Birds Hide Illness — It Is What They Do

As prey animals, birds are wired to look well. In the wild, a parrot that fluffs up and slows down becomes somebody's lunch, so the instinct to mask weakness runs deep. In a living room in Sheffield or Swansea the predators are gone, but the instinct remains. That is why the most useful piece of advice any companion bird keeper can hear is this: trust your gut, and ring your avian vet early.

A parrot that looks "a bit quiet" is often already reasonably unwell. By the time a bird is sitting fluffed on the cage floor with its eyes half closed, whatever is going on has usually been developing for days, sometimes weeks. Early advice costs you a phone call. Waiting can cost you your bird.

Know What Normal Looks Like

You cannot spot a change if you do not know the baseline. Spend a few minutes every day genuinely watching your bird, and you will notice subtle shifts long before anyone else would.

• Droppings: know the usual colour, consistency and frequency, and how they change after a meal of fruit or a bath.
• Appetite: how much your bird eats at each meal, and which foods it never refuses.
• Breathing: a resting bird should breathe silently and steadily. Watch for the gentle tail bob that accompanies each breath.
• Activity: how much it vocalises, plays, climbs and shreds.
• Weight: a weekly weigh-in on a gram-accurate kitchen scale is the single most useful record you can keep.

Ten seconds of scribbling in a notebook, or a quick note on your phone, builds a picture that is genuinely valuable in a consultation.

Ring the Same Day: Appetite and Droppings

An avian vet would far rather see a bird that is eating slightly less than usual than one that has not eaten for three days. Do not wait to "see how it goes".

Contact your vet the same day if you notice any of the following:

• A drop in appetite, or a bird that ignores its favourite food.
• Droppings that stay watery for more than a few hours, or that are oddly coloured — bright green, black, or containing red blood.
• Undigested seed or food visible in the droppings.
• No droppings at all for several hours. This is urgent.
• A marked change in the white urate portion, which may turn pale yellow or lime green.
• An unusually foul smell to the droppings, or a sudden soiling of the vent feathers.

Breathing and Behaviour: When It Cannot Wait

Respiratory trouble in birds escalates quickly, and so does a change in temperament. These signs deserve an immediate call, not a wait-and-see:

• Open-mouthed breathing, or tail bobbing that is more pronounced than usual.
• Any noise on breathing — clicking, wheezing, whistling.
• Sneezing with discharge from the nostrils or eyes.
• Constant head shaking, or scratching at the face and ears.
• Sitting fluffed, particularly on the cage floor.
• Eyes half closed, or a bird sleeping far more than normal.
• Sudden aggression, or a normally affectionate bird that now avoids your hands.
• Head tilt, loss of balance, tremors, or a bird that cannot grip its perch.
• Vomiting or head flicking after eating, which is quite different from the affectionate regurgitation of a bonded bird.
• Feather plucking that starts suddenly or worsens, especially around the vent or under the wings.

Genuine Emergencies

Some situations need you on the phone before you have finished reading this sentence. Ring the practice, tell them you are coming, and follow their instructions.

• Bleeding that will not stop, or any blood from the beak or vent.
• A bird that is gasping, or that has stopped breathing.
• Suspected poisoning — avocado, chocolate, onion, garlic, alcohol, lead or zinc, and fumes from a non-stick pan left on a hot hob.
• Trauma: a cat or dog bite, a collision with a window, or a heavy fall.
• A bird caught on a toy, or trapped behind furniture or a radiator.
• An egg-bound hen straining, or sitting fluffed and unresponsive.
• Seizures, sudden collapse, burns or scalds.

If it is out of hours, most practices have an emergency arrangement, so ring the usual number first and listen to the recorded message.

What to Have Ready When You Ring

You will get better advice, faster, if you have the following to hand. It also saves time in a consultation when your bird needs to be seen straight away.

• Species, age, and how long you have had the bird.
• A recent weight, if you have one.
• When you first noticed the change, and how it has progressed.
• What and how much the bird has eaten in the last 24 hours.
• A photograph of recent droppings — genuinely useful, and easily done.
• Any recent changes: a new cage, new food, a new bird, a house move, a cold snap, a household product or air freshener.
• Your bird's clinical history, and the practice you normally use.

While you wait, keep the bird warm, dark and quiet. A cat carrier or a ventilated cardboard box lined with a towel works well, with a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel beside it — never underneath, and never against bare skin. Avoid handling beyond what is necessary, and do not offer food or water if breathing is laboured.

You will never regret calling an avian vet too early. Keepers who ring at the first hint of a problem are the ones who tend to catch things while they are still small. That is the whole game with birds: small problems are manageable, and big ones are not.