sudden death of my Quaker, from Tina

by Tina Contocra
(Athens, Greece)

Hello. My Quaker, Petro (Peter), just died today. For 4 hours he wasn't very well and then he just died. He let out 3 peeps and died in my hands. He couldn't breathe well. It sounded like he has fluid in his little lungs. He must have had blood in his stools too bec. they were very liquid-like and rose-colored.

He had shortness of breath and heavy breathing which got progressively worse until he died. There were no signs before these hours. Yesterday his stools and mood were perfect! He was fine during the night. When we woke him at 10 am, he wasn't in the mood...started not eating, drinking etc....and started opening and closing his mouth constantly and so on until 2:00 pm., at which point he took his last breath.

There were no symptoms...we didn't feed him something different...we always gave him healthy food...he was spoiled...in the good, healthy sense...we were careful with meds., chocolate, apple seeds....so that he wouldn't have any accidents. We don't know what happened. His cage was clean and free of toys, etc.

My husband and I and my in-laws are so upset. I can't believe he's gone. We buried him right away in the park.

My question is if you know of cases like this one. We had talked to a simple vet (no avian vets)in Athens...very hard to find one anyway...The vet said to use the antibacterial med. Baytril. We used only a little bit bec. he was in bad shape.

Bec. we buried him, we're not able to perform an autopsy. We're wondering if you have any info. about something like this happening. It sounds like it was an infection of some kind. Thanks and sorry for the rambling. so sad. --Tina