# I might have given my budgie her medicine wrongly. She vomited and now I'm terrified. Insight please?



## Bionicbudgie (Dec 29, 2021)

Hi everyone, I'm very new here and this is my first post, so please forgive me if I am not posting this at the right place.

I had to administer my budgie two different meds due to a health condition - one is an antibiotic and the other is a pro kinetic. I asked the doctor if I can administer the pro kinetic after her antibiotics course is finished because of how much she struggles to take even one dose of medication (she is not completely hand tamed). Dr said to give them both together. So I did that tonight and then she vomited immediately and was coughing for a bit (maybe a couple minutes and then a few more coughs on and off in the following 5 minutes) before stopping. She was okay immediately after and was flying around and came to me, but I am freaking out for several reasons:

This counts as her missing an antibiotics dose, right? How will this impact the longterm treatment? will the protozoal build immunity? this is the second time she has had this issue in a span of three months.
I'm worried that the medications went down the wrong pipe and might have entered her lungs??? The doctor told me that if she refuses to open her mouth, to just use the syringe to push her beak upwards and inject it then, with the syringe pointed upwards ahead. I asked if there is a specific direction I need to position the syringe from to prevent her from choking, and she said no. For context, the dosage of each meds are 0.04 and 0.05. I gave her both meds consecutively, with several seconds interval to give her time to swallow (but maybe I should have waited longer).
I have a nanny cam in her room and noticed that after an hour, she was still moving around her cage, turning here and there (still up on her perch) and so I went in to check on her and noticed a few more regurgitated seeds in her cage (I can't recall if they were there when she first vomitted and moved around when I transferred her to her sleeping room , otherwise it looks like she vomited once more after the first time. I also spotted one white dropping (the urates). it is way past her bedtime and she is usually asleep, or at least staying still by now on normal days.
it is 11pm at night here and the vet only opens at 11 tomorrow morning. I'm so worried and freaking out over whether I ****ed up and did something wrong. I love her to death and she helped me cope with depression last year and I'm just shaking right now and worried as hell. Has anyone ever encountered any similar things? Are the symptoms I'm describing familiar or alarming? Is 0.04 and 0.05 ml enough liquid to choke a bird by going down the wrong path? because the vet previously told me that the amount is so small and that I don't have to worry about this.
I'm watching her on the cam now and noticed she is perched and positioned herself differently than usual and I'm feeling awful. I don't know what to do and don't think I can sleep tonight despite still recovering from a health thing myself a couple days ago.
I would appreciate any advice/insights/or shared experience to help me understand. I am genuinely shaking physically and while I know you guys are not doctors, nor is this a clinic for me to ask for help, but anything would be greatly appreciated because I literally cannot do anything now in the middle of the night.

Does this sound like the medicine went down the wrong airway? Is 0.04 and 0.05 ml enough liquid to choke a bird by going down the wrong path? Does it sound like an emergency? what can I do?

please help..


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

Calm down, this type of thing can happen if you are not accustomed to medicating a bird. It actually does matter how the meds are given. There is a slit in the roof of the mouth called the choanal slit and if you aim the syringe up the meds may go into the slit which links to the trachea and cause the coughing you saw happen. The esophagus is on the right side under the tongue, so it so best not to aim up. Go into the mouth from the side, sometimes with a bird that does not want to open the mouth, if you gently tap the side of the beak, it may open. Take a look at this and watch how the medication is given


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Cody has given you excellent advice.

Please update us today on how your little girl is doing. What is her name?

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Truly, the very BEST advice anyone can offer you is to take the time to read ALL of the stickies throughout the various Talk Budgie forums as well as the Budgie Articles we have posted.
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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

Hello there and welcome to the forums! 

Cody and FaeryBee have given you great advice above and I agree completely.

Please be sure to read through the links provided above as they'll not only familiarize you with the forums but also keep you updated on the best of budgie care. If you have any questions after doing so, please feel free to ask as we'd love to help.

I hope your little one feels better soon!

Hope to see you around! 👋


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## Bionicbudgie (Dec 29, 2021)

@Cody @StarlingWings @FaeryBee Hi all, thank you so much for the advice, help and well wishes! My bird is doing much better today. She is chirping, singing and playing, although still a little drowsier than usual. I took her to a vet the next day and they listened to her lungs and heart and she was fine, thank god. I still have to keep administering her antibiotics till Monday morning and after that I will need to start on another medication for another 7 days. I am praying for it all to go smoothly. I just want her to be better because this has been such a stressful process. 

I tried to medicate her the way they did in the video shared above by Cody, but my bird is not hand-tamed and struggles so much. I get bitten during the process a lot and it's another challenge getting her to open her beak to give her the meds. 

I'm rly struggling here tbh, and I need help but there's only three avian vets in my states and the antibiotics need to be administered 12 hourly. 

