Hi there,

Sorry if I am posting this in the wrong place, but I am wanting advice.

I have 3 budgies, 2 green and a blue. The blue one is the scaredest of all of them, he is so easily frightened and stressed.

The thing is for about a week now, his rear end has been matted with poop. But I have tried cleaning it more than once. Which seems to help but I should stress I have seen him doing the toilet no problem so he doesn't seem blocked. But every time I wash it up for him it comes back in no time. I bought theses special vitamin drops for budgies to try. But still seems to be having this problem.
He is sitting all fluffed up all the time and looks very uncomfortable. I am terrified that he is going to die.
The reasons why I haven't taken him to the vet, is because I can tell he doesn't seem to be blocked up and as I said I have him pooping no problem. But because he is such a frightened wee bird, I would hate to put him through the stress of taking him to the vet. ALso sometime ago, I taken a bird to the local vet and I never come back with him, he died there, so it is bad memories to take my wee friend to the vet again, I am worried the stress would kill him. So I am not sure as to what to do. Well I think the most important thing is what is wrong with him? Any one any ideas?

This is what think, I think because he sits in the one place and doesn't move much any more that is why the poop is building up and sticking to his feathers on his rear end. But what I do not understand about it, is why is he doing this now and he wasn't doing it before?

I should also say, when I have picked him up to wash him, I did not feel any unusual lumps or bumps. Although maybe it is possible he has something but not in an area I felt yet.. I am worried about him but I am also worried to take him to the vet for 2 reasons...1. I had a bad experience with the last bird I taken there because he died there.. and 2. he doesn't looks too great and I know how frightened the wee thing is...I would hate to put him through all the stress to take him there and he die with the stress. It is a shame you can not get vets to come to our home..well I don't think I can.

Any help/input would be greatly appreciated

thanks.

I'm not an expert in this area, but internet research indicates that the main causes of poop getting matted or pasted on the vent are diarrhea, or not drinking enough water - basically the opposite ends of the spectrum. Try to determine which (if either) it is. Have there been any changes in his diet lately? That might possibly be a factor too. Is he eating a normal amount of food? Do you know whether he's losing weight or holding steady?

I would suggest giving him some electrolyte solution to drink - this can be very beneficial to sick or weakened birds. If you have Pedialyte or Gatorade (or a similar sports drink) you can give him some of that. If you don't have any, you can make your own with simple ingredients that you probably have in your kitchen already. There are recipes at http://birdboard.com/forum/index.php/to ... %2Bformula

If he's having some kind of digestive upset, probiotics can help normalize the situation. There are special probiotics made for birds but they're not always available at local pet stores. You can give him a little probiotic powder made for humans (available at natural-foods grocery stores and vitamin shops) or a little bit of plain yogurt. If he likes any moist foods, you can mix it in with that.

It will be helpful to keep him warm, by warming up half the cage and leaving the other side at normal temperature so he can move if he gets too hot. One technique is to cover one end of the cage with a towel and shine a lamp on it so the heat from the bulb goes into the cage. Another technique is to put a heating pad under half the cage. Most heating pads will automatically shut off after a certain amount of time so watch out for that.

There are some other home remedies that can help with digestive issues, but it would be good to know more about what seems to be causing the problem.

My advice would be to keep him hydrated, clean his vent if necessary and try a pinch of brewer's yeast in his food. It has calming effects on stressed birds.

Thanks very much to both, I will look into these things, actually diarrhea did cross my mind. I have 3 birds in the same cage and the other 2 are fine. I was pleased to see him actually pooping as I was initially concerned he had a tumor and was blocked..but it does't seem to be that, he looks uncomfortable but his eyes seem bright and healthy and he is still pruning himself. I have been cleaning him but I think he looks uncomfortable maybe because he feels undignified having poop stuck to him. Thanks again for the input and those creative ideas.. I will try getting that powder stuff to see if that helps, I have bought these vitamin drops but they certainly haven't helped the problem.

This is a digestive issue of some kind and vitamins can't help with that. The gut always has a lot of different kinds of bacteria in it, some good and some bad, and when the balance gets out of whack with too many bad bacteria it causes problems. Probiotics will help restore the balance by adding more good bacteria to the system, but if he has some kind of infection it won't help with that.

This photo album by Susanne Russo shows a number of digestive remedies that she uses with her cockatiels (mostly babies with slow crop, yeast and other problems): http://tinypic.com/useralbum.php?ua=MNW ... F7fw%3D%3D I have doubts about some of them, but I've used the spice remedy with some cayenne pepper added to it with my birds, and it seems to be useful. Susanne is a VERY experienced breeder who has raised thousands of babies, and knows a lot about dealing with problems. Most of these remedies will help with bacterial or yeast infections, but it's important to follow up with probiotics to help restore the good bacteria.

Just to let you all know, my wee blue budgie died this morning. He was quite old, my mum said that because he was matted his wee system may have been running down, the saddest thing to me, is I do not know what was wrong with him.

I woken about 6 am, and passed the cage on my way to the bathroom and seen him at the bottom of the cage, my heart sank and now I am feeling pretty bad about it.. I have another 2 birds, I really do not want to see any of them lying dead at any point but, it is going to happen, one of hte other ones is about 10 years old although he seems quite healthy and flies about all the time, I have a younger green one...maybe 6. He isn't so healthy as the other one, he can't fly too well and seems to be over weight...but today is a very sad day for me indeed. I am so used to seeing my wee pal every day and talking to him, now I am never going to see him again. I can not handle it to be honest, even thinking of getting up tomorrow and knowing he isn't going to here.

Oh no. I'm so sorry. That's terrible. Fly free blue budgie.

I like that, fly free

I'm so sorry that you lost him. I was hoping that your post was going to say that he was all better now.

What kind of food do your birds eat? A good diet can add years to a bird's life, and it's never too late to make improvements. A good diet for budgies is pretty much same as a good diet for cockatiels, since they come from the same native habitat and have similar feeding habits. The main difference is that cockatiels can eat some seeds that are too big for budgies. Here's info on the best diet for cockatiels: http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... ldiet.html

My wee blue budgie was over 10 years.. and I have a green one who is about 11. The seed I buy them is trill and I buy the Millet sprays as they clearly love them I was told by a woman in a pet shop I should buy their seed because their stuff is better for them than the trill but I did not believe her because I thought trill must be better quality food as it is more expensive then the stuff she was selling. Maybe I am wrong to think I don't know.
But the fact that one of my green ones is kind of old now too, is worrying because "I think" the average lifespan for a budgie is about 7 years, am I correct? But my birds are rarely in their cage, they have the freedom of the whole house, so they can fly about all the time..which I think why they live longer than 7 years. Although I am not 100 percent sure the average lifespanb of a budgie, I got that from google (7 years)