Parakeet with liver disease gets better
By Pelaane

Just thought this story might be informative for other parakeet owners.

A green and yellow male parakeet was diagnosed with some sort of liver disease. The owner said that the vets felt the bird might have a tumor and/or infection and was treated with antibiotics without relief. The beak became long and gnarly, the talons on the feet also became long and irregular. The liver was palpable and so enlarged that it was a visible "lump" on the bird's abdomen and it actually displaced the bird's left wing, pushing the wing up and back. Needless to say, things didn't look too bright for the bird.

At this point, the owner began the bird on Lipotrophin and, slowly but surely, the bird's liver reduced in size. It is no longer palpable. The bird appears to have no residual effects. When the vet said to stop the Lipotrophin, the bird again became listless. The owner keeps the bird on Lipotrophin now. He's a vigorous and cheerful little guy.

We think that there's an essential vitamin or protein, something in the Lipotrophin that the bird either cannot make with his own bodily enzymes and/or cannot get or use in his food, something like a genetic defect. The recovery of the bird, under the circumstances, was remarkable. The owner said it was all right to talk about it. She hopes it might help someone else. There's obviously no guarantee that this is treatment of choice or that we really ever knew what was wrong with the bird at the beginning. It's just great that this swell little guy recovered.

Don't Miss:
Pet Birds
Excellent resource for all types of pet birds!

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Editor's note: I have not heard of Lipotrophin as used here, but here are some links with a little additional information:

From A Dictionary of Biology, Oxford University Press - Lipotrophin definition
From The Lightning Hypertext Of Disease

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