allergies?

[treespirit]

My amazon, Kiwi, has been sneezing fairly frequently for the past many months. I've had many visits to the avian vet, and had a few tests done checking for bad bacteria, however they've all come back clean; only able to grow good bacteria. When I first got him home in May, he did have a bad bacteria, but I guess we got rid of it. The hairs in his sinuses came back and look good now, says his vet. So, to test if it was an allergy we gave him anti-histamine. That did not seem to make any difference, apart from my bird sounded like he was less nasal-y. Though the vet says the two would not be related. We did another test by taking him out of the house and to my boyfriends house for a weekend. Well, at his house Kiwi seemed more irritated, sneezing more and scratching at his head and nose a lot more(which results in his nose getting red and raw looking). After taking him home from there his nose/nares were a lot less irritated. His sneezing went back to about once or twice a day, and scratching his head less frequently.
That does sound like an allergy, right? Could he possibly be allergic to dust from dogs? Or just dust in general? At my house he is in a very open air kind of environment with a lot of air movement. I have one dog, that stays in the kitchen(due to her old age we don't let her go freely around the house anymore). At my boyfriends house, they have 2 dogs that can go throughout the house. Also, I kept the bird in a bedroom, so as not to come in contact with the other bird in the house(just in case my bird had something contagious). So, because he was in a bedroom there was not as much airmovement as he gets at home, and probably had more dust in the area.

I am just looking for some other viewpoints here. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

[Monica]

That's a curious case! I can only suggest to try giving him bathes daily (in the shower if you can, or atleast having him in the bathroom while you take one), and maybe upping the humidity a little to try and help.

Could there possibly be something in the air, such as smoke, perfume, something scented, maybe something that you have touched??? You may want to make sure that you wash your hands for a while before handling him to see if it's something that you've picked up and transferred to him that is bothering him.

You might even try having a safe air cleaner in the same room as your zon and making sure that there is good air flow with fresh air from outside. It is quite possible for him to be allergic to something in the air or something in the home.

[Freedomoflight]

Sounds like something in the air is bugging him. I would suggest daily bathes, a humidifer next to his cage, and an air purifer in the room where he is kept. That should help him with whatever is going on. In the winter months our fids tend to get really "dry" dry skin, dry noses, etc, so a humdifier would help, and a purifer will help suck out whatever in the air is causing him problems.

[treespirit]

Thank you both so much for your tips. We already have an air purifier right by his cage. I will surely look into getting a humidifier as well.
I will also try taking him in the bathroom when I shower more. I worried about him getting wet in the house though. I feared that the house was too cold for him. It is usually between 63 and 67 in the winter. But he has a heating perch, so he should be fine.

We don't have to worry about smoke in the air. And in all of these months of him sneezing and such we have not had any candles lit. No perfumes are really used in the house either. I guess it is also just a matter of trial and error to figure out what he is allergic to.

Glad to get some input here.

[nancy jean]

What do you use to clean your home? If it's a common store bought item, that also could be causing problems.

[LMPego]

My lovebird gets seasonal allergies and possibly has a peanut allergy. When her allergies act up we give her baby Benadryl drops in her water. You would have to ask your avian vet for the proper dosage for an Amazon.