The results are finally in! He has low calcium which she wants to treat with an oral supplement 1x a day for a month. She says that may contribute to his feet problems. She also said his muscle enzymes (sp?) were high and that was most likely a result of trauma and his muscles rebuilding. She says that she can't positively say what happened but she really thinks it was either a bad night fright or a possible seizure. She said his liver check was good but she wanted to recheck it in 6 months to a year. She also wants to recheck his calcium at the end of the month of treatment. She also recommended almonds and shaved cuttle bone in his food from now on.

I'm glad you have some results to go off of - and something that should be fairly simple to correct, the low calcium. I hope things continue to go well for him and that he doesn't have another incident like that.

Hope there is improvement soon - how's he today?

wow, that's actually good news, right? i mean all the stuff that's mentioned is treatable (hopefully it wasn't a seizure that caused the trauma)

if you grind up a whole cuttlebone once and keep the powder it's less of a pain to add it to their food - i use a spoon on a hard surface to break it up, and that works well. also, it goes into their birdie breads and muffins and stuff

i hope that little cutie is back to normal in no time

Great news they pinpointed, as prolly definite, what we suspected in the beginning of this thread Tiffany.

Please don't forget to set up (if ya haven't already) the proper/best F.S. Lighting you/we can get - to hopefully & completely solve the problem lil Danny has been experiencing. I also hope others will learn from Danny's ordeal & do the same asap.

Proper daily, natural, direct sunlight/best F.S. lighting etc., plus proper exercise (hopefully always fully flighted exercise), in addition to an excellent varied natural diet should have Danny fully recovered soon and swinging from the chandeliers.

Another vet check may not even be truely needed in six months - who knows?

hey thats great news!! hopefully danny will be back to normal soon!!

dont you think it would be better to go back to the vet just to make sure...

not all bird owners have the experience, to dismiss a vet when a bird is sick, like you do joel even if it is for a smiple check up

Well, since you asked Jayne :

I don't do everything a vet tells me to do just like I don't do everything a human doctor might tell me to do - regardless of the experience I may or may not have with whatever. They are not gods/infallible ya know - none of them. And whether you believe it or not, many want/need you or anyone to come back for follow up visits/check-ups so they can make money and stay in business - IMO. I personally have seen them do tests and offer to do tests etc. that were not necessary. Not always but many times, enough times for me to always have my guard up.

And furthermore, like I have said before, I personally would NOT risk the health of my bird unnecessarily by taking into any vet unless absolutely necessary.

If Tiffany's bird Danny is showing no problems in six months and it shouldn't IMO & IME - if she does what has been suggested by her vet & myself (IME), then I would NOT take the bird back in (if it were mine). But again, that is just me - each member here can of course do what he or she feels is best/safest for their bird.

He is doing a ton better, coming out of his cage and climbing around much easier. He is fully flighted but only takes occasional flights. He is such a picky eater so I have a hard time getting him to eat anything beyond his usual pellets, apples, grapes, blue berries, and bird bread. I guess I need to get more bird bread into his diet so I can sneak veggies he won't normally eat into it.

And Joel we are working on the lighting. We went on some trips to Home Depot this weekend, but we are still trying to figure out what route to go. I can buy the Featherbrite light bulbs pretty cheapily but we are looking for a good fixture to put it in. I think I found one that will work, so I am going to pick it up this Friday. Since I need lights for all the birds I was trying to find something that would be the best deal.

Oh and how long should the light be on each day? And should it be on at a certain time? Would like 12pm-3pm work? I got some timers for the lights.

Tiffany.........IMO & IME, I would leave the lights on all day but have them over only part of the cage (if ya need a new cage - I would build one if I were you, unless you know of where to buy a long attractive type flight cage) - that way Danny can go under or away from the light as he chooses. I would put the fixture on a timer so it goes off itself & comes on at the same time everyday - maybe an hour before sunset and an hr. after sunrise.

So these lights you mentioned: Are they run by an electronic ballast? Do they have a CRI of 98 (best)? Do they have a K rating of 5,000/5,500 or a bit higher? The fixture should have a downward reflector. Best to use 2 instead of one light tube - meaning make sure the bird has enough light over him (above shinning down - not from the side). If it has all those things, it sounds fine to me - if not then I would get what many of us use. JMO & IME.

Here is a link to the light bulb.

FEATHERBRITE FULL SPECTRUM SPIRAL BULB - FULL SPECTRUM LIGHTING by Bird Paradise

The CRI is 91. The problem with our house is our ceilings are very high and I can't easily hang lights like some of you have. So I am looking for a light bulb that has all of these features and a fixture to put it in.

Here are some more lighbulbs I have found...
BlueMax™ 14w Compact Fluorescent Lamp
That one has a higher CRI but the kelvin rating of 5900.

Compact Full Spectrum Light Bulb 20W : Electronics / Appliances