# Right sided weakness



## Numptygirl (May 15, 2016)

Hi, my little girlie Bluey is 5 yrs old. She is currently stuck in a constant moult and I have also noticed that she has a slight weakness in her right talon. She seems happy in herself and she is still talking, eating and drinking normally. She doesn’t seem as playful as she used. Unfortunately I don’t have a vet nearby or transport plus I don’t want to stress her out at her age unnecessarily. Just wanted some opinion on whether it’s possibly her age or if I should try and somehow get her to the vets? Thanks in advance x


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

Numptygirl said:


> Hi, my little girlie Bluey is 5 yrs old. She is currently stuck in a constant moult and I have also noticed that she has a slight weakness in her right talon. She seems happy in herself and she is still talking, eating and drinking normally. She doesn’t seem as playful as she used. Unfortunately I don’t have a vet nearby or transport plus I don’t want to stress her out at her age unnecessarily. Just wanted some opinion on whether it’s possibly her age or if I should try and somehow get her to the vets? Thanks in advance x


I would try to get her to the vet, how long has she been molting and how severe is the molt? How have you determined that she has a weakness in the talon?


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## Numptygirl (May 15, 2016)

Hi Cody, thank you for your message. She has been moulting for just over a month now, it was severe to start with as she lost a few tail and wing feathers. She has a lot of sheafs around her head that doesn’t seem to get any less and is always preening. I determined the weakness as she occasionally has trouble walking on the top of her cage and also climbing in and out of her cage. Also when she’s preening she has trouble standing on that leg. I’ve had a look but can’t see anything obviously wrong so wondered if it was some kind of arthritis due to her age.


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

Numptygirl said:


> Hi Cody, thank you for your message. She has been moulting for just over a month now, it was severe to start with as she lost a few tail and wing feathers. She has a lot of sheafs around her head that doesn’t seem to get any less and is always preening. I determined the weakness as she occasionally has trouble walking on the top of her cage and also climbing in and out of her cage. Also when she’s preening she has trouble standing on that leg. I’ve had a look but can’t see anything obviously wrong so wondered if it was some kind of arthritis due to her age.


Have you tried giving her supplemental protein for the molt? You can offer commercially prepared egg food for birds, I use that in addition to shredded hard boiled egg white. Might be arthritis but a vet really needs to make that determination because there are other things that could cause weakness like gout or something internal may be pressing on the nerves to that leg/foot area causing a weakness, or maybe a past hairline fracture that did not heal correctly, etc. What is her diet?


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## Numptygirl (May 15, 2016)

Hi Cody, she is a very fussy eater and eats mostly Trill. She does like a bit of banana and she also likes seafood sticks when I have them. I will try her with boiled egg white. Thanks


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

Numptygirl said:


> Hi Cody, she is a very fussy eater and eats mostly Trill. She does like a bit of banana and she also likes seafood sticks when I have them. I will try her with boiled egg white. Thanks


See if you can get her to eat some veggies, a seed diet is not a balanced one and can lead to deficiencies, particularly vitamin A, the fat in the seed can also bind calcium so the calcium it is not available for use to the bird.


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## Numptygirl (May 15, 2016)

Ok, thanks for the advice. I will try and get her to eat some greens.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

How many hours of daylight is your budgie getting? 
Are you using a full-spectrum light with her? Too many hours with a full-spectrum light can cause a budgie to go into a continual molt.


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## Numptygirl (May 15, 2016)

Hi FaeryBee, she is in my living room so she gets daylight from approx 9am until the sun goes down which is currently around 7pm. She’s always been in natural daylight, I did wonder if the weather had something to do with it as the great British weather is warm one day and freezing the next at the moment. I have noticed yesterday that she has started losing more feathers so fingers crossed her moult is progressing x


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

If you haven’t done so, read the thread about “miserable molts”. You can do a search and it will come up for you. I recommend you have her seen by an Avian Vet as there may be a nutritional deficiency or underlying condition contributing to the problem.


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## Numptygirl (May 15, 2016)

Ok, thanks


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