African Grey Problem

[Susannadanna]

Hi Everyone, I am hoping someone can help here. My 20 year old Grey has been doing something strange which has us concerned. In the past few days, she has fallen off the playgym for no reason. When she landed on the floor, she just stood there and her left foot was curled up in a fist. When we go to pick her up, we always reach with our right hand to her left foot for her to jump on. In these two situations, she just kept that left foot curled up in a fist. We just picked her up bodily and put her on the dining room table and acted like nothing was wrong. When she saw we weren't concerned, she then opened that foot and put full weight on it. Then we put her back on the gym.

This evening she was hanging off the cage door for about 15 minutes. Then she started flapping her wings and just pushed herself away from the cage door and fell to the floor. Once again that left foot was curled up in a fist. It was like she was stuck on the cage door and that was the only way she could get free.

She is acting totally normally. She is talking like she always does, is right now grooming herself, tormenting her brother, our Orange-Winged Amazon. She loves to torment him. LOL She eats like a horse and is acting totally normal except for these incidents with the foot.

Has anyone heard of anything like this? I am going to call around tomorrow for an avian vet. In our 20 years of having her, the only time she went to a vet was when we first got her to have her band removed - she had been fretting at it.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[Greycloud]

I also have a CAG. They are great birds. Kudos on having a 20yr old.
My feelings on this is, that she maybe having a small seizure. My YNA went through this. Unfortunately it progressively got worse. I think your bird needs to see an avian vet ASAP! Normal behavior or not. Varying Calcium levels in greys can cause all sorts of problems. As well as liver problems and heavy metal poisoning. Simple bloodwork can answer your questions. Please don't wait.

[pippy]

Oh poor bird xx

Please, please get your bird to the vet as a matter of urgency. It may be something relatively harmless causing the problem but equally, it could be as serious as zinc poisoning which can be fatal VERY quickly.

Good luck.

[Franciscus]

This may be a harsh comment but if your child were to have their loss of a limb sporadically on a regular basis are you going to go on line on a forum for child rearing or are you going to take that child to a doctor? I think that there is a possibility she may be egg bound as when an egg passes the sciatic nerve becomes temporarily paralyzed. That can be very dangerous. I hope everything is OK with your little friend.

[Maggie F.]

It could be something as simple as a vitamin or mineral deficiency that may be easily remedied. We can all continue to guess, but the only way to find out is for a vet to examine her and run blood tests.

[LovelySydney]

I would definitely take a trip to the vet, one wont ever be able to know for sure what the bird has until a vet looks at it. &, as others have said, it could be something very serious, considering it is preventing full use of your little ones leg. Please get him to a vet ASAP, 20 is too young!! Keep us posted.

[Astrid660]

Susanna - I hope you can take your grey to a vet asap and have her checked out!

[xafsmom]

Originally Posted by Franciscus

This may be a harsh comment but if your child were to have their loss of a limb sporadically on a regular basis are you going to go on line on a forum for child rearing or are you going to take that child to a doctor?

This was rather abrupt, and clearly you didn't read her post in its entirety.

She said she was contacting her vet the next day. In your situation, if I saw something like this with my child, I would watch it for a few days to be certain it's truly what I saw before I contacted a doctor. Children and birds can do some very strange things when completely healthy. And, while I awaited my appointment, I would indeed Google or forum read.

It's called relieving stress and hoping for informational comfort.

I'll reiterate because people seem to like jumping on others when it's not needed and defending others when they're clearly at fault.

She said she was contacting her vet the next day.

[Braveheartdogs]

Originally Posted by Greycloud

I also have a CAG. They are great birds. Kudos on having a 20yr old.
My feelings on this is, that she maybe having a small seizure. My YNA went through this. Unfortunately it progressively got worse. I think your bird needs to see an avian vet ASAP! Normal behavior or not. Varying Calcium levels in greys can cause all sorts of problems. As well as liver problems and heavy metal poisoning. Simple bloodwork can answer your questions. Please don't wait.

Weird. I have never experienced this with a bird but have with other animals and the first thing I thought was that it sounded like a small seizure.

Vicki

[Franciscus]

Originally Posted by xafsmom

This was rather abrupt, and clearly you didn't read her post in its entirety.

She said she was contacting her vet the next day. In your situation, if I saw something like this with my child, I would watch it for a few days to be certain it's truly what I saw before I contacted a doctor. Children and birds can do some very strange things when completely healthy. And, while I awaited my appointment, I would indeed Google or forum read.

It's called relieving stress and hoping for informational comfort.

I'll reiterate because people seem to like jumping on others when it's not needed and defending others when they're clearly at fault.

She said she was contacting her vet the next day.

You are right. It was 6:30 am when I read the post and jumped to a conclusion, not noticing the mention of a vet. I would do the same thing, plan to go to the vet and ask around meanwhile.

I'm sorry Suzanna. I work in pet retail and we have people coming in or calling asking questions only a vet can answer after looking and testing the animal. I get frustrated by that. You should have not gotten the brunt of my frustration. Were you able to find a vet? How is she doing?