Status

I am pleased to report that Birdie is doing well. In fact, one can see he is at the top of the world. Other than the fact that his seer continues to turn brown, he appears to be in perfect health and in great spirits. When I started this status page, about a year ago, I never expected he would get this far.

The only residual changes I detect from all his medical troubles and medication are he sleeps more, molts more, and bites sometimes when he lands on my hand. It wouldn't surprise me if these symptoms are just a by product of aging. He is cheerful most of the time and no longer demonstrates landing instabilities.

May 15th, 2000

Birdie is doing very well. (Doing fine June 9, 2000 also). While he has not be examined by a vet recently, he looks thinner, is extremely active, has little (but some) trouble landing where he wants to and is in good humor. We went through a rough molting period about 2 months back but that's all it was.

March 3, 2001

We almost lost Birdie in November of 2001 through another crop infection. We ended up with a midnight trip to an emergency room followed by a trip to his own vet the following day. He was hospitalized for a week (kept in an incubator). His medication schedule of antibiotics was temporarily increased. His recovery was slow. All is well again, he is as feisty as ever, and back to his normal medication schedule. He is up to 56 grams so his tumors have grown slightly over the last year but clearly the synthroid has worked well. Both emergency room and normal vet have encouraged us to shift his diet away from seeds and more towards greens. The theory is that greens will enhance his immunization system.

Because there seems to be so little information available on treating budgies with tumors, I am posting his prescribed medicine schedule and amounts. Please note, I am not a vet. and don't have an understanding of cause and effect of the synthroid on the tumors. What I can say is, it's working. Also note, the role of the antibiotics is to control a persistent crop infection and is very expensive.

The medication listed below is obtained on a prescription basis from Birdie's vet.

Thyroxin Stock	Baytrial Stock
2- 0.3mg tablets dissolved in one ounce of water	1 1/2 cc Baytrial in 8 0z water

Schedule	Final Mixture
Monday	4 0z Baytrial Stock + 20 drops of Thyroxin Stock
Tuesday	4 0z Water + 20 drops of Thyroxin Stock
Wednesday	4 0z Baytrial Stock + 20 drops of Thyroxin Stock
Thursday	4 0z Water + 20 drops of Thyroxin Stock + 1 drop Iodine
Fri	4 0z Baytrial Stock + 20 drops of Thyroxin Stock
Sat	4 0z Water + 20 drops of Thyroxin Stock
Sun	4 0z Water + 20 drops of Thyroxin Stock

Note: The iodine solution either has a very strong taste or smell that the bird rejects. We let the Iodine/Thyroxin mixture sit for an hour or two before presenting it to him. That seems to work. L-Thyroxin appears to a brand specific form of Thyroxin. The current medication is labeled Thyroxin.

The two pictures on this page were taken in October, 1999.

To my personal home page

Jerold H Feinstein saftyrma@yahoo.com
Copyright Jerold H. Feinstein, PE 1999-01 All rights reserved; contact for permission to use
This page was last updated on 03/03/01 and is located at http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/6056

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page