# female cockatiel poor digestion



## kaiel (Jun 2, 2012)

hello guys 

ive started 3 threads about my female cockatiel cookie ive had her for more than 70 days now.

at first she was not digesting food properly noticed a few seeds in her droppings and that went away after 1-2 weeks and then started again and i took her to 5 diffrent vets including my regular vet the one i trust.

first one gave her oyster shells and that didnt work the second one told me to put small stones in her food didnt work either 3rd one gave her an antibiotic shot didnt work XD and the last one told me she might has some kind of a virus gave me a medicen to mix with her water for a week and i didnt notice any kind of diffrence in her daily routine which is being fluffy and eating too much.

and now shes pooping seeds again and im starting to think that shes not sick.
i think she just has poor digesting system .

right now her diet is mixed seeds with honey. and i drop liquid vitamin mix in her water twice a week.

and thinking i should change her diet i mean something that can easly be digested like apple maybe .

i hope u guys can help me ive spent a too much on my cockatiel and thats cuz i love her i dont want her to die. p.s (animal blood tests arent availble in my country).


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

has any one of them tested her for a yeast infection? she will need to be put on antifungals, not antibiotics if thats the case.


for now, you can put apple cider vinegar in her water, just a few drops. each day. 

after the ACV you need probiotics. probiotics will restore the balance in the gut. the acidity of the ACV will break up yeast and make it too acidic to form in the birds body. it will not hurt to use as a precaution for this, just a few drops in her water dish. however you have to follow up right after with probiotics. you can get them at a local health food store in a tablet form, or you can buy bird specific ones online, or you can use plain yogurt (which has probiotics naturally in it). the dosage of the capsules depends, i use some from the pharmacy for people with good results. IF you go for this route, PM me, i will give you the dosage amount.


you can use the probiotics first instead of ACV, as it could simply be an imbalance of bacteria in the gut, and probiotics will set that straight. keep her on them for about 1-2 weeks.


also, have they tested her for PDD? the biggest symptom is often seeds in the poop.


grit (the stones and oyster shells given to you) i dont think would be much help if its an imbalance or yeast infection.

some info on PDD

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=3134&S=4&SourceID=62


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## Bird Junky (Jul 24, 2012)

Hello Please explain exactly what is the daily diet of your
birds. Without that info any reply would be based purely 
on guesswork...B.J.


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## kaiel (Jun 2, 2012)

i dont think its pdd cuz if it was im sure one of those vets would have said something plus i dont think a bird with a pdd can live more than a month(thats what i read about it).

and i mentioned the diet in the first post mixed seeds with honey flavor they are new birds not hand fed so they wont accept any other food expect seeds for now but im trying to change that.


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## CookieTiel (Feb 6, 2012)

I am having the same problem with my bird, and first he was diagnosed with Avian Gastric Yeast. If your bird has AGY, like someone already said, she will need an antifungal. Mine had Amphotericin B (didn't work), but Megabac-S is also another option and you can buy it online. Just check with your vet first. 

I'm not sure that birds with PDD die within a month. My bird has a mystery illness that could possibly be PDD, and he's been sick for almost 2 months with it now.


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## birdsoo (Jul 4, 2012)

PDD does not follow the same course in every bird and it does not necessarily kill within a month. 

The undigested food suggests there is a problem in digestive system and the bird is not able to digest food. If there is poor digestion, it is caused by a disease and if it is not found and treated, the bird will starve to death.

I am very skeptical about vets that give treatment (whatever treatment it is) without running tests and following a proper approach to systemically eliminate any possible cause to find out what is wrong. The fact that they did not mention PDD while there was undigested seeds in the droppings does not mean that your bird does not have it, it just means they might not have heard of it. Were they avian specialists?

It is possible they do not know much about birds. My vet did not know about PDD, the other did not know about recent developments in treating it. 

Undigested food is a serious problem, an important symptom. You should find an avian vet or a vet who is very good at treating birds, and take your bird, there. 

There are a lot of helpful stickies about a vet visit, what to ask, how to find a vet, cockatiel health problems and what to look out for. Taking a look at them would give you some ideas at how to carry on if you would like to take him to another vet.


