# sudden amazon death



## mikeyb (May 8, 2011)

my mums parrot seemed fine for weeks just been her normal self singing away etc then next min shes regurging her food in the morning like shes always done and flicking it at the cat, then next min she starts banging her beak all over the cage mu mum walks in and shes on the bottom of her cage with her head leant right back gasping and making really loud raspy noises just out of the blue so they rush her to the vets he puts her on steroids and oxygen straight away mum leaves her with the vet 4 hrs later the vet calls up says shes still same no improvement so my mum made the call to put her to sleep rather than her suffer. vet said that she was underweight hardly any breast muscles and her breast bone was very prenounced now baring in mind this parrot always has the best and mother never uses any chemicals in the house near her apart from the normal cage cleaner. and used to eat like a pig and was for ever being spoilt with the best food treats etc and this come out the blue and idea what this could of been one thing that they did notice is she had like snot all over her head shed yacked up... just wanna have some idea of wat happened and why i was thinking possibly she had some kind of tumour or cancer as my old dears really ott about what goes near the parrot.....help pls


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## selina20 (May 28, 2008)

How old was it?


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## GuardianReptileCourier (May 7, 2011)

oh dear , sorry to hear.
the vet is the only person who can tell you this.


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## Bryony2205 (Jun 12, 2010)

So sorry to hear this, how horrible. Could this have been caused by teflon poisoning? I don't know how it works - whether it can kick it instantly or if it can build up? Just a possiblilty... sadly a pm is the only way to know for certain.


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## mikeyb (May 8, 2011)

she was 12 and was always kept well away from anything teflon coated airfreshners the lot even the plants in the house were checked on the parrot websites before they came in the house. Yh i gathered a PM was the only way forward but the price of a PM on a parrot compared to one of my snakes is massivley differnt in price due to that citicosis (sorry unsure of spelling ) even though the vet was pretty sure it wasnt that to me it all points towards a timour or cancer muscls wastage and then out the blue for no reason she drops with respiratory issues and then doesnt recover in the vets or improve at all. my biggest fear is my mum will lose her passions shes had for parrots and birds for years over this and i cant see any point in going through a PM end of day shes dead and like i am with snakes and fish dead is dead unless its summint i can identify ive done wrong then its just the ever ticking clock we all have has stopped at there time. can soemone advise me on some good places when she is ready to get baby parrots from im in cornwall but not fussed about driving and looking at macaws and amazons again but am open to suggestions


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)

diet?


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## mikeyb (May 8, 2011)

nah shes always had the best food avalible and the best fruit and veg my old dears like OTT with ensuring the bird got the best diet it could even better than wat i used to get lol


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Could have been TB? It used to be very common in parrots.


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## mikeyb (May 8, 2011)

hmmm would Tb cause muscle wastage ??? see this is whats confusing me i mean u hear about people drowning on there own sick myself i used to be on the lifeboat so i know all about secondary drowning from sea spray in life rafts and at first id assumed shed inhaled regurge and stomach acids into her lungs but just made no sense when vet went there was hardy any muscle on her chest and her breast bone was very prominent now bare in mind she used to get spoilt wrotten id of been more inclined to of thought she was a fat parrot and also she used to come out alot. so wasnt liek she wasnt excersising. so would TB cause that as im steering more towards tumor or cancer of some sort as every cancer patient ive seen does that losing alot of weight unfortunatley she wasnt the type of bird u could tickle her tummy and not lose ur finger to check everything was on her terms and she used to come for cuddles and a stroke but if ud forced it ud of gotten bit a bit like how my king rat is we have an agreement i dont put my hand in her face i dont get tagged


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## corvid2e1 (Jan 21, 2007)

I doubt there was any disease specificly causing the muscle wastage, more likely she hadnt been feeling right for some time so had not been eating properly. Birds are very good at hiding illness, and parrots can be very wasteful with their food anyway so it would be easy to miss her food intake going down, plus if she was not a particualy touchy-feely bird you would not necicarily notice the keel becoming more promonent either, as this is the only way to check a birds weight as they never look skinny due to the feathers. This being the case there is a wide range of things it could have been, some contagous, some not, so as you are planning on bringing in another bird fairly soon I would still recomend a PM. I know PMs are not cheap, but neither is replacing the next bird if it goes down with the same problem, so better to be safe than sorry.


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## adamntitch (Jun 17, 2007)

what sort of cage was it kept in 12 years ago cages were still made with zinc so could off been slowly poisoned only way to tell tho would be pm 

do you have a pic or name of cage it was in

looking at this and other sites what you describe as happened point to this 

http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-die...signs-lead-and-zinc-poisoning-in-parrots.aspx


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## mikeyb (May 8, 2011)

nah she had a rediculously expensive cage for her when she outgrew her baby one about 4 years ago and this came from one of the top parrot places online they even couriered it down as were in cornwall and it was powdercoated in like this granite grey effect


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