Twinkle was unwell again. I came home on Monday to find hi m all fluffed up in his coconut hut. His tray is FULL of TOP organic pellets which i just switched. Mum threw away the left over Hagen pellets as she didn't know i need to do the gradual switch. She helped me to feed both birdies over the weekend so i can't blame her. Back to Twinkle, this little sweet thing came out of his hut weakly to greet me as i opened the cage. One look i knew something was wrong. My first instinct was to check out his poo. It was exceptionally dark green! Without hesitation, i set up the hospital cage. I switched on my table lamp and he immediately went under it. It just proved my assumption right. He's sick again. Mum told me he didn't touch any of the TOP pellets but i found some broken pellets at the cage bottom. My kind mum out of good will gave him sweet peas which was eaten. My guess was he rather starve than eat those huge pellets which could have scare him. It's ALL my fault! I was so devastated.

With the help of April, i found out that the extremely dark green poo was caused by undiluted bile which obviously pointing to hunger. =( I quickly took out his favourite seeds and he munched on it with his eyes close. He was weak. I immediately called Yida and luckily, his family was having papaya as dessert!! I requested him to bring down some papaya and within minutes he turned up at my door step. Twinkle's saviour!

I did what i did previous when he was sick. The miraculous concoction of papaya, banana and aloe vera concentrate. I fed him the antibiotics he was on previously then the concoction. He took in willingly and keep munching on the seeds in the hospital cage. I weighed him and was shocked to see the drastic drop from 45g to 38g. My efforts in pumping him up all went down the drain. I was very sad and demoralise. It was ALL my fault.

On Tuesday, I weighed him again. He was close to 40g and the weight remained like that till now. Since he was able to eat, i only fed him twice a day with the concoction. He is getting stronger and stronger to resist my clutches for handfeeding. I saw him perching on one leg with the other scratching his own head. He slept on a leg last night. I am glad. I knew he will be fine. This morning i sent him back to his cage. He is extremely happy to go back. I can see that!

I am puzzled why he fell sick again. He had more fresh food than before and was on pellet except the fact that i go switch brand. Oh, the reason for the switch was Hagen ran OUT OF STOCK!!!!!!! Sigh, i hate the way the stock comes. Luckily i managed to grab the last pack of Hagen from TM. Although it wasn't the same as what he fed on, at least it smell and probably taste the same except for the size. Well, now he's just eating on seeds, ignoring the pellets. Anyway, I tried all means to find out what really happen. I don't want to just feed him medicine and once he's well , i forget all abt it. I wan to adjust his body immunity. I wan to make him stronger by the natural way.

I was in this bird forum for quite awhile. It was an overseas forum. Avian care is so much better over there and they gave me great advice. One even suggest that i get my own microscope to do a fecal smear. Never did they know that i actually work in the lab with easy access to all this equipment. I'm glad! This morning i open a new bottle of my contact lenses saline so that i could 'preserve' his morning poo in a tube. I anxiously went to office and did a wet mount immediately after homogenising his poo. I took two poo as they were quite small. I spotted budding yeast in his poo. There are quite a bit. It was confirmed by my colleague who was a vet in Philippines and he isn't quite disturbed by the things he saw. He also confirmed that no parasite or worms were in the poo. Something i am extremely happy about! Anyway, the forum advised me about yeast infection.

"it's a rather nasty yeast infection that (in the chronic form) causes weightloss, tiredness, depression, general unwell, involuntary regurgitating, unwillingness to eat which leads to the wet green poops among other things. The main reason i bring it up is that it can be worsened by certain foods that contain high levels of carbohydrates/sugers (as many pellets do) and often reoccurs. it responds to antibiotics, but isnt ususally eradicated. worth a look "

Twinkle has weird poo at times with lotsa urine and his inability to gain weight points to yeast infection. Furthermore, his fecal smear showed budding yeast which means that are yeast growing in him. Although the amount present wasn't significant but i believe without control it will get worse. So i have decided to give probiotics to establish his natural flora proportion in his gut. It was also known that if u were to give antibiotics, it is good that u followed by probiotics to re-establish the flora. Having the correct population of the flora will prevent any chance of parasite or nasty micro-organism from growing.

Another holistic approach is to use apple cider vinegar. ACV has been helpful as an aid for digestion, helping to break down minerals, protein and fats. It also inhibits the growth of unfriendly bacteria in the digestive tract. ACV has detoxifies properties, strengthens the immune system and may ameliorate viral, bacterial and fungal infections. It is used as an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory medicine and has a natural antibiotic effect. Its benefits also include ameliorating respiratory infections and may reduce symptoms, such as watery eyes and nasal discharge. In addition, ACV can be helpful in eliminating both internal and external parasite problems. It just sound magical and i realised how much muFFin has been benefited from taking this time to time. Some recommend ACV to be added in drinking water, while others say fresh food. I guess i would continue to give that diluted aloe vera juice as drinking water and add ACV into their fresh food so as its freshness can be maintain.

Best way to keep an animal healthy is to treat it as a whole not just fire fighting when things happen. I may used medicine at some point but i do believe i need to adjust his body to its optimum again. I really hope i can do it right this time.

Labels: Babies, Twinkle

Twinkling@
1/25/2008 01:40:00 PM