Hi,

MY Milo went back to the vet yesterday because of his ongoing problem under his wing. He has had a place under there that just won't heal. It's right up next to his little body and any time he flaps his wing it bleeds and opens back up. We have been dealing with this starting in jan. of this year. I took him to a new vet that is closer to us a couple of weeks ago and she gave us a oral antibiotic. He didn't like that at ALL. He would even try to throw it back up. LOL Little stinker. However it made a marked improvement under his wing. He weighed 112 grams on the first visit.

Well we went back yesterday he is at 108 grams. She took him off the oral antibiotic and we are going to try a topical antibiotic.
The Vet said that the oral antibiotic could have caused a decrease in appetite. So that's why we are trying the topical.
Should I be worried about his weight? He's eating alittle of everything but not alot of anything. I give him cooked veg. fruit, snacks,
I would go and rope the moon if I thought he would it. LOL

Is there anyting I can feed him that would help fatten him up? He also drinks cranberry juice cocktail. Is that ok? It has 32g of sugar per serving of 8 oz. Of course Milo's not getting anything near that much. LOL I've been wanting to ask that but never have gotten around to it.

Anyone else had this kind of trouble under the wing? I don't think he's plucking or over grooming. At least not while I'm around.

Thanks for all your help.

I hope little Milo gets better. I would think the cranberry juice has just way too much sugar, even tho he doesn't get very much. But that is just my opinion. Orange juice would be better. When I was trying to get weight on Gidget, my green cheek. I fed her Pine Nuts. You could feed him a few. He might not like them at first, but he will in time. But don't feed them like candy, just a few and also not everyday. It might help keep the weight on.

Thanks for the help. It means so much not to have to go through this alone. I have tryed pine nuts. No luck there.
He loves pumpkin seeds but he's not eating much of those either. This is the first time his weight has been so low.
I just wounder if there's anything I could do to get his weight back up faster. Am I just over worried?

Safflower seeds and peanuts are also high in fat. Bananas, though fat free, are high in calories -- so they could help your cause as well. Personally, I wouldn't be terribly worried about his weight at this time. Give him about 2 weeks to adjust to being off of the oral antibiotic. Keep a daily weight chart. If he loses more, then be concerned.

My guess is he will gain the weight back as he adjusts to his regualar diet without taking the oral meds.

Keep us posted!

I wish Kiwi could give him some of her weight. She gets way too fat, way too easy. I have to really watch what she eats. Does she appreciate that? No more than I would of someone watched everything I ate
I hope Milo gets well fast and stays well.
When our horses get a cut ding or scratch we use vaseline. It works 10 times faster than that "quick-healing" stuff the vet puts on it. I have no idea if that would work on a bird.

Has the vet recommended using benabac or anything like that to get the healthy flora back into his crop and gut? Sometimes when we're given antibiotics it will kill even the good bacteria and you know what it can do to our system, it can do the same to an animals. You can also give him a little live culture yogurt to help get the good flora going again, but only in small doses.

Something you might try to help put on weight is to see if he'll eat some cooked oatmeal or more cooked rice and pasta even mashed potatoes or you can get a small bag of baby bird formula and mix it up with water and offer that to him. There's also a product called instant ounces that is available, though is quite pricey that you can also try and mix into things to add extra calories.

4 grams is really not that big of drop and once he gets back on his food he should be able to gain that back without much problem but if he continues to lose it is a big concern...they say that a bird can lose 10% of its body weight before there's real concern, I don't know that I fully agree with that blanket statement but that would make it 11 grams for Milo. If push comes to shove you can always hand feed him with a syringe and baby formula to get him back up to weight. One feeding a day by syringe should be enough unless he goes comepletely off feed. Start with the easy things and then if you don't notice a difference then resort to the syringe feeding.

As far as the cranberry juice cocktail, I don't think I'd offer him much just because of the sugar content because its not natural sugar its alot of time corn syrup. Natural 100% apple juice would be much better for him than sweetened cranberry.

