I brought the birdcam inside and aimed it towards Coco’s (our African Grey Parrot) cage.

This is about a 2 minute video clip, although for all practical purposes there’s not much to look at.  However, you can hear Coco run through a variety of sentences and words.  Also, Sascha is our German Shepherd Dog and Chloe is our cat.

See if you can make out what she’s saying.  In between the phrases I can understand (listed below) she also comes up with some sentences I can’t quite understand or that don’t make sense.

14 Seconds – says “Sascha”

36 Seconds – says “Kitty kisses” then kissing sounds

48 Seconds – says “Hello”

1:03 Seconds – says “Chloe”

1:06 Seconds – says “Ready to go night, night bird?”

1:23 Seconds – says “Baad da da da da, I’m loving it” (from McDonalds commercial)

1:32 Seconds – says “Sascha Fooey!”

1:35 Seconds – says “Fooey!” (in deep voice)

1:44 Seconds – says “Woooooooo!”

1:50 Seconds – says “Hey bird, want some fruit?”

1:55 Seconds – says “Fooey!”

I got the follow up call from the vet today regarding the bacteria that was found when swabbing Coco’s crop (part of a bird’s throat).

She tested positive for the following bacteria:

1. Pasteurella (Abundant growth according to test results)
2. Corynebacterium (Moderate growth according to test results)
3. Pseudomonas (Light growth according to test results)

So now one more medication needs to be added to Coco’s treatment. Her current treatment consists of 0.23 cc’s of Baytril twice per day and Clavamox 0.42 ml twice per day.

I asked the vet if these bacterial infections were the result of anything we’re doing, or not doing and she said “no”, they are just common bacteria found in the environment.

Here’s my questions for any bird owners out there.

1. What can you tell me about these bacterias?
2. Is there anything we could do/done to prevent these infections?
3. If these are common bacteria, why might Coco have been infected?

Coco Feather Picking

Coco Showing Feather Picking

I won’t know until next week how the results of her aspergillosis test and what specific type of bacterial infection she has.  Her blood work and white blood cell tests all looked normal and healthy.  No change in her x-rays (which is good).

Hopefully it helps her.

So I’m running though what may be causing this.

1. Boredom – Since we ended her treatment she does get a little less attention.  I still try and take her out of her cage to be petted daily.
2. Allergic Reaction – We started to give her nuts (we weaned her off of these during her treatment), but now have stopped again.
3. Mites? – I don’t even know what mites are or how she might get them.
4. Something related to her previous illness – She’s shaking her head a little more than normal.  Her personality seems really good. Still talks a bunch.  However, she did see to get tired much earlier than normal tonight.

So besides a trip to the vet, which I will do, anyone else have any hypothesis or ideas?  Do these products like Pluck No More actually work?

Coco makes very few bird sounds, she mainly just talks English.  She controls all the other animals in the house.

When Sascha starts barking, she says “Sascha Phooey.”

When Maggie makes her little squeak sounds to go outside, she says “Maggie, No.”

When Chloe walks by Coco’s cage, she says “Chloe Hungry?”  “Kitty Hungry?”  Then Chloe starts running towards her food bowl.

When I get home, I typically get the “Time To Eat!”

In the picture below, you can see the small cut above Coco’s eye.  She falls every now and then when she’s not paying attention.  She’s also eating a small pine nut.

Coco With Cut

Here’s Coco standing tall.

Coco Standing Tall

Anyway, here’s a close up shot of Coco (with some left over fruit on her beak) taken with my rental lens (more on that in a moment).

Coco Face

Turns out she has/had aspergillosis, which is a respiratory disease (fungal) that occurs most often in African Greys and Amazons.  Honestly, we thought we were going to lose her as she wouldn’t hardly eat and could barely stay awake. The vet suggested that Hurricane Ike stirred up those mold spores that cause aspergillosis and with no power for 9 days and the additional stress on her body, she became vulnerable to this disease.

Fast forward 9 months later and about $5500.00 in vet bills (not including medication costs) and Coco seems to be doing pretty well. She is talking more than ever and her weight has been steady for several months now.

Part of her treatment, which I have to do twice per day, is with a nebulizer.  She’s become quite accustomed to going in this small “reptile” cage, eating her vegetables and fruit, and enduring the nebulizer treatment for 20 minutes.  Actually, she seems to “enjoy” the treatment as she knows it’s her time to get fresh fruit and veggies.

I’ll find out this Thursday whether or not her treatment needs to continue and for how long.  Oh, I should plug her vet (Dr. Natalie Antinoff) as well at Gulf Coast Avian and Exotics.  They’re not cheap, but they are GOOD!

Whatcha Lookin At?