Don't lose faith. I understand that you don't want to feel unprepared if the worst happens but even in my very short experience I have seen things taking a good turn in a matter of hours... Everything can happen, those little boys are tough!
I wish I could be useful to you in some way

I've started thinking that there's sort of a dilemma regarding the use of sugar. There's no faster way to provide energy, and it could help your birds keep going. But I know that regular yeast thrives on sugar too. I don't know whether AGY does but I wouldn't be surprised if it did, and we want to help the birds not help the yeast. I don't know how long it takes for the medicine to kick in. If these were my birds I would give them a little bit of lemon juice, and a bit of chili powder for the capsaicin. This stuff is not friendly to regular yeast, and hopefully the AGI doesn't like it either. Birds can't taste the heat in chili pepper so it isn't going to bother them: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... -the-seeds

If the birds seem to need a boost I think I would go ahead and give them some sugar. Hopefully there is enough anti-yeast stuff going on that the yeast won't benefit from it. I found a couple of sites that said you shouldn't give sugar to birds with AGY, but these were not veterinary sites and I think maybe they were applying the advice for candida yeast to a different type of yeast. None of the veterinary sites that I found say anything about sugar and AGY.

I have some much needed good news: they're eating! I think the Gatorade and coconut water are working for them. They're eating slowly with small bites, especially Jaid, but I will take anything at this point.

Eating is the first step. Pooping out digested material is the next. If they can do both then the situation will definitely look a lot brighter!

I am so glad!

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I've only just seen this post...
I've never heard of AGY...
I'm going to look it up just now...
I do hope your birds are better really
soon... there's only so much money
people can afford to spend on their pets...
so don't feel bad about that....

I'm far from being an expert on this subject, but based on what I've read it sounds like avian gastric yeast might actually be fairly widespread, and doesn't cause problems in most birds that have it. There are a number of microbes that are normally present in the body but don't cause problems unless they get out of control, and I wonder if this is one of them.

Once it does get out of control it's hard to cure the problem, and recurrences seem to be pretty common. Stephanie, it's not really clear to me whether the vet gave you an antifungal medication or not (fluconazole aka diflucan). It's best if you have this, but in any case there are natural remedies that may help both now and in the future to help prevent recurrences, and you can give it to the budgies too in case they have anything simmering inside. Not as an everyday thing, but once in a while to help keep the system running smooth and clean. Then afterwards give them yogurt or some other probiotic to help restore any good bacteria that might have been taken out by the anti-microbial stuff.

Looking back through the thread, I noticed that you're giving them thyme. So you've probably seen this source, which says thyme seems to be helpful: http://www.birds-online.de/gesundheit/g ... gls_en.htm Thyme seems to be generally safe, but it can cause some side effects and I don't know what the safe dose for birds would be. http://www.healthline.com/natstandardco ... e-thymol#3 So don't go crazy with it, keep the amount fairly small.

Ditto for lemon juice or vinegar, these are acids and it's well known that too much acid is bad. Chili peppers were apparently designed by nature to be eaten by birds, and there are parts of the world where people eat it every day and the population is booming. But still, I'd be careful with it.

I just checked. I do have fluconazole.

Good, I'm really happy to hear it! I didn't know whether it would be in your price range or not, and apparently it's the best way to deal with AGY.

How are the boys doing this morning?

We had to skip half the tests they wanted to get the medicine. I feel that's alright though since the tests we did take found the AGY successfully.

Beaker has quite a bit more energy than yesterday. His screams aren't as pitiful. Jaid however, looks like he still doesn't feel good. He has been tucked all morning, but ate a little. Beaker ate more. But why is it when he looks on death's door, he can perk up, then sink under again? It's really confusing on how he can look so weak for a while then act like he's improving. I'm grateful he is improving though. They are both tucked now under their lamp and cuddling.