If you decide to have a bird pet at home, then you should be ready with many joys as well as challenges that you will face. You surely would like to see your birds healthy all the time and don’t want to see them get sick.
This article will tell you about a certain disease that can affect your birds’ health. It is liver disease. Liver damage is also able to attack dogs as elaborated in how to prevent liver damage in dogs.
Liver is an important organ that is involved with food digestion, storing and filtering blood and many metabolic functions. As it has many functions, having a healthy liver is important.
Unfortunately, birds are prone to have both acute and chronic liver disease. There are many factors causing liver disease, such as bacterial, viral and fungal infections, metabolic disorders, tumors, circulatory disturbances, nutritional deficiency and even some toxins.
Liver disease is commonly experienced by certain species of birds, such as cockatiels, budgies, Amazon parrots and mynah birds. Let’s get to know the symptoms of liver disease in birds that you should notice.
Symptoms of Liver Disease in Birds
Here are
some common symptoms you can find in a bird that suffers from liver disease:
- Diarrhea – The droppings may turn into yellowish or greenish due to the excessive biliverdin being excreted.
- Enlarged abdomen – the abdomen may appears distended and sometimes the liver is actually visible below the keel
- Labored breathing – the bird may get some breathing difficulties due to the enlarged liver. The liver compromises the body cavity space.
- Poor feather quality – there will be some changes in the feather coloration. For instance, in parakeets, the feathers may turn into more yellowish, African Greys may also develop red feathers in usual grey areas and eclectuses may also get their feathers turning into yellow, orange or even red. Spend time reading reasons why your bird pets lose their feathers.
- Overgrown beaks – in some birds, the soft areas around the beak may also occur. The infected bird may develop overgrown beak, claws or nails as well.
- Seizures – at the end-stage of liver disease, the birds may also experience disorientation or seizures. It is because the toxins build up in the bloodstream and as a result it affects nervous system is also affected.
- Dry and itchy skin – it may also become one of the indicators of a bird getting liver disease. Once the liver problems are treated, it may take a while for the itching to stop.
- Obesity – obesity is a common sign of a bird which suffers from fatty liver disease. There may be some large pockets of fats on the chest that will cause the abdomen appears distended.
- Black spots – black spots commonly appear on the beak, toenails and beak. Black spots appear due to the inability of the blood to clot properly. These black spots occur just like old, small bruises.
- Loss of appetite – sick birds tend to have loss of appetite, so do the birds with liver disease. It could be because they are tired of eating high-fat food or because it is too painful for them to digest the food.
Besides the common symptoms above, there are some other symptoms that
the infected bird may get, such as:
- Being inactive.
- Loss of weight.
- Weakness.
- Increased drinking.
- Increased urination.
- Darkening feathers.
- Green urates.
- Feather picking (along torso because of pain in that area).
- Low body temperature.
- Death.
After looking at the symptoms of liver disease in birds, then you may start thinking of maintaining a healthy liver for your birds. The key of having healthy liver is healthy lifestyle, just like humans.
Birds should be given best nutrition and trained to have healthy lifestyle. Liver is able to regenerate itself, so your job is only to keep your birds’ liver stable and strong. Here are some tips you can do to maintain your birds’ healthy liver.
- Get your bird enough sleep or rest. Enough sleep is important to promote healing and helping the liver to rebuild itself.
- Consult with your vet about your birds’ diet. Make sure to include diet that is rich in fiber, low in fat and reduced protein content. Including some fruits and vegetables will be great! Consult with your vet too about the food that your birds should avoid.
- Provide some nutritional supplements to support the liver function. You can include Brewer’s yeast, wholegrain cereals and fruits are recommended to be added to your bird’s diet. If you have cockatiels at home, make sure you feed them these best food choices for your cockatiel birds.
- Get your birds exercising. You can put ropes and ladders to encourage them to climb. Some foot toys are also great to promote good exercise. If it is needed, get your bird out of the cage so that it can play and spread its wings.
If you plan to have a bird pet, then you should read these popular bird breeds to pet and facts of cockatiel as the most favorite pet bird.