Hope Milo gets back to normal quickly. Keep us posted.

I sure hope Mr. Milo will soon be well Lisa....Yes, it burdens us when our little ones aren't up to par.....

Thanks for the help and the support. I'll go by the store and get some yogart tonight. The vet did say to give him a little of that but I thought it was because of him trowing up. I'll try oatmeal too. Thank you Thank you Thank you. I feel better already.
I wounder if the vaseline would work. She ask me if I thought he would pick at the area that I was applying the antibiotic to.
I don't think he will. Looks to me like hes been trying to keep that area clean but not really over grooming. So are there any signs
I should look for that he eating the medicine? Oh I'll get some apple juice too.

Thanks again.

Make sure the apple juice is the no sugar added type.

I've always just used neosporin on small abrasions and stuff on my birds, I've not used just straight vasoline. My concern would be that they'd injest it and it would be much the same as a bird in an oil slick but I've never had any problem with the neosporin or triple antibiotic ointment. I always make sure that its a really thin, thin layer not gobbed on. With other animals the worst it can do is give them the runs, but I'm not sure with a bird. I do know from experience with my mutilator bird that if there was any really red areas or if there was even a drop of blood she'd pick at it till it really bled and then drink the blood...Disgusting. And I know with chickens and turkeys they'll do the same thing so there's a product called blue coat that you can spray on that masks the color so that they are less apt to bother it.

I've still got a can of it I'll go get and read the label and see what alls in it and see if its safe to use on other birds. And I'll PM you about it; if you'd like.

Well I got apple juice(no sugar added) and yogurt (plain, low fat)
Big thing of it because there was no little containers. Milo hates it!!!!! lol Now what I do with is 32oz plain yogurt. I'm sure not going to eat it.LOL I had some vanilla yoplait (low fat)and I gave him just a dash of that and he likes it. Is that kind ok to give him?

He is such a good guy. He has put up with so much. This past week he no longer wants me to give him a bath in the sink. So I let him go back to takeing his own bath in his bowl.
He still does it every day just on his own. I hope this is ok. As the 1st vet suggested that I no longer let him take his own bath. (to promote grooming in stead of plucking) But Milo has all his feathers back. I don't want to stress him out. Even thought he does not seem to want to return the favor. LOL

If he wants to take his own bath on his own schedule, personally, I'd let him. Maybe it soothes the sore spot. I was going to suggest Neosporin, but I didn't know if you could use that on a bird. I've used it on my dogs.

I don't know how to put weight on a bird, but when we got our Lab, she'd been a stray and was nothing but skin and bones, poor baby, and I gave her lots of treats and table scraps and slices of bread and she gained weight fairly quickly. I hope Milo's all well soon!

No Vaseline. Ever. It's toxic to birds (Vaseline is just the brand name of petroleum jelly which does contain petroleum). In addition to that, it is oil based and can easily spread to the bird's other feathers. Also, Vaseline doesn't 'breathe' which isn't good for the healing process. So stay away from that stuff when it comes to our birds.

I agree that the 4 grams isn't that big of a concern at this point. I'd give it a few weeks and see where you are at with the weight. In the mean time, if you don't have a gram scale, I'd certainly invest in one. They are about 30 bucks if you go to Wal-mart and purchase a digital kitchen gram scale. When it comes to birds, a gram scale is a fabulous investment.

Keep in mind that when you are trying to put weight onto a bird, you aren't wanting to put 'fat' onto the bird. So feeding fatty foods isn't the way to go. You want healthy foods that are high in fat content. Like Connie mentioned, rice and pasta are great for this.

I'm wondering if the vet couldn't partially immobilize the wing so Milo can't move it around so much and break open the sore?

Trish Polly, Buddy & Sonny

Heres hoping that Milo will feel better soon and gain weight. Prayers.