Death of a Parakeet

by Sasha
(NJ)

I have had 2 parakeets for around 10 years. The first one died about a year ago. He was very quiet and did not move much and was puffed up. One night we found him at the bottom of the cage. He couldnt walk and could barely move his feet. I picked him up and held him and he was very weak. He died a couple hours later in my hands. At the very end, it was as if he stretched out completely and stopped moving. We never had an autopsy done on him.

Our second bird died a few hours ago. He was acting the same way, but after I held him, he started breathing heavily and i could hear strange sounds coming from him. also it seemed like he couldnt hear or see but im not positive. At the end, it seemed as if he had a seizure or something like that, and he suddenly went from not moving at all to thrashing his wings and feet and then stopped moving. It seemed like he died in pain.

We recently got another bird and I am wondering if i should get this bird autopsied in case the same thing happens to our other bird?
Any other comments would be greatly appreciated.