Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi there, my Avian Vet is treating a birdie of mine, she is seriously sick. We have tried all sorts of treatments (antibiotics, metronidazol, ketoconazol, vitamins, etc.)

Given how small she is (a budgie) and that she has either/or/both respiratory and heart problems we can't put her under anesthesia, she could die. The avian vet wanted to put her on a bronchodilator that WOULD NOT affect her heart, since we don't know if she has a congenital heart condition (we rescued her from awful stupid breeders), and she suggested aminophyline. Unfortunately, that drug is no longer sold in a non injectable form in my country, neither for humans nor for animals. The injectables come in a too high dose for a budgie, even diluting it it would be too risky of a dose. The vet is trying to think of alternatives, but has not figured out yet what to do. We can't give her anything for her breathing that could affect her heart, nor something for her heart that could cause her more respiratory problems.

We are at a lost regarding what to do. Any of you with a bird with a congenital or persistent respiratory and/or health problem, what do you give to your birdie? Is there any other drug that could help? Again, it should help her with getting more oxygen but it should not interfere with heart contractions since she might have a cardiac condition. She obviously has a respiratory problem, but even though we are still treating her, apparently it does not respond to "anything". So far it seems like she has some congenital degenerative thing and that we could help her by allowing her to have less trouble breathing and not have her heart beat so fast.

What medication could we give her? Ideas?????????? The avian vet would figure out the dose, but can't think of anything not risky to treat her, she is investigating, but... we are running out of time... she is so weak...

Suggestions??????????????
Help :?

Have you tried calling or emailing other avian vets not in your area to see if they have any suggestions. I don't personally know of any other medications but depending on where you are from a vet from a different state or country may have some other ideas.

Thank you for caring, good idea!
I could not call avian vets in other areas because I live in the capital city of my country and there are few avian vets if any in the countryside (I live in a small country, Uruguay), but that would have been a good idea.
My birdie died, anyway
I am very sad, but tried to look at it under this light: this birdie lived a good long life that otherwise she would not have lived (we found her agonizing years ago, and was very defective in many ways, but we nursed her to health, and she was a happy cute thing for years) and so we looked for another birdie with "problems"... not that the new birdie replaces the one that parted, but at least it makes the suffering have a meaning. Because the other birdie passed away, now another one can live, another one that otherwise would have died too.