We are in July! It’s summertime! I want to take the parrots out and about! When it’s really hot, I have to use the air condition a lot as I live on the 15th floor which is the top floor in my building and of course heat rises! So, recently I started hearing my Kodak, my Black Lory Sneezing quite a bit, like literally a few times every hour even when sleeping. I can’t recall hearing him do that before so I’m a little on edge, what could have changed in his environment to make him start sneezing? Is it lack of sleep as the kids are up longer? Is it because of the use of the air condition? My air filter needs to be changed, could it be too dusty for him? Does his cage need to be cleaned more? Does he need different bedding? Or has my baby become ill and is going through a cold?
So many questions but yet no answers. It is a HORRIBLE feeling. I want to run and bring him to the vet but I don’t want to bring him as the vet isn’t cheap and if it’s just an environmental change that needs to be done, I would have wasted my time. So I’m going to try and do a checklist of the above and see if the sneezing stops, I’m giving it 10 days from today and if it hasn’t stopped straight to the vet we go. Now, knowing how fast a bird can decline some of you may be wondering why I would risk waiting 10 days well let me tell you why.
I weigh my birds every morning, his weight hasn’t changed if it does before 10 days is up, I will go straight to the vet. Next, his activity levels, eating, and behavior has not changed however we know that parrots can mask their illnesses very well so that really is hard to base it on. The sneezing is not accompanied by any mucus at all, his nares have remained clear and dry if I do see any I will take him before the 10 days is up.
When he gets up tomorrow the plan is to clean his cage, remove everything out of it and just add back stuff one by one to see if any of the items could be triggering his sneezing. I doubt this is the issue as nothing in his cage is new but you never know. I will move his cage to another section of the house and also clean my air filter as maybe it’s full and not clearing the air as good as it should be. I will also dust and clean down the apartment to make sure there are no dusty particles lying around. I have recycled bedding here but I think that would be dustier but I will try it for a few days as it’s something new and keep changing his bedding to see if anything makes a difference. I just want his sneezing to stop or decrease. I have asked a lorikeet group about the sneezing and they seem to think it’s normal but no one has answered to say if their black lory does it at night time or not so I’m on edge. I have asked two other females who have black lories and I’m waiting to hear back from them but until then I guess I have a sneezing lory on my hands. Wish us luck!
