I have two very tired birdies here who had a long morning at the AV's.

They did very well, I'm very proud of them. We got some good news and some not-the-best news, but overall nothing major to worry about.

Jerry:
He had the whole office smitten with him (come on, how could anyone NOT be smitten with him?!). The AV said that we are extremely lucky that he is so sweet and so tame when he came from a petstore completely wild. I know I've very lucky He did pull one stunt and flew out of the exam room when someone walked out of the room and forgot to close the door. He flew out to the reception area and landed on one of the assistant's heads

He did great with the toweling and nail trim and physical exam. His grams stains look great and she says that overall he looks wonderful.

Lulu:
She got kind of stressed out after the toweling but she did fine.

She does have a slight bacterial infection. The AV says that this is common to see among the 'toos and tiels at this time of year. She has more yeast than what she should - not a huge amount (I looked through the microscope to see it too), but enough that she wants to treat it. If left untreated it could turn into gram negative bacteria and she doesn't want that. This is not transmissible to Jerry at all, and also not a result of her immune system not functioning properly. Her cell quality looks very good so that is a sign that it's not her immune system.

So Lulu joins Cricket's sick medicine club since she is also on Clavamox and Nystatin for 10 days. We go in in two weeks to do follow up gram stains AND -

Jerry is getting his band taken off when we go back in!! YAY!

My conclusion is that my decision to do annual wellchecks is justified from what I learned about Lulu. Outwardly she looks great, but I would never have known that her yeast count was elevated or that she could have a worse infection if left untreated.

Oh, another important thing that I was advised of - Jerry weighed in at 34 grams, which is fine for him. Lulu, however, weighed in at 101 grams, which is not terrible, but upon her physical exam, her upper chest is a little more fatty than the AV would like. She asked what her diet was and they do eat beans often - I was told to cut out the beans as the AV has seen that they are too high in fat and has seen this before. So no more beans for them.

I am sorry to hear about Lulu, but at least it is nothing serious and she has medicine! LOL about Jerry's escape! He is such a troublemaker!

Sarah, Dr. O is also looking into an a new natural medicine to help boost the immune system. I really want to try it on Rico once she approves it.

Interesting, I'd love to hear how that goes. I'm glad that her yeast problem is pretty common.

And I'm glad you got to meet my guys, thanks for coming in when you weren't supposed to be in!!

Way to go Jerry....and get better soon Lulu.

I'm going to take Pita in next month for his second wellcheck. I figure I'll take him in April every year as it's his Hatchday month.

I'm glad it's nothing serious. That's great news.

I'm glad Jerry is healthy, and Lulu's infection isn't serious!

I just wish I had an avian vet to go to that I trusted. That would make it much easier for me to justify taking Ollie for well checks. Dakota has never been the the vet in his entire life. He is 10 and appears very healthy.

If I had a vet around me like Dr. O I would more than likely be taking them for well checks.

Lulu went back in today for her followup oral gram stain since she had some bacteria and yeast last time - today, no more bacteria and minimal yeast! She's still on the Nystatin for 4 more days and that should clear up the remaining yeast no problem. The vet said she's lookin' great!

This means that I now have 3 completely HEALTHY birdies!! Winston's Giardia test came back and it's negative, so everyone's in the clear!

congrats - that's always great news... nothing better than healthy fids

Woo hoo!! Healthy fids!!