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Hi folks,

Been a while since I've been on here, and I return with a question for any of you. This afternoon, I was holding Gizmo, and I kissed him on the back. In doing so, I noticed a very strong smell on his feathers, very much like the smell of vomit, or something very close to that with a really strong sour smell. I've never smelled him with this kind of odor, and he'll be going to the vet tomorrow to get checked out, but another odd thing, he peed on me, and the smell of his urine was horrible, smelling the same as his feathers, but much stronger. I've not noticed any changes in his diet, nor has he eaten anything other than his normal foodstuffs, and the water is clean as well. So far, he's the only one with this smell, but I'm going to check the rest of the flock as I can catch them and check them out. Gizmo normally does not just pass urine, perhaps once in a while, but mostly it's a combination of fecal matter, urates and urine. Anybody have any suggestions, or have you ever had a very repulsive smell from urine/poo/urates or for that matter, feathers?

Many thanks

Sam

I remember one time Rosie had very strong sour smelling poop.. I clearly remember that morning when I approached her cage to get her up I smelt it from a couple of inches away from her cage. I had never smelt anything like that before so out of curiosity I picked up her morning poopy papers to see if thats where the smell was coming from and it was so strong it like almost gaged me. I took her to the Dr and they said she had ALOT of yeast in her poopy so they put her on antibiotics.. I hope your birdies are ok.. Let us know what the dr says.

You say you smelled a sour smell like vomit? Did you notice any upchucking? Avian gastic yeast will give off a sour smell but the smelly urine is a puzzlement..either way it sounds like an infection of some sort.....keep us updated

Gizmo's vet visit went well this morning, but Dr. Walker did find a LOT of gram negative rods in the fecal smear, so we put him on baytril with apple flavoring, with a dab of Bene-Bac as a follow on. Prognosis is good, and 10 days on Baytril should do the trick. If not, we go back for a recheck. Oddly enough, I did some sniffing on him this morning, and nary a smell other than normal birdie smells. Kind of odd for a one day / one time affair, but guess stuff like that happens. Hopefully, this will not start showing up in the rest of the flock, but if so, I've got a good supply of Baytril, but not planning on randomly dosing the others without a checkup first.

Sam

Good to hear Sam! I think it's always better to have a diagnosis so something can be done about it. I didn't know baytril came flavored! Wow I wish I had that for Stella.

Jo

I'm glad you caught whatever was going on right away.

Jo,

You probably have to ask the vet to add flavorings. It's the same type flavorings that normal pharmacies use when they prepare kids medicines that have a very bad or bitter taste. The flavorings don't add very much to the cost of the drugs as well, maybe a dollar or so, and I know Baytril is extremely bitter, and would be very difficult for any living creature to swallow if they have any type of taste buds

Sam

Just saw this thread. Yup, Buddy--my geriatric lovie w/ a poorly functioning immune system--has periodic bouts of stinky poop. She's on antibiotics right now because of bacterial infection. It's happened several times in the last year, so I now know the smell only too well. One whiff & we're off to the vet. It has happened in the past that I would notice the smell one day, but not the next few, then notice it again. The vet told me that they can shed the stinky poo intermittently while the infection remains constant. That's why we go to the vet at the "first whiff"! I have noticed that the odor goes away after the first dose of antibiotic. Just a side bar:
Buddy isn't on Baytril at the moment but she doesn't mind it when she is I had to hide the syringe till I got a good grip on my Bo (also a lovie) whenever he had to take Baytril. But Buddy loves anything that comes out of a syringe. I don't even have to hold her to give her any meds. Just stick the syringe through the bars of the cage & she open wide & sucks it down! Sometimes I have to pry the syringe out of her beak. She trys to stick her tongue into the syringe to get every little drop. She's one hand-fed baby who never lost her love of her "bottle".

That is so cute that Buddy does that with the syringe going as far as sticking his tongue in the syringe trying to get all the med out. I wish Rosie was like that.. She goes running when she sees me with a syringe. Thank god I haven't had to use it in a while.

MFids wrote:Charlie will take anything from me, be it in a syringe, spoon, tube, or whatever! If I have it, he wants it!

Sounds like my kind of bird! What kind is Charlie? Gussie, my gcc, is like that with any food/beverage I have but haven't had to give her anything by syringe...yet. She can be a problem with a syringe, however, because she thinks syringes are great foot toys. Have to be sure she is otherwise occupied when dosing Buddy because Gussie is FAST. She's gotten the syringe out of my hand a couple of times while it was still full. She didn't consume any meds but she spilled some so I had to remeasure. Little twerp!

When Boss was on baytril for her injury a while back they also flavored it, but it wasn't apple flavored, it was some other flavor. I think Boss hated just the same flavored or not!