We have a beautiful 6 year old albino cockatiel named Angel. Our family loves her very much. For the past week or so she had been perching on her ladder for unusually long periods of time. When she would move, her left claw seemed to have trouble grasping things. We took her to the vet, thinking that she may have injured her foot somehow.
After examining her, the vet told us that it appears that she may have gout in the hocks of her legs. He took blood samples to see if there was an underlying kidney ailment which could be causing this, but we won’t know the results until tomorrow. If she has synovial gout (which resides in the joints), she may have to take pain meds and medication to help her eliminate uric acid more efficiently. If she has visceral gout (in which deposits form within the body) the prognosis is poor.
My wife and I are devastated. We lost our first cockatiel to fatty liver disease caused by a seed-based diet. Determined not to make the same mistake again, Angel has been fed a pellet-based diet for almost her entire life. I’m hoping that the vet is mistaken in his initial diagnosis and that our baby will be happily climbing around again, but I’m afraid that he may be right.
Has anybody here owned a bird that has suffered from gout? If so, were you able to treat it so that your bird had a good quality of life? The thought of euthanizing Angel is ripping my heart out, but I don’t want her to suffer a long time just because we are afraid to let her go.
Thank you for your help.
I am doing some research for you. None of my birds has ever had gout, but I will help where I can. An interesting article with links.
All of the stuff I am reading seems to state that the high protein from the pellets doesn’t help. On that site I gave you there was a link to a nutrition site. It listed some safe foods you can feed your bird to help it. Among them were cherries, oranges, and apples. Also, I read that you can cut your birds pellet diet with 1/3 Quaker Oatmeal. This apparently keeps the diet to less than 15% crude protien. The same place I read that also suggested trying to feed all things as moist as possible, since water flushes waste through the kidneys.
Another Link
I hope it works out. Keep us updated, and I’ll post if i find anything more useful. Good Luck!
Thanks for the quick reply. I had already read your first link before my OP, but I hadn’t seen the second page that you listed. I’m going to try altering her diet slightly away from 100% pellets and incorporate more fresh fruits and vegetables. I’ve added black cherry juice to her water cup and she seems to like it.
I’m hoping to have better news from the vet tomorrow. If it looks like her uric acid levels are high, I may have to have her X-rayed to see if there are deposits in her body. Her wings are unaffected so far. I’m hoping that we caught this in its early stages.
Update:
The vet says that blood tests indicate that she has gout. I still haven’t gotten her uric acid level count from him, but he says that it is too high. He gave her a prescription for colchicine, which is anti-inflamatory and should help her with the pain. He also suggested a vitamin supplement and millet seed to help with possible vitamin A deficiency and to reduce the uric acid levels a bit. We’ll also try to introduce more fresh fruits and vegetables into her diet as well.
We go back to the vet in a couple of weeks to see how she’s getting along. Wish us luck…