# Are my budgie’s poops normal??



## jax202 (Nov 8, 2020)

Hello all, my budgie Jax has recently went to the vet for extremely watery poops and they prescribed an antibiotic and a probiotic, clavamox was one of them. he used to have long pieces of poop just sticking out, with his feathers soiled. i had to give it to him by mouth via a syringe three times a day, for ten days. towards the end of the medication, and the week after he finished the 10 days, his poops have been looking great! they looked normal and formed perfectly with a normal consistency. the only thing is, they would still stick and create buildup in his butt feathers. i gave him a bath yesterday and also gently wiped his butt area, and it seemed fine. today, as i look at him, i see that he’s starting to get the watery poops again, where the long feces get stuck to his butt. he’s all finished with his medication now, so i’m wondering why is this happening again after he was doing fine this past week?? 

when he takes a bath, he drinks a LOT of water by the way, like he has to take an intense amount of sips before he decides to take a dip. could this be why he has such watery poops right now, since he had a bath yesterday?

also, i’m in the process of converting him from an all seed diet to harrison’s pellets. the first week i gave him 25% of the pellets and 75% of his new food, second week i gave 50/50, and now he is on his third week (75% of harrisons, 25% of old seed mix). the vet told me to do this however i cant tell if he’s eating much of the pellets either since i can see that he’s eating more the seeds from the old mix. could this also be why he’s starting to get the watery poops again? 

i included some pictures of what it looks like when i mean the feces “sticks out”. they stay hanging out for a while until he gets them to fall off. i also included a picture of what it looks like on his cage lining paper.

also , when i gave him a bath a few days ago (not talking about the bath i gave him yesterday), and he still had some poops stuck to his feather, i smelled an odd scent coming from his vent area that i’ve never smelled before. his feces never had a smell, however i don’t smell it anymore

might i add he doesn’t have any behavioral changes at all. he’s still happy and plays with his toys and sings/chatters for days. he loves when i give him scratches under his cheek, overall he seems very normal it’s just his poops

Also, the probiotic he was taking is called Bene-Bac Plus, it’s a gel


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

The droppings are not normal, and an odor coming from them is concerning, when you were at the vet was a gram stain test done on the droppings? That test would tell what % of gram negative bacteria, which are the pathogenic ones, was in the droppings and would also reveal if there were other issues such as yeast or parasites, without that test it is just a guess that an antibiotic would treat the problem. When doing a diet conversion you really have to make sure the bird is eating, if you have now 75% pellets and 25% seed and the bird is not eating the pellets that is not good. Do you have a gram scale that you could weigh him on, you need to track the weight to make sure he is not losing weight due to the diet conversion.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Have you contacted your Avian Vet to let him know how things are progressing?
If not, then you need to do so right away.*


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## jax202 (Nov 8, 2020)

Cody said:


> The droppings are not normal, and an odor coming from them is concerning, when you were at the vet was a gram stain test done on the droppings? That test would tell what % of gram negative bacteria, which are the pathogenic ones, was in the droppings and would also reveal if there were other issues such as yeast or parasites, without that test it is just a guess that an antibiotic would treat the problem. When doing a diet conversion you really have to make sure the bird is eating, if you have now 75% pellets and 25% seed and the bird is not eating the pellets that is not good. Do you have a gram scale that you could weigh him on, you need to track the weight to make sure he is not losing weight due to the diet conversion.


they did do a “in house gram stain”, and the vet told us that he has a bacterial overgrowth shown in his feces. i do not have a gram scale, but he is eating both, he’s just eating more of the seeds from his old mix than the pellets. i put some in my hand and he ate both seeds and pellets but it just seems like he prefers the old mix which is understandable since that’s what’s he’s been eating ever since we got him, thank you for your help!



FaeryBee said:


> *Have you contacted your Avian Vet to let him know how things are progressing?
> If not, then you need to do so right away.*


yes i will, thanks


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