# Liver disease



## andievm (Apr 27, 2016)

Recently adopted a very ill cockatiel, Archie, who besides other diseases, suffers from Liver disease. Apparently he spent his whole life (however long that may be) in a tiny cage with 10 or so budgies only eating seeds and has liver disease because of it. 

I've been asking around vets here but no one seems to know exactly what to do besides changing his diet and adding scrambled egg. Besides, Archie won't eat any fruits or veggies other than lettuce which isn't helping much. I've tried many tricks and I'm still stuck with him only having lettuce.

Do any of you have any advice for the liver disease and the fruit/veggie eating?


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Milk thistle is supposed to help with liver disease if you can get some and add it to his food. It's liquid if you get it from a vitamin store and you can add one to two drops. It should help. I'd say add it to his water but then you won't be sure how much he's actually getting. Fresh dandelions would also have the same effect if you can talk him into eating those.


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## andievm (Apr 27, 2016)

Thanks! I'll see if I can get those asap!


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## Janalee (Jul 25, 2012)

*liver disease*

I have heard the same thing about milk thistle. In fact, I was going to post that to suggest it to you, but wasn't sure of the name. I'm glad Roxy beat me to it! Hope it helps!


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Me too!! The liver is supposed to be able to regenerate itself I believe so hopefully not too much damage has been done.


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## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

I'm so sorry, good luck with the milk thistle and dandelions, these should really help your little guy, try offering them every day and even cutting them up really small might convince him to try them. Best of luck!


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

Here is an old post I made re:Liver Disease in birds. 



> I'm assuming they did a chem panel on Missy's blood sample to diagnose liver disease. As far as I know, that would be the only way to diagnose it, and to know how advanced it is..they typically measure liver enzymes and another value I can't quite remember. There is a certain range these enzymes should measure between, and if they're higher than the upper value then the liver isn't functioning normally and the bird has liver disease. Depending on how high the value was out of range should tell you bad it is.
> 
> The liver can repair itself, so unless it is completely "fried" then it will heal with time, a diet change, and supplements to help the liver function.
> 
> ...


http://www.avitec.com/mobile/Category.aspx?id=47


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

Another about how I tricked Allie to eat veggies: http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=31757&highlight=Allie+veggies

I also got ther to eat pellets by crushing them up.


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