Help I think Sunny is sick!

[whitewing]

I'm glad he's fine, and you are such a good sweet owner. Too many people choose to "wait it out" when their birds get sick and then........ bad things happen.

You are a good person for taking him to the vet right away.

[gbird]

Glad he's OK. A suggestion, molting can be very uncomfortable and irritating to them. All those new pin feathers are stiff and scratchy. If he lets you scratch him, you can help him along by gently taking the hard sheath that covers the feather when its new, and gently rub it between your forefinger and thumb, or just squeez it gently until you feel it break. BE CAREFUL NOT TO GO TO CLOSE TO THE SKIN, NEW FEATHERS HAVE A DIRECT BLOOD SUPPLY, AND YOU DON'T WANT TO BREAK IT SO IT BLEEDS. That will help him because they can't preen the top of thier heads, and back of thier neck. Also, try giving him a bath. Either in the sink, letting him take a bath himself... or with a mister, or spray bottle on mist. The water will soften the pin feathers and make him more comfy. If you aren't comfortable doing any of the above, then just let nature take it's course. But be patient with him, he's irritable....LOL

Either way, you did the right thing taking him into the vet. Thank You. Birds are experts at hiding illness and injury. They do it in the wild to protect them preditors. Alot of people don't even know thier bird is sick until it's to late, or they just think, its nothing and can wait. Only you know your baby, so if you ever see him acting out of the ordinary, like in this instance, call the vet. Better safe than sorry.

[birdsnreps]

if hes starting a moult, frequent bathing will really help his new feathers come in nicely :) it makes the keratin sheaths come off easily (when they are ready to come off). also, you can try the kaytee moulting and conditioning supplement while he is moulting, use the one for cockatiels. it says tiels and lovebirds on it, but really, it works for all diff types of birds. i use it for all of my parrots, it really does make a difference :) i even used it for my amazons, and their feathers came out brighter :)

if by any chance your bird IS sick, a fecal sample should show any bacteria that he might have, they poop it out, although i think that the bird might not poop out bacteria in EVERY poop, so its prob a good idea to have more than one fecal sample taken. one time one of our birds started acting "funny", he was poofy sometimes, but the rest of the time, he was playing and acting normal, but i was still concerned about it, and sure enough, he had a little bacteria in his poop when i took him to the vet. since we caught it so early, it was easily treated with antibiotics for about 2-3 weeks, twice a day. after that, everything was fine, and he no longer acted all poofy :)

you did the right thing by taking him to the vet. just keep a close eye on him, just in case. if you have a scale, it would be a good idea to weigh your bird every day, record the weights, and if you have any problems, you can take the weight chart to the vet with you. often when a bird gets sick, they will start to loose weight before showing any symptoms.

[Barbara9]

thanks everyone, I will keep an eye on Sunny, and thanks for the molting tips...I will look for the moutling supplement and check it out...