Ask Lafeber

Question:

October 3, 2019

bornavirus food


My African grey has bornovirus , I need to know if you have any special diets for this ? Thankyou

He is 15, For most of his life he picked the feathers on his chest, one morning when I went to his cage , his voice sounded deep, he then became lethargic , on the way to the vet he had a seizure , then more followed.

we ran all the tests and treated him medicam 7 day injection and kepra for the seizures , all seizures stoped but decided to test for the HBV with  a blood test, which was positive

He is now on week 6 of the same meds ,

Perching and stronger every day ,  eats supreme pellet with assorted fruit , no seeds ..  normal stool from the beginning ..

his symptoms so far are limtited to what looks like  neurological – balance,  walking, flying

Up to now , I have not noticed anything with the digestive , crop empties, and no food passes into stool

I look so foward to your feedback

Thankyou !


Answer:

Hi Christine,

A response from Dr. Susan Orosz:

Dear Christine,

You sound like a very loving owner and a terrific caregiver for your grey! The diagnosis of avian bornavirus does not have to be totally devastating. Sometimes the symptoms that you list can also be from heart disease so you may want to have your avian vet check out his heart as well. In our hospital we have better success using Celebrex or robenicoxib for reducing to eliminating symptoms than metacam. You might suggest those drugs.

As to diet, some parrots with bornavirus have only neurologic signs of the brain or spinal cord including feather damaging behavior and not digestion problems. While others have digestion or GI movement problems primarily. Those with GI signs typically are very thin. Those parrots benefit from a partially elemental diet like EmerAid Omnivore or may need the EmerAid Carnivore with its increased digestible fats and proteins/ amino acids(both are available through your Veterinarian). They may also benefit from scrambled eggs in canola oil or coconut oil. You did not mention that your grey is thin so sounds like the nerves to the GI tract are not involved. To support the nervous system tissues make sure you are feeding some omega fatty acids that come from walnuts, flax seed, and coconut oil. The Lafeber foods are balanced for omega fatty acids while other food manufacturers may not so please check!

I hope this helps!

Susan Orosz PhD, DVM, Dipl ABVP (Avian), Dipl ECZM (Avian)

Bird and Exotic Pet Wellness Center, Toledo, Ohio

As mentioned by Dr. Orosz, our diets are Omega 3 & 6 balanced, so you might want to try him on our daily diet pellets. Here is more information on those. https://lafeber.com/product/parrot-pellets/

Unfortunately our foraging diets contain whole, hulled seeds which would not be recommended in case he develops GI symptoms.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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