we have a blue and gold macaw male that appears to be constipated. he passes gas alot but what poop he does have, sticks to him. we have taken him to a vet, that keeps prescribing antibiotics, which seem to help for a few days, but does not last. the vet said his tests came back as e coli. is there something else we can do? he eats bananas, apples, grapes, in addition to seeds, he does not really like vegetables, and is hard to get him to eat them.
-- I'm surprised that you've come to notice this bird 'passes gas', which is highly, highly unusual for a bird. When you mentioned the e-coli, a gram negative bacterial infection, it sort of explains it, but even with that I'm surprised. It must be a pretty significant infection. My question for you is what sort of antibiotic is being given and how? Is this a med injected by the vet? Has the vet done x-rays? If so, what was seen? I appreciate the efforts you're making to improve his diet. Ideally you should have a pellet based nutritional program with the fresh foods used to supplement that. Don't give up on the vegetables. Chances are you just haven't found the right ones or prepared them the right way. One of my rescues took a year before she decided to try a carrot. Meanwhile, every day, non stop, I gave her shredded carrots, cooked carrots, partially cooked carrots, sliced, diced, big, little, you name it, I kept at it. And one day out of the blue I looked over and saw her clutching a mini carrot in her 'hand' and enjoying it as if it were the first time she ever saw one. Even now she doesn't eat them every day, but I still offer them every day 'just in case'. Other good ones are kale, broccoli, turnip greens, carrot TOPS, Brussel Sprouts, squash, sweet potatoes (BIG favorite) and you get the idea. You can see more about getting your bird to eat right here: (copy and paste into your browser bar) www.4AnimalCare.org/birds Get back to me on the other things though. What your vet has done and what antibiotics are administered, how, etc..
She did an x-ray and she said it did not show anything significant, she gave us a rx of penicillin which we gave him orally. He has been given this twice now for 14 days, with a 7 day break in between. She told us he could have been stressed, because the female we had with him, which was suppose to be his proven breeding mate, was always biting at his feet, and chasing him away from the food dish. She has since been removed from the cage and he will now let us hold him and etc. which before he never would let us do. He plays with his toys now, which he wouldn't so before. The vet has never given Crasher an injection of an antibiotic. She did trim his beak, and clean his rectum and cleanse with sterile solution, which we now use if we clean his rectum.
I am more than thrilled with the info you just shared and happy that so far it seems you've found a qualified vet AND that you also know what you're doing. I want to bring another person in on this for you. If you'll start trying some food changes as outlined earlier and let's try upping fluid intake with some 'pureed' foods like the squash - carrots sweet potatoes in the way of all natural, preferably organic human baby food (jars). Applesauce just a half teaspoon at a time to perhaps encourage his trying the new stuff if you can't get him to do it on his own right away. All you should have to do is get a bit of any of the stuff at the end of his beak and once the taste is made he should want more on his own. Don't forget natural fruit juices too. Read labels. Nothing but the fruit and water ( perhaps a small amt of sugar) should be on the label. -- Hang in here and I'll try to bring the expert in as soon as she gets on.