Possible cause of death of Love Brid

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Possible cause of death of Love Brid

by Shelley
(Illinois)

We had a love bird for three years (He was around 13 years old). About a year ago he developed breathing problems, was lethargic, and was on medication for several weeks. He improved and has appeared healthy ever since. Eating, drinking, activity level normal. This morning we found him dead on the floor of the cage, with a pool of blood under his head, in and around his mouth. There were no signs in the cage that he had cut or got himself hung up on anything. We have been very careful with toxins in the air. Any ideas on what the cause might have been?

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Possible cause of death of Love Brid

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Sep 23, 2010

thanks
by: Shelley

Thanks for your kind thoughtswords. Linda, when he was sick we did take him to an avain vet - I don't remember what he prescribed, but he said it was lung related, and Rolly was symptom free after the cycle of meds. - although it could have imparied his health in non observable ways. Also thanks for the heads up on non-air toxins. I will check out our cage, and start with fresh toys. We hadn't thought of toxins from his environment. For anonymous,we do not use teflon pans at all. (We were at a human health conference not long ago and you should have seen the reaction when they heard teflon fumes can melt the lungs of birds.)

Sep 21, 2010

Lovebird died
by: The Avian Vet

I am sorry for your loss.

13 is old for a lovebird; they live on average about 10-14 years. He may have died partially of old age, but with the blood pool, I suspect there was a complication with blood clotting. This can be caused by liver failure. Older birds also often die from kidney failure. The only way to know what happened is have a necropsy (anima autopsy) done.

Dr B

Sep 21, 2010

Possible cause of death of Love Brid
by: Linda

I'm very sorry to hear of your loss, and my heart goes out to you and family. Without having a necropsy done, there is no way to tell what happened to him, and necropsies have to be done as soon as is possible after death in order to find the problem.

Considering his earlier breathing problems, it sounds like whatever it was was never completely taken care of. What did the Avian vet give you as a diagnosis when he was sick? Hopefully, you took him to an Avian(bird) vet because regular dog and cat vets are not licensed or trained to diagnose and treat birds and will either do nothing or kill bird giving wrong diagnosis and too high dose of medicines.

Toxins in the air are only one part of toxin problems with birds. There is what is in the water, food, cages and toys. We had to get an under the sink reverse osmosis filtering system for our water because we are downstream from a toxic waste dump site plus lots of limestone in water. Too many minerals in water cannot be excreted from a bird's system, and it is stored in soft tissue until bird dies from the overload. Chlorine and Fluoride are also toxic to birds and fish, so water has to be filtered in some way to avoid those toxins. They are also toxic to the human body as well.

So, without a necropsy on your bird, there is no way to tell what happened, and before getting another bird, take stock of materials used to make cage, and call the manufacturer if you need to to see if they have lead and zinc reports done here in the states on cage from China or the UK. Toy parts, unless stated they are nickel plated or stainless steel can contain high levels of zinc, and China is mixing a bad carcinogenic called Cadmium in with the zinc because it's cheaper to make that way, so the zinc is as dangerous as lead. Make sure food is organic pellets and that fruit and veggies are also certified organic. Never feed any dried fruit found in grocery stores because they preserve it with sulphur which kills birds. All food has to be for birds and has to be certified organic to avoid pesticide and fertilizer residues, dyes, preservatives. People food is always a bad thing to give a bird because of the high fat, salt and sugar content.

Again, my heart goes out to you about loss of your precious bird, and please try and find a good, clean, honest breeder for your next bird as those found in pet stores are usually already sick.Take new bird to Avian Vet right away to make sure it is healthy as this will save a lot of heartache later on.

Linda

Sep 21, 2010

pOSSIBLE CAUSE OF DEATH OF lOVE BIRD
by: Anonymous

Do you cook with non stick cook wear?

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