Our 10 year old Quaker has been a bit ill lately, not acting herself, excessive eating/drinking and bathroom going.

We took her to the vet about 2+ weeks ago for testing, her uric acid level was 17.9 ... put her on antibiotics for 2 weeks (and had other tests done, all which came back fine), went back to vet for retesting, just found out today that her uric acid level is 22!

Vet said that normal is between 4-14 and that life threatening is 25+ so she's on the cusp of it being very bad especially since it's gone up so much within 2 weeks.

Vet has advised that we need to take her off the primarily pellet diet that she's been on and go to full table food diet.

Please, has any one heard of possible causes? Is diet really the best initial route to go? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, I'm not finding much in searching this out online. We don't really love our vet, but he's the only bird vet we've been able to find near us.

ps she was raised from birth by my DF and he's really upset.

I'm sorry to hear that your Quaker isn't feeling well. If I recall elevated uric acid levels are a symptom of Gout... has your vet looked into that? What area are you in? Maybe someone knows of another vet in your area so you can get a second opinion?

*Crossing my fingers* that you can get his uric acid levels down soon! I'm sure someone else will be along shortly with some more ideas. *Hugs*

Thank you for responding!

Dr. said that the elevated level could lead to gout and could be a symptom of a kidney problem. Dr did take x-rays of her kidneys last saturday and said he didn't see anything unusual, thankfully. He said that it could be the high protein diet ie pellets that is causing the elevated level, which is why we need to switch to a full table food diet.

Figures, we thought we were doing right by her by sticking with aprox 80-90% pellets and 10-20% table food...limited seed, etc... just has thrown us

So sorry to hear about your bird.
I have not had/heard of this problem before.

If the vet want a change of diet, surely it cant hurt.
The worse that could happen is no change occurs.
I would try it if it was me.

Try reversing the convert TO pellets thread in the diet & health section of the forum.
Try "eating" the food you want your bird to eat, see if that gets him interested.

Good luck.
keep us posted.

Tricia

I dont know about this but my avian vet is really nice and seems very knowledgable, email him and I hope he will respond. I will be praying for you guys!

drduke@careanimal.net

Thanks to all that have responded. Any additional information anyone else has would be greatly appreciated!

I'll keep you informed as things progress.

(I tried to attach a pic of her, but can't figure it out...i'll keep trying)

sorry to hear about this. i'll keep your baby and you in my thoughts.

kris

Try PMing Cheryl Allen and/ or Andie's Mom-- they are both usually really good sources of health info.
Best of luck!

I will try calling a friend of mine who also has to have her bird on a special diet. I know much of it is table foods so I will see what I can come up with.

For now, I would see what the Vet says about feeding Pumkin (Canned-not for pies,) sweet potatoe's, and lots of fresh greens with wheat rice, wheat noodles, -See what meats he wants you to feed if any. Meats are high in protein.

Thanks Cheryl for making the call to your friend for us.

The diet does consist primarily of oatmeal, wheat noodles, brown rice, and the like plus fresh veggies like carrots as well as fresh fruit like cantaloupe in lesser quantities. Plus a vitamin supplement added to her water, which is going to be distilled from now on (apparently tap can have high levels of bad minerals? didn't know that)

The diet is very low on protien, and we're still trying to figure out some kind to give her, but not sure what yet.

So far for breakfast we gave her an oatmeal/Cherioos combination with a few small pieces of cantaloupe, and wheat noodles with oatmeal and 1/2 a grape for dinner last night.

Luckily she's a good eater and if she sees us eat it she's gotta try it so we're at least very lucky in that regard.

She goes back to the vet in another 2 weeks for another blood test, so we'll see. But any more suggestions on foods that help would be great.

Hi,
My tiel, Pierre was having strange droppings after I switched him from an all seed diet (He had been on his whole life of 4 years) to half seeds and half pellets. I was trying different pellets at the time and one was scenic. It's pretty high in protien. Anyway, I took Pierre in for a CBC and his uric acid level was elevated. They put him on something called "roudybush AK" it's a prescription diet, low in protein. Avian vets should sell this and it's about $19.00 for 44oz. He also cheated and snuck in other birds cages and stole their food, but when I had him tested three months later his uric acid level was normal. I'm not sure if this would be good for your bird as the vet may want him off anything synthetic at least for a while but you can ask him. I had no idea that giving an all fresh diet could help with this problem too. I've been looking for info about that.
Anyway, most birds can handle protein in the pellets, but sometimes because of genetics they can't process it properly and this can happen. If they have an underlying condition, it may never show it'self until they switch to a diet higher in protein. Generally from all seeds to pellets for instance. Pierre has been on this diet for over a year and a half and is doing fine, but his poops have never gone back to normal. They are polyuric, not alot of urates and very small feces. My vet said it may stay like that forever.

Poor little guy ...saying prayer he will be fine with a new diet ...((HUGS))

Just checking in to see how the little one is doing.
Fingers crossed, sending positive vibes.

Tricia

Thanks again for all of your well wishing and information.

We're working on the diet as per the vet's instructions and are scheduled to go back on the 29th for re-testing. So please keep your fingers crossed that her levels go down!

Fingers and wings crossed for little Noobie...wishing him all the best....thanks for the update.......

Hi, I live on the Eastern Shore of MD and my friends use an Avian Vet on Kent Island who is very good if you need a second opinion. I can get her name for you if you'd like....Debbie

Elevated uric acid levels can certainly be a sign of gout, but that isn't necessarily the only ailment that could be happening. Gout is excruciatingly painful, and you would notice your bird seriously lumbering to move because of the intense pain in the joints.

When our BFA had elevated uric acid levels we took him back to a completely holistic diet, much like your vet has recommended for you. We added milk thistle, echinacea, red palm oil, black cherry extract, grape seed extract, and spirulina to his diet, too. All of the dry ingredients were mixed together and mixed in with the "PRIME" vitamin supplement. All of the wet ingredients were mixed together and dropped on top of the food. The spirulina was sprinkled on the food twice per week.

You may also try kale and lettuce as foraging toys / food, to help your quaker get some more vitamin K into it's system.

Roudybush does have an excellent food with it's AK blend ... and though it is expensive it +is manufactured to control kidney ailments; so in my opinion it is well worth it. Something else to ask your vet about may be going to one formula feeding a day. I am not sure if this has too much protein in it to work in conjunction with the diet your vet has prescribed.

I wish you the best in getting your little one healthy. Please keep us posted!

Niki has some kidney issues and had elevated uric acid levels for at least a year if not more. I can't remember what the number was though. The vet recommended a pelleted diet for him with a variety of healthy table foods (he was a junk food birdy I'm ashamed to admit). She also put him on an herbal medicine. It's called kidney blend (got it from the health store). It contains a blend of cornsilk, parsley, Cayenne, Juniper and kelp! I put two capsules in I think 8cc of dandelion root liquid. He just needs a few drops of this per day. He pretty much will have to take this the rest of his life. His last blood work was normal though and I'm amazed. He was not right for a long time. I have seen first-hand though how big a role diet plays in this too. It may take some patience, but I saw Niki improve rather quickly once he started eating better. Not easy for a picky eater.