Hi All,
I am new here. The sudden death of my sister's Amazon who was just 20 yrs. old was cultured back as E Coli being the culprit. Who knew? He masked it all too well. My sister was very fussy with Hawkeye for the 20 years. Everything was fresh and clean. We are devasted. He was overly active (masking) but not to the extreme carrying on his normal antics. Next morning he "looked" funny to her. Got him into the Avian vet asap. His kidneys shut down, his liver shriveled, no white blood cells just red that ran up to 5,000! Hawkeye was quickly and suddenly too ill to help and she had to help him "fly with the eagles" and stop his pain.
How had this happened is our quest. Veggies were cooked, fruits washed and peeled!
no poo in his water, and scrubbed daily. I can write out an whole page on the care she gave her baby and now I can only hug her and cry with her.
Ready the forum hurts... wishing like anything that Hawkeye wasn't such a good pretender so my sister could had stopped this disease from claiming her "little five year old".

It would be good to track down the problem - Bea mentioned it could be as simple as someone forgetting to wash their hands properly when dealing with the bird. That includes a good rinse.

I try very hard not to forget - as soon as I walk in the house I wash my hands. When I bird sat recently I was very pleased when the Grey's owner's first question before uncrating her bird was, 'Where can I wash up?' It was hardwired & it has to be. If strangers handle your bird, the risk goes up. Lets face it many people are careless or ignorant of the condition of their hands. The nail in particular is like a cat's claw - quite a toxic place.

Again I wonder if Apple Cider Vinegar &/or a strong Nutritional diet [see Karen's link Avian Medicine Online & read Nutrition I & II] gives your bird the strength to brush these bacterial attacks aside.
I think if the bird's gut is strong they have a better chance. I am not experienced enough to say this is correct - just a surmise.

I am so sorry to hear about Hawkeye - that is very hard. May his memory help others.

Hi there! This just breaks my heart! I am so, so sorry for your all's loss. God bless!

Thank you.
My sister always scrubbed her hands before touching anything pertaining to Hawkeye. Her baby came first with only the best and cleanliness in mind.
Thanks for the kind words and link.
~H

Hi me again,
I erroneously wrote biopsy. It should had been autospy performed on Hawkeye.

He is now being privately cremated.

Can anyone tell me a site that has nice urns that you youself or friend has had excellent service with?

Just a little update on Cosmo...

he is doing better he is just about done with his medication that the dr gave him, i believe he goes back to the vet either tomorrow or next Monday and i will let you know more then when he goes. Since he has been on his medication his temper has changed so much... before he would want to bite everyone but my mom and always seemed mad. but today when i was over there he was singing and talking up a storm and was acting like his old self again. hopefully when he goes back to the vet we will get good results!!

thanks so much for all your support and advice!!

Thanks for the update, Kate, that sounds good! Continued thoughts and prayers for Cosmo from here.

Thanks Nate!

Yea! Cosmo! You are such a good bird taking your medicene! I am thankful to hear he is doing so well!

The thing about washing your hands is that it needs to be done with soap (it doesn't have to be antibacterial, just regular soap) and to rub/scrub for a minimum of 20 seconds to kill everything PLUS you need to have very short nails (a study was done on hospital nurses and it was found that long fingernails harbor all kinds of bacteria which are not killed with hand-washing). I've watched people at public restrooms and I'm always apalled at the amount of people that just let water run over their hands (which doesn't do diddly-squat in terms of hygiene). The best washers just do a quick squirt of soap and rub their hands together right under the running water which is much better than the 'rinse' but still doesn't do enough to kill all the nasties. There was a study done where they took samples from public phones, door knobs, handrails, bus and subway hand-holds, etc. and it found that every single 'public' surface is teeming with e-coli. People just don't wash their hands properly.