h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Harry is my blue fronted amazon companion who has had the misfortune to have Psitticosis diagnosed twice. The 1st time he was about 6 months old, I had not had the bird long and he was still being hand fed. I dont remember much about how he was although I do remember him sneezing, not being very active and he had some form of dischage from his nose.

After a vet visit he was started on a course of oral medication which was administed in some baby parrot mixture similar to Ready-Break which he could eat from a spoon. I had him tested and his 'count' was below what was required and falling. He appear to recover after this course and I did not think anything more of it.

A year past and I wanted to have him sexed so took him to the vet. I asked for him to be checked again for Psitticosos as he had sneezed a couple of times and wanted to be sure he hadnt cought it again. Unfortunatly the results showed he was positive for it and I was advised that he should go through the course of injections. I was also told that although the results from the previous treatment showed that the desease was clearing up, it is at the moment impossible to test to see if the bird is cured completely.

The vet also told me that the injectable course if a lot stonger and is far more likely to work, although it is also far more expenseive than the oral course.

The injections are for a drug called doxicycline made by Pfizer. This, however is quite hard to get hold of in injectable form. The vets have to apply to some goverment body for each case which they have to treat. The course was for 9 injections, for an injection every 5 days. Each injection costing £25.

I tried to source the drug from many places but it would seem that it is not licensed in that form in the UK and has to be imported from the few countries where it is authorised to be used. I think Spain being one of them.

As part of the license that the vet had, it also had to be administered at the vets location, so I wasnt even allowed to take some of the drug home and administered to bird myself (I have a vetenary nurse in the family). So every 5 days for 9 weeks we had to trek across London for a 2 minute injection.


The good news is, Harry apprears to be a lot better, although I still need to go back to have his 'count' checked again. I just have to wait until all the drug was out of his system so the results would be accurate. Each test for the desease is £35 so the grand total for this is £295 and that doesnt count the cost of the original oral course.
The price we pay for our pets I guess.

Hi Fairlight.

Just revisiting this thread. How is Harry these days?

zdt