Ask Lafeber

Sudden passing of our parrotlet

Our 9 year old female parrotlet suddenly passed away after making strange chirping sounds for about 1 minute, then tipped over and fell from her perch and died. She had a great varied diet, very happy and stress free environment and a large cage cleaned daily in our home. The only cause that I can think of was that 7 hours earlier I sprayed lysol disinfectant near her cage. Is it possible that the lysol caused he passing even though the spraying was 7 hours earlier? Thank you, Matt

Hi Matt,

I am so sorry to have to confirm that most likely, the Lysol did poison her. Even though you may not have still been able to smell the fumes, if it was in the same room, it was close enough to affect her. Birds have a complicated respiratory system and it makes them very susceptible to any type of fumes. It can take hours for them to succumb to the effect, depending on the amount and the toxin. It’s a tragic mistake that happens all too often, and especially these days when people are disinfecting everything. Of course a necropsy done by a Vet is the only way to know for sure, but given what you have said here about her behavior just before she died, I would suspect the Lysol fumes. Again, I am so sorry for your loss. It’s always hard to lose a family pet, and especially when you have made sure to provide her with everything she needed.

Take care,

Brenda