My mom and I took him to the vet yesterday and he had 2 shots and is much better today, but we found out that is Lead Poisoning. We tested the antique cage she has and sure enough - LEAD! Do you all think we can have the paint removed and re-paint it or is it a lost cause? She has one of my cages now to keep him in, so he is safe. Thanks in advance!

Sending healing prayers for Beau Peep. Jessalyn I don't know if an old cage can be re-done so it's safe, maybe someone else will know. If it were me I would get him a new cage.

I think a new cage is your best bet too, just to be on the safe side. I'm glad that he's doing better today!

Thanks guys! Of course that's right!

Get a new cage, In England second hand ones are cheap.

Originally Posted by billysprout

Get a new cage, In England second hand ones are cheap.

Sorry that sounded bad, what i meant to say that it is probably easier and cheaper to get a new cage than trying to sort the old one out. Good luck.

How is the little one doing today?

Originally Posted by billysprout

Sorry that sounded bad, what i meant to say that it is probably easier and cheaper to get a new cage than trying to sort the old one out. Good luck.

We like cheap! As Dolly Parton said "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap!"

Originally Posted by WingedVictory

How is the little one doing today?

Thanks for asking! Mama said he is so much better! Back to singing a bit! Sweet, tiny, little, not much of a bird! ha!

Jessalyn, how did the vet determine that it was lead poisoning? Was there a blood test? I am asking because of two reasons:

a) although metal poisoning is fairly common with parrots, it's really almost impossible for canaries to get it for the simple reason that they don't bite the bars or play with metal toys like parrots do. Parrots are chewers but canaries are not. The only way they could get it is if the metal leaches into their drinking water which is not a likely thing to occur as the water is changed, at least, daily, although I guess it could be possible. Also, the only way to diagnose this is through a blood test (although X-Rays are another diagnostic tool, it's almost impossible to see anything in a canary's rad, they are too tiny) and I don't know of a single avian vet that does blood tests on canaries, they are too small and don't have that much blood so even a tiny little bit makes a big difference in them and, considering they are dealing with a sick bird, it would be quite irresponsible to further weaken it by drawing a relatively large amount of blood. Canaries, finches and other very small birds are usually diagnosed based on symptoms which is more a guessing game than anything else.

b) I know of, at least, two canaries that were diagnosed with metal poisoning, both were treated with chelation therapy and both ended up dead. One of them I am pretty sure had hypocalcium because of the symptoms described to me by the owner but he was not treated for it and, eventually, he started having seizures and died.

I am not trying to scare you but every time I hear of a canary been treated for metal poisoning, a little red flag goes up in my mind and I fret that it might not be the right treatment and that time is been wasted and, with canaries and their super fast metabolism, when they are sick, time is of the essence.