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

Has the bird been on probiotics?


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

Bird Junky said:


> Hello Please explain exactly what is the daily diet of your
> birds. Without that info any reply would be based purely
> on guesswork...B.J.


The daily diet *was* in the first post. Please read the whole topic before responding.

And any response, no matter how much information she gives us, will be 'guesswork' because we are not vets, cannot see the bird, and therefore cannot diagnose it. We are here to ask questions so that we can give more helpful answers to each member.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> first one gave her oyster shells and that didnt work the second one told me to put small stones in her food didnt work either 3rd one gave her an antibiotic shot didnt work XD and the last one told me she might has some kind of a virus gave me a medicen to mix with her water for a week


It doesn't sound like your vets are very well qualified. The first two basically prescribed grit. But cockatiels can normally digest their food without grit, and when seeds are passing through undigested it's usually caused by some kind of infection, not by a need for grit. The third vet was a little more on track, but putting medicine in the water is a very unreliable delivery method because there's so little control over the dosage. 

What kind of medicine was it? Antibiotics are frequently prescribed and they're helpful against bacterial infections, but there's basically no medicine that's effective against viruses (which is what the vet said she had). If she actually has a bacterial infection (which is a more common problem than viruses anyway) then antibiotics might help, assuming that an appropriate antibiotic was prescribed. 

Did any of the vets conduct lab tests on her to find out what kind of infection or other specific problem she might have?


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## kaiel (Jun 2, 2012)

no probiotics and p.s i dont know what probiotics are .(sorry english aren't my main language)

i know that vets in may area aren't qualified they are not experienced in birds at all.

because 80% of the pets in my country are dogs or cats people rarely own birds here .

and thats why im confused i dont know how to help her ive done everything that i know of.

and my my male cockatiel whos in the same cage as her since i got her is so lively unlike her hes singing and playing and moving most of the time .

and thats one of the reasons that makes me believe that shes not sick cuz if she was i think the Infection would have affected him.


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## birdsoo (Jul 4, 2012)

It is not necessarily a contagious disease like that. If she has avian gastric yeast, it is more likely a secondary infection; meaning it is there because something else is making her weak so the balance of her digestive system is broken and yeast is over-reproducing there. It does not necessarily pass to the other bird, because the other bird already has the yeast, he is just strong enough to keep everything in balance.

Seeds in droppings is a symptom of a serious problem. It means she is starving. She is not digesting her food and passing it fully. So she does not have food in her blood feeding her cells, making things work and she will eventually lose weight and starve to death.

What country are you in?


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that live in the gut. Yogurt is produced by beneficial bacteria interacting with milk, so if you can get your bird to eat a little bit of yogurt you can provide some probiotics that way. The bacteria in yogurt aren't the ideal kind for birds but it will be helpful, and it's better than nothing .


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

It could just be an imbalance in the gut. You can get probiotics naturally through plain yogurt, offer it to her on a spoon. allbirdproducts.com has something called Guardian Angel which is probiotics and should work well if it is an imbalance in the gut.


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## Bird Junky (Jul 24, 2012)

bjknight93 said:


> The daily diet *was* in the first post. Please read the whole topic before responding.
> 
> And any response, no matter how much information she gives us, will be 'guesswork' because we are not vets, cannot see the bird, and therefore cannot diagnose it. We are here to ask questions so that we can give more helpful answers to each member.



Hello The reason for my request was that I hoped that
the birds were not on such a restricted diet & I was hoping
all the other unmentioned food stuff were provided but just
not mentioned....After all one mustn't jump to conclusions.
I'm very surprised other members didn't pick up on that.
So my advice would be to read the posts on nutrition....B.J.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> I'm very surprised other members didn't pick up on that.
> So my advice would be to read the posts on nutrition....B.J.


Very good advice! A varied diet is always essential.

I'm sure other members assumed (as I did) that the diet posted was the WHOLE diet and so took it at face value.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Soaked or sprouted seed is easier to digest than dry seed, and might help her get more nutritional benefit from the seed she's eating. There's info on sprouting at http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=9019


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