upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

bostonbudgie wrote:Bluebird,you are attending a parrot conference? Share with us your experiences.
I've been to parrot conferences in Texas (parrot festival) , New Hampshire (BOAF shows) and in New york.(long Island parrot society shows)
They are great fun!

I should have said seminar rather than conference. My brain must have been half asleep already. Nevertheless, I awoke with such horrible headache that I opted to skip this one. Disappointing to be sure, but we have a lot of great seminars in the Washington DC area, so I'll have my chance soon enough

Thank you SOOOO much Bluesbirds. I may very well give that fellow a call. I'm speaking to our old bird hospital vet on Tuesday, and I'll see where that leaves me. I'm feeling optimistic at the moment, as Murdoch continues to look very healthy in every observable way. I'm hoping that the current approach will show enough improvement that we can keep on with it, but I definitely want to be as informed as humanly possible if I have to make a harder choice.

PS: MFids, that's interesting that you were prescribed a dose of AVC so much higher than mine. I'll mention that to my vet. It's nice to know there's room to increase the dose perhaps. You haven't noticed any side effects at the higher dose?

Hi all,
An update: Murdoch and I went back to the vet today, and the arrhythmia was again much improved over last time. But here's the clincher: we redid the fecalgram after I stopped feeding him toast for a couple of days. And it came back negative!

So I'm feeling quite miffed right now. I gave my bird a drug that caused a heart condition when all I apparently needed to do was stop sharing my toast with him.

The whole thing is leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth about avian vets, to be honest.

They still seem reluctant to blame Diflucan for his condition, which to me is ridiculous. You've got a bird that was checked out by a vet and found to have a healthy heart rhythm. He was prescribed Diflucan, which is known to cause severe cardiac arrhythmia in humans. 48 hours later, he was rushed back to emergency because he was not moving, eating or cheeping, and the doctor found a severe cardiac arrhythmia. Following the discontinuation of the medication -- and despite other stressors such as becoming carsick on a follow up visit to the vet -- the other symptoms disappeared within 2 days and the arrhythmia has continued to correct. The thing that startles me is that neither the vet who prescribed the drug, nor the very experienced avian vet I consulted with were even aware that Diflucan causes arrhythmia in humans.

You might think that a warning to other avian vets would be in order. But apparently denial is actually the order of the day.

Thank god my bird is OK, but I'm glad I started listening to my gut instincts and not to the vet.

They've still suggested doing an ultrasound, because the experienced vet thought it unlikely that Diflucan would cause an arrhythmia if there wasn't an underlying condition. I was going to go along with it until I found out that Murdoch would have to be in hospital for at least half a day and I couldn't be with him. I'm going to see if there's another vet that does it under less stressful conditions, but otherwise, I'm going to buy a stethascope and monitor his heart myself (a suggestion of the experienced vet), and if things fully go back to normal, I'm not going to pursue it.

So anyway, be careful with Diflucan everyone. And be careful with avian vets. There seems to be a culture of favouring aggressive intervention over actual...science.