# Watery droppings



## constantin (Mar 2, 2001)

My new rescued feral pigeon, Princess, has watery droppings. It started yesterday, but she looks fine. She's eating and drinking well, she's alert as usual. She was on antibiotics, erythromycin, for 10 days.
Any suggestions? Please let me know.
Thank you.

Constantin


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## Nancy (Nov 7, 2001)

What color are the watery droppings? Is it just the stool part that's watery or just the urine part or both parts of the droppings?
Sincerely,
Nancy


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## fred2344 (Jan 9, 2002)

I am concerned that the use of antibiotics which kill off the good gut bacterial may have set off a yeast infection. 

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## fred2344 (Jan 9, 2002)

Would you be willing to discuss why the bird was on antibiotics?

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## constantin (Mar 2, 2001)

The stool is fine, only the urine is yellow.
She was on antibiotics for a respiratory problem. I use Ornacyn-Plus every time my parrots have runny nose and sneeze, and I find this medication very effective.

Constantin


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## fred2344 (Jan 9, 2002)

Constantin,
Personally, I have no idea why the urine is not clear but yellow. 
If it weren't for that, it would have been ok to say that it is very diffucult to tell if the kidneys are producing too much urine or if the solid part of the droppings are smaller than usual due to a slowing of the digestive system, making the urine look watery when it is not.

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## Marian (Feb 17, 2001)

Hi C,
Any other symptoms?
Is the consistency of the droppings normal, without any odor?
If so, and it is only a change in color of the urate portion, that might be a result of the medication the bird was on. 
Yellow urates can also be the result of vitamin B supplementation or certain foods. At the disease level, it could be the result of liver disease or hemolysis (destruction of blood cells in the system). 

Do the usual careful observation. 

Unless it is given at high doses, Erythromycin is usually just bacteriostatic (halting the growth but not eliminating a pathogen), rather than bactericidal. So you may have recurrences of infection as the bacterial count builds up again when the medicine is stopped. There are better meds to use.

Best,
Marian


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## constantin (Mar 2, 2001)

Thanks every one for your replies.

Princess looks fine, she's very alert and she's running all over the apartment, I hardly catch her.

The stool looks OK, sometimes the urates are little yellow, but there's no odor. I tried to follow Turmani's advice with vinegar in the water, but she refused to drink, so I give her some vitamins, Avitron with Vitamin C.

I'll keep an eye on her anyway, and any piece of advice will be appreciated.

Constantin


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## fred2344 (Jan 9, 2002)

Marion,
Do you use Baytril as the antibiotic of choice?

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## Marian (Feb 17, 2001)

Hi Fred,
The short answer is yes. 

I use Baytril for birds that have been cat mauled, for birds with particularly bad systemic infections or birds with particularly bad or dirty wounds, or birds with sinus infection. Sinus infections are particularly difficult to resolve and TMS hasn't done it for very sick birds that I have treated. So I use Baytril as the big gun medicine. If I didn't have Baytril, I'd use Cipro which is the human equivalent.

If the wound is minor I use TMS. 
I don't use Baytril on youngsters unless their infection or illness is so bad that using TMS would be playing with time that the bird doesn't have. Using Baytril on youngsters may result in joint damage in growing birds. 

If a bird starts vomiting on TMS, then I switch to Baytril.

Another concern with both these meds, as with most others, is that kidney damage is possible if the bird is not taking adequate fluids and is dehydrated.

I don't raise pigeons and so don't have the concern of medicating parents that are feeding babies.

Any other antibiotics I might use come on my vet's recommendation for pathogens that are resistant to Baytril and TMS.

Baytril also tastes awful (bitter) so I always crush and mix it with USP cherry syrup.

Marian


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