Hi,
I got a new cockatiel a couple of weeks ago. My mom found her out in a park and has been keeping her for a few months, but she had so many pets already that her time was just stretched too far. She was all poofed up into a little fluffle puff a couple days ago and I was worried she might be sick so I took her to the vet. She had gram negative bacteria on her test so the vet told me to give her .1 mg of amoxicillin twice a day.
The problem is I'm very nervous about giving her medicine. She's kind of wild and I was finally getting her to eat from my hand before all this happened. I'm afraid if I have to catch her twice a day for medicine that she will never be able to trust people.
Also I'm not sure if I'm doing it right and the vet didn't show me how to give her medicine and the second time I tried I gave it too fast and she aspirated it which was terrifying, but she seems to be better today. I'm just kind of freaked out about giving her medicine now and would rather avoid it if at all possible, but if she really needs it then she really needs it.
What should I do?

P.S. Also worried because she seems to have befriended a toy and is constantly trying to get scritches from it now. Have I made her crazy with all the stress?

When you have to give a bird medicine it does make them distrust you, but you can make it up to her later on. For now, try to be super nice to her when you're not giving medicine so she knows you're not all bad. Hold treats in your hand for her to eat if she'll take them, and if she won't take them from your hand then drop treats in her food cup and make sure she sees you doing it.

This video might help you deliver the medicine with less risk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EBUWWqq ... re=related

You can skip the first two and a half minutes, the relevant part starts at the 2:40 mark.

Here's a different technique that might help:


I like the idea of having the bird facing away from you. When the bird tries to back away from the syringe it will be pushing up against your hand, not trying to squirm away from you in a more productive direction, and you can use your thumb and forefinger to gently hold the bird's head.

How gentle is gentle? She squirms a lot and I think I end up grasping too hard trying to keep her still. I felt her heartbeat one of the times. It was racing and scared me. Is that normal?

More questions:

I didn't realize I was supposed to put the medicine in the fridge and left it in a warm car for four hours. Is it still okay to use?

Also, I had watched the second video and that's the way I did it the first time and it went okay, except she was trying to walk back and forth. Also that was the time my hand slipped and I felt her heartbeat.

The second time went really badly. I tried toweling her and putting her against my chest. She had learned to run from the first time and I had trouble catching her in the first place, then once I did I was worried about her being exhausted from all the running and having a little birdy heart attack so I rushed it and the syringe slipped and it went too far into her mouth or the medicine came out too fast or both and she started having trouble breathing and she was having to open her mouth to breathe and breathing irregularly and the medicine was coming out her nostrils. I have been pretty afraid to try it again since then. So she didn't get her morning meds and it's coming up on her night meds.

Also, would trimming her wings make her any easier to catch or do I just need to be quicker or sneakier about it?

Thanks.

You need to ask the vet whether it's still safe to use the meds. It's possible that you might need to get a fresh bottle. If you look up the name of the medicine on the internet, you might be able to find some information on whether it's still OK.

Is she in the cage when you're trying to catch her? If so, clipping her wing feathers might or might not make it easier to catch her, depending on whether the cage is big enough that she can flap her wings and use them to travel faster. Clipping will make it easier to deal with the situation if she slips away from you while she's out of the cage. It might be helpful to use a towel while you're trying to catch her in the cage - it spreads out wider than your hands do and you don't have to be as precise about exactly how you grab her.

Is anyone available who can help you give her the meds? It will be a lot easier if one person can restrain the bird while the other one deals with the syringe. Each person can focus on doing their own job well instead of you struggling to do two different things at once, and you can take it slow and careful.

Well tonight I chased her all over the cage. She's gotten very good at hopping out of my hands at the last second and flapping madly about the cage.
I tried the ring around her neck thing and she was still managing to sling her head so I grabbed her pretty tightly by her cheeks to keep her head still. Is that okay? She was still managing to push quite a bit out with her tongue. My fingers were covered in sticky syrup by the time it was over.
My husband put the syringe to the side of her beak and went very slowly, maybe too slowly?? I don't know. She screamed bloody murder the whole time and once again her heart was beating really fast and she got really warm. I tried to keep my fingers from tightening around her chest but I still felt her heartbeat.
Since my other hand was free I used it as a perch and that kept her from running around as much.
In the back of my head I'm so hoping that she'll just learn that this has to happen every day and just learns to take it. On the other hand, I'm scared she'll just learn to fight even harder.

This is her cage:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=4 ... hoto%2cjpg

And this is the aftermath:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=4 ... hoto%2cjpg
A scared and messy bird.

The side of her face is sticky and her ear is visible. Should I be concerned?

Also her medicine bottle says amoxicillin 500mg tab, flavored with molasses. If that helps. From what I've read so far it seems that the reason it needs to be refrigerated is to keep the flavoring from spoiling and it usually takes a few days to spoil. Still not feeling quite sure about that though. I would really hate to be doing this to her just to give her medicine that isn't helping.

You could give her a mist bath to help clean the feathers, but if she doesn't like it you might be better off just leaving them sticky. She's sick and under a lot of stress already and doesn't need more. An alternative would be to dab at it gently with a damp washcloth next time you have to restrain her for meds.

She will probably put up less of a fight once she figures out that you're just doing something mildly unpleasant, not trying to kill her. You will also become more skilled at restraining her and delivering the meds, so it will take less time.

It's fine to hold her by the cheeks or the jawline, just don't do it so tightly that it's likely to cause bruises. It's OK to feel her heartbeat as long as she's able to move her chest up and down to breathe. Birds don't have a diaphragm like humans do, and if they have to move the chest up and down to breathe.

A good way to hold her is with her back against your palm and her head between your thumb and forefinger. This makes it easier to control the head and the wings without constraining the chest. Letting her grip your fingers with her feet is a good way to reduce the kicking and squirming.

This thread has some good information on restraining a bird: http://www.happybirdy.com/mainforum_hap ... php?t=4791

I would definitely recommend talking to the pharmacist who gave you the amoxicillin about whether it's still good or not. The pharmacy would know more about it than the vet would.