful! She stopped the foot thing a few days ago, forgot to mention that and no I don't wear perfume it gives me headaches lol. So far all she's been doing is her sneezing, which is dry. I'll make sure my vet does all the necessary test on her and I'll mention what you said, hopefully that will help her out.  I'm thinking that since she seems to be doing better it's nothing too serious, which is good since I wouldn't be able to get her a an avain vet right away. Thanks for your help!


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