Health Issues in a Parrot

by Anne Eilers
Spring 2004

Once again, I am going to use our little adoptee, Frankie, the African Grey. We adopted her just over a year ago. Upon her arrival at home she was immediately placed into quarantine to protect both Chico, our other Grey, and Frankie herself. Then Frankie was subjected to five Avian Vet visits in four weeks, much to her intense displeasure. This was likely more stressful for Frankie than it would have been for a well balanced, emotionally-stable, healthy bird. Frankie, however, was cage bound, in ill health and displaying aberrant behavior - a “looping” action that she performed in an automatic manner over and over within a square foot area of her cage

After all testing was completed, we learned that Frankie had Giardia, additional damage associated with an extended parasitic illness including an enlarged kidney and spleen and malnutrition, a pronounced weakness in her right side, and raw itchy skin which was so bad around her vent that the vent itself would not close properly. The external manifestations of Giardia was feather picking and making herself bleed on a daily basis by feather chopping and skin mutilation. She also exhibited nervous posturing (wings slightly raised, standing on one leg as tall as possible and chewing on her foot while emitting a “peep” sound,) a “chasing fleas” habit, nail biting and an extreme distaste for elimination.

Frankie had been picking for over seven years prior to our adopting her. During her treatment for Giardia, she was a very good patient. She accepted her medication well and started on the road to bonding with us, her new caregivers. Frankie was an unusually compliant parrot…..but there were surprises in store. Her demeanor was not that of a Parrot, but that of a bird that had lost the right to be a Parrot. When she started to feel a little better and more comfortable with us, we found out just how opinionated she could be! Frankie definitely has her own opinion of life in general. All the years of being a “cute bird in a cage” still haven’t managed to break her views of what Frankie likes and what Frankie doesn’t like and now she feels comfortable enough to try expressing her feelings. However, each time she does, she cringes as if she expects to be punished. This is a work in progress.

It was no wonder that her former owners felt that she was a mean bird, and as such didn’t take her out of her cage much and handled her minimally. They had taught her that if she fluffed up and ran at them hissing to back off and leave her alone. But when you understand that she felt dreadfully sick, it was obvious why she wanted to be left alone. Frankie had learned aggressive behavior in order to keep people away from her.

Throughout Frankie’s treatment for the Giardia, she had good days and bad days. On the good days, she would take food from our fingers, talk non-stop and venture out of her cage; on the bad days, she would lunge and hiss if anyone disturbed her, and would remain quietly hunkered down on her favorite perch.

Frankie began to feel better after the second round of treatment for Giardia. She started to eat ravenously - some days we were totally amazed by the amount of food she inhaled, and her skin started looking a little better. She started to gain weight and surprised us by attempting to play. As we taught her about toys and playing she became happier, a shine came back into her eyes and she let new feathers remain longer than usual. Along with those physical improvements, there were the behavioral improvements as well. Frankie would come forward, asking for head scratches without lunging at us. She indicated her desire to be away from her cage and on the gym - at first for a short while, then for hours at a time.

Then came the day that she felt happy and well enough to start exercising her weak right side. At first, she was hesitant about climbing because her leg would not bear her weight on the pull up. It exhausted her physically, and she would hang there and demand to be helped. However, I kept placing her lower down on the outside of her cage, a little at a time over several weeks, so that she had to climb up if she wanted the food treat on top of the cage. Being the little champ that she is, she persevered with excellent success. The next exercise, which she excels at, was wing flapping. Her former owners felt that when she flapped she was scared so they would rush over and stop her flapping. We however clap our hands and yell, “WoooHooo! Good Girl” when she flaps. During the flapping sessions she will hesitate and look at us for encouragement; when we pipe up with, “Good girl, go Frankie,” she flaps more. After a good flap she is breathing heavily and shaking, but happy.

As Frankie started to feel better and become healthier, and as her strength returned, she became cuddly as opposed to bitey, she stopped lunging and hissing, she learned to step-up and now she is the one who initiates contact, rather than hiding from it. As her health continued to improve, she became a sponge for new words and games and she looked to us to show her things and explain things she doesn’t know. For instance, when the cat wandered into the room, rather than being scared she asked, “what’s that?”, I explained that it is a kitty cat. She gave it the 'one eyed bird look' and said “Oooo,” and all was well. Frankie can be a very brave parrot, is still opinionated, but now she doesn’t have days where she only wants to hide and be left alone. She is still a feather picker and after picking for over seven years she will always be in recovery, much like an alcoholic, but she has grown in her shoulder, back, elbow and vent feathers and has not touched them since. Her chest and belly feathers are still subjected to trimming now and then, but rather than pulling them right out she now chops the ends off of them. In the past six months she has bled only twice, and has undergone a major molt and came through it with ease.

All of these changes are a major accomplishment for Frankie. She is learning to be a parrot and a happy one at that. Before her treatment and exercise regime, she had many undesirable behaviors. As she continues to get better, she is becoming a social, affectionate parrot and no longer demonstrates the undesirable behaviors that maintained her isolation- an isolation she no longer desires.