Hello all. I've got a 2 year old cotornix who is suddenly acting very strange.
She's been off lay for a few weeks now and this morning was digging around like she was trying to lay an egg, so I let her be. I'd seen her butt looking a little full the other day, so I put some oyster shells back in next to her food. Normally she gets oyster shells and some calcium glucosate in her eater when she's on lay, and then I don't give supplemental calcium when she's off.
Anyway, fast forward a couple hours and then all of the sudden she is violently flailing around the aviary, the way a bird looks when it's hit a window or something. Our aviary is made entirely of canvas with no hard objects so I'm fairly confident she didn't sustain a boink injury. I took her out of the aviary and she was panting, trembling, and her cloaca was pulsing very strongly. She was very agitated so I quickly felt around her cloaca and thought I felt something that could have been an egg, so I put her in a warm bath in the kitchen sink. She seemed to calm down and after awhile she seemed very content to eat a dead fly out of our hands and drink .3 ml calcium glucosate out of a dropper.
After soaking for 15-20 minutes, I dried her off, put some coconut oil around her cloaca, and put her back in the aviary (she's currently the only bird in there). She immediately started behaving as though she was trying to pass an egg - bum up, bottom pulsing, feathers fluffed and looking fairly determined. After half an hour with no egg, I repeated the soak for 15 minutes, relubricated her cloaca and put her back in her house. She seemed worse this time, breathing heavily, but she still would come up and eat sesame seeds out of my hand, and when I put a teacup with water it in, she drank a bunch of it and then pooped. Poop looks normal.
Since she was eating and drinking and pooping, I thought I'd give her some more time to see how she did before I did anything else. She nested down and has been on her belly, eyes closed, and leaning off to the side like she's sleeping. That she was pooping made me think maybe she was not egg bound afterall, so after awhile I decided to double check the cloaca and put a sanitized, lubed pinky finger about half an inch in, and felt nothing suggesting there was an egg there. Since then her condition seems to have only worsened, she is just laying on her side with her eyes closed. She got up once to get some water, but will no longer come to the front of the aviary for food (though she will eat it if we bring it right to her).
I suppose it could be an egg bound further up in the oviduct, but I'm not sure how to deal with that. I'm really stumped.
I've tried many vets in the area, including those recommended on this website and who specialize in birds, and have never been very impressed. I called the vet I trust most and they told me they are completely booked for today, and recommended taking her into the emergency room of one of the big expensive chain vets, who did not have a bird specialist in today, but who said their emergency vets are trained to deal with birds...If this vet is anything like the other vets I've found, I imagine the vet will say they have to do bloodwork and xrays on top of the very expensive emergency room visit fee, which is probably more money than I can realistically afford. More than that, I don't want to put the bird through more stress, especially if she (god forbid) ends up dying, I want her to be at home where she is comfortable and not in some scary emergency room.
So, besides any of the above things, does anyone have suggestions for anything else I could try that would help resuscitate her? I'd be very grateful for helpful suggestions.
Thank you so much.
She's been off lay for a few weeks now and this morning was digging around like she was trying to lay an egg, so I let her be. I'd seen her butt looking a little full the other day, so I put some oyster shells back in next to her food. Normally she gets oyster shells and some calcium glucosate in her eater when she's on lay, and then I don't give supplemental calcium when she's off.
Anyway, fast forward a couple hours and then all of the sudden she is violently flailing around the aviary, the way a bird looks when it's hit a window or something. Our aviary is made entirely of canvas with no hard objects so I'm fairly confident she didn't sustain a boink injury. I took her out of the aviary and she was panting, trembling, and her cloaca was pulsing very strongly. She was very agitated so I quickly felt around her cloaca and thought I felt something that could have been an egg, so I put her in a warm bath in the kitchen sink. She seemed to calm down and after awhile she seemed very content to eat a dead fly out of our hands and drink .3 ml calcium glucosate out of a dropper.
After soaking for 15-20 minutes, I dried her off, put some coconut oil around her cloaca, and put her back in the aviary (she's currently the only bird in there). She immediately started behaving as though she was trying to pass an egg - bum up, bottom pulsing, feathers fluffed and looking fairly determined. After half an hour with no egg, I repeated the soak for 15 minutes, relubricated her cloaca and put her back in her house. She seemed worse this time, breathing heavily, but she still would come up and eat sesame seeds out of my hand, and when I put a teacup with water it in, she drank a bunch of it and then pooped. Poop looks normal.
Since she was eating and drinking and pooping, I thought I'd give her some more time to see how she did before I did anything else. She nested down and has been on her belly, eyes closed, and leaning off to the side like she's sleeping. That she was pooping made me think maybe she was not egg bound afterall, so after awhile I decided to double check the cloaca and put a sanitized, lubed pinky finger about half an inch in, and felt nothing suggesting there was an egg there. Since then her condition seems to have only worsened, she is just laying on her side with her eyes closed. She got up once to get some water, but will no longer come to the front of the aviary for food (though she will eat it if we bring it right to her).
I suppose it could be an egg bound further up in the oviduct, but I'm not sure how to deal with that. I'm really stumped.
I've tried many vets in the area, including those recommended on this website and who specialize in birds, and have never been very impressed. I called the vet I trust most and they told me they are completely booked for today, and recommended taking her into the emergency room of one of the big expensive chain vets, who did not have a bird specialist in today, but who said their emergency vets are trained to deal with birds...If this vet is anything like the other vets I've found, I imagine the vet will say they have to do bloodwork and xrays on top of the very expensive emergency room visit fee, which is probably more money than I can realistically afford. More than that, I don't want to put the bird through more stress, especially if she (god forbid) ends up dying, I want her to be at home where she is comfortable and not in some scary emergency room.
So, besides any of the above things, does anyone have suggestions for anything else I could try that would help resuscitate her? I'd be very grateful for helpful suggestions.
Thank you so much.
