What You Should Know About Medications and Parrots

Due to the death of Dong the African Grey, it has prompted me to write this article. 

We have a tendency to want to fix things.  It’s in our nature to want to help and make things better.   However’, in many instances we end up causing more harm than good.

Even what we believe can be harmless medications on humans and other animals can have adverse affects on birds.  Their physiology is so very different than ours and other animals.  Medications that may help a child, dog or cat, might end up killing your parrot or making it much worse.

Over the counter treatments, as an example, polysporin and cortisone creams are designed for humans in mind, and the dosages are based on human use.   Most people think that it is harmless, as you are only putting  it on your skin.   At the very least it would have to be diluted many times to make it safe for a parrot, if in fact it is safe at all!  The chemicals absorb into the skin and find their way into the organs of the birds.  Given at full strength, these drugs could introduce toxic levels into the birds blood stream and organs.

This also applies to herbal treatments and “all natural” products.  Most of these type of natural treatments have not even been studied on humans, never mind other animals.  Some herbs can be quite potent as was the case with Dong.  The dosages are also designed for human consumption and in most cases have not been studied for a birds physiology. Even if it has been tried by someone else and didn’t seem to hurt the bird, no testing was done on internal organs to see how the treatment affected them’in the long run.

In Dong’s case, Chinese herbs were used as a means of treating a mutilated wing.  What ended up happening to Dong is her wing ended up mummified and badly infected.   The flesh was hardened and dried out.  The bones were exposed, which created a breeding ground for infection.  One of the herbs was probably for pain relief.  Dong removed the bone from her wing, probably because she did not feel the pain that she was causing herself!   Many different bacteria were found in her wing, including ecoli.  Her kidney function was 3 times normal due to the introduction of the chemicals into her blood stream. She had to have her wing amputated and was treated with antibiotics.  She eventually died after valiant efforts to save her. You can read her story on this blog as well.

Even though the family that kept Dong were knowledgeable about herbs and their uses, they did not know what affects they would have on Dong.  The family wanted to save money by treating with home remedies, which instead cost Dong her life.

It does cost money to take your parrots to the vet.  A single visit and advice on treatment will cost somewhere in the range of $40- $90, for good and sound advice about medicating your parrot.  It is definitely money well spent.  Some vets will answer single questions over the phone about medications at no charge but don’t count on it. 

If your bird is mutilating, it is important to get it into the vet for testing and treatment to make sure the wound is not infected and to determine any secondary casues.  In the early stages an antibiotic regimen could help.

Take the bird to the vets at the first sign of trouble, don’t wait until it gets worse.  If you start treatments early, the treatment will be less invasive to the bird and will probably end up saving you money.  We all know that birds will not show signs of illness until they can no longer hold themselves up.  The first sign of trouble is usually an indication that the problem have already bypassed the stage where they can be easily handled.  Putting a collar on the bird does not treat the root cause.

Even if you believe that stress is the factor that started the mutilating, there is in most cases a secondary, underlying issue also.  The stress is just the catalyst that started the behaviour.

Seeking advice from friends and what they have tried is not the same as getting good advice from your vet.  Many prefer home remedies for the money saving aspect.  But have these been studied in a clinical setting?  Is this just one person’s opinion? Is it really worth taking a chance?  Googling articles on herbs is not the answer.  There are many self proclaimed experts out there.

I am not an expert on medicating parrots and the only advice I can give you is;  don’t use anything, no matter how harmless you believe it is, until you have asked your vet! 

It’s too late for Dong, don’t let it be too late for your precious pet parrot!