My bird has still thrown up on another 2 occasions after giving her the meds. I'm wondering it this could this cause antibiotics resistance? Does it count as a dose or does it need to be readministed? I asked all this Qs to her main vet and I haven't received an answer still. So, I'm lost. but I'm really thankful that she seems to be otherwise responding really well and is back to her old self mostly. she even had a good shower today.


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## Bionicbudgie (Dec 29, 2021)

Also, does anyone have experience with giving their birds metronidazole? Is drowsiness supposed to be one of the side effects? My bird is slightly more drowsier than usual, but nothing too bad.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Yes, drowsiness is listed as a side effect of metronidazole.

The following link is for humans but the side effects would be similar for our Avian friends:
Metronidazole Side Effects

When I was recently giving medication to one of my budgies twice daily, I found the best thing (for my situation) was to wrap him up like a little "budgie burrito" in a soft, lightweight cotton linen dish towel. I would keep only his head exposed, hold him vertically, and administer the medication from the syringe into the side of his mouth.
I sat on the floor during the process with him wrapped as described and holding him on my upright knee. I praised him continually telling him what a good boy he was and after the medicine I would hold him for a couple of moments before gently unwrapping him and putting him back into his hospital cage.*


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## Bionicbudgie (Dec 29, 2021)

FaeryBee said:


> *Yes, drowsiness is listed as a side effect of metronidazole.
> 
> The following link is for humans but the side effects would be similar for our Avian friends:
> Metronidazole Side Effects
> ...


Hi @FaeryBee ! Thank you for responding to this. I have tried wrapping my girl in a dish towel previously and it doesn't work because she keeps curling in herself and ducking her neck. I can only do it with my hands because I can control her ducking a little better :/ I've done everything you mentioned, yet she still struggles. I wish I could get a doctor to come over to administer the medication, but that's not possible due to covid restrictions. I just found out from my doc that we will now need to administer the Metro meds for another four days (making it a two weeks course) due to her missed doses with vomiting the meds. 

I'm truly at a lost. This is her 7th day of antibiotics and while the recurrence of seeing seeds in her poop has decreased significantly, she only went two days without any undigested seeds in her poops and yesterday I ended up seeing one in her poop and 2 more today. I know it's an improvement, but I was still hoping for the problem to have gone away by now  . Can I ask what your budgie was on metro for?


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*I'm sorry you are still having problems administering the medication.

My bird was not on metronidazole. Scooter was on a different antibiotic and additionally an anti-inflammatory for a uropygial gland tumor.
He recently had surgery and is now doing great!*


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## Bionicbudgie (Dec 29, 2021)

FaeryBee said:


> *I'm sorry you are still having problems administering the medication.
> 
> My bird was not on metronidazole. Scooter was on a different antibiotic and additionally an anti-inflammatory for a uropygial gland tumor.
> He recently had surgery and is now doing great!*


Hi @FaeryBee ! Just an update, my girl is doing much better now. After 10 days of antibiotics and not seeing much improvement, and seeing her react so badly to each shot of pro kinetics (went completely quiet, slept almost the entire day and barely ate, not even millet, seeing even more seeds in her droppings), I reached out to a new avian vet (because the one she goes to usually was closed) and was told that if antibiotics aren't working after 1 week, it is likely not going to work at all and to come in early the following day so they could assess the situation. I was also told to skip the next dose of meds for that evening. thankfully, she had already completed her original 10 day course of antibiotics at the time, as I was worried about antibiotic resistance had we stopped earlier. Immediately that evening itself she began chirping ands more active. She even began to eat by herself and went crazy for her broccoli. 

We brought her in the following morning, and the new vet said she looked fine and noticed that her eyes was bright too. So a new poop test was ordered to see if the protozoa in her poop has improved, and where to go from there. Just had the results about an hour ago and they found no parasites or protozoa in her poop. I'm so relieved. Two days post stopping medications, she is almost completely back to her usual self - she sings all the time (for the first time in almost 2 weeks), is chirping and playing with her bestie, more active and eating more. I'm so so happy. She still has some undigested seeds in her poop, but doctor told us to keep and eye on her in the meantime and monitor her condition. I noticed that the day after a particularly horrible session of us restraining her for meds, she had a bunch of seeds in her poop, so it may very well be triggered by stress. even the doctor said so. So I have rescheduled a follow up appt for her annual mites treatment to another day so she can have some time to relax and calm down. Trips to the Dr always leaves her stressed for several hours, so I don't want to put her through that again just yet. The annual mites treatment can wait in the meantime. 

Just wanted to share this update with you guys, since everyone has been helpful and encouraging so far <3 

I'm going to keep monitoring her and praying for positive progress daily. I'm trying to be positive and hope that this issue with the seeds go away on its own.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Thank you for giving us the update!
I'm so glad that she is doing so much better now and pray she will soon be back to 100%.
Best wishes! 💜💜 *


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