All posts by Dr. Marty Becker

What you need to know about your parrot’s diarrhea

Pet Connection, Veterinary Medicine

What should a parrot’s poop look like? And what do you do if it flunks the test? Here’s what I told a reader.

Q: My bird’s poop looks more liquid than normal. Do birds get diarrhea? What should I do?

A: Good question! If your parrot eats seeds, his normal fecal droppings probably are dark-colored with a dry, firm texture. If he eats a lot of greens, they may be softer and more of a green color.

A bird with diarrhea has watery droppings. You may notice that the feathers near his vent are stained, that he seems lethargic or has lost his appetite, or that he looks unusually fluffed up.

Birds can get diarrhea from a number of causes, including stress, a poor diet, intestinal parasites or an infection. A change in diet can cause diarrhea as well. So can fruits or vegetables that haven’t been washed well to remove pesticides. Diarrhea can also be a sign of kidney, liver or pancreatic diseases.

Birds with diarrhea that doesn’t clear up within 24 hours need to be seen by the veterinarian so the problem can be diagnosed. Take your bird in right away if you see blood in the droppings or your bird is straining or seems to have abdominal pain. Otherwise, keep him warm and give him fluids to help him stay hydrated until he can be examined. You’ll need to take a fecal sample to your veterinarian for analysis. Bring the paper lining his cage so the veterinarian can check several samples.

If you have multiple birds, separate the one with diarrhea from the others. Disinfect the cage and everything in it with boiling water or a bird-safe cleanser. Wash hands thoroughly after handling the cage or the bird so you don’t spread disease.

Read more, including tongue-twisting cat trivia, in this week’s Pet Connection!

I love to share my food with my dogs (except when I don’t)

This and That

Yes, I let my dogs eat from the table. I admit it; I’m a bad pet owner. And while usually they wouldn’t agree with that assessment, there are two times they definitely would.

Let me first assure you that my wife, Teresa, doesn’t approve of my dog-feeding habits, so I have to sneak them small amounts under the table. They gather around me, positioned like hours on the clock.  It’s not every day, not every meal, but often enough that they play the lottery and keep staring at me, the one-armed bandit, who always sneaks the food down with his left hand so I can still eat with my right and Teresa doesn’t suspect a thing.

There are, however, two times when I turn into a selfish monster.

The first is when I’m eating some of Teresa’s homemade ice cream. My favorite dessert in the world, by a wide-margin, it’s vanilla chocolate chip and loaded with cream, whole milk, condensed milk, sugar, vanilla, eggs, salt, and loads of small dark chocolate chips.

When I go down to the freezer to get a bowl, the dogs are on me like the “hounds of hell,” and follow my every step up to my massage chair where I get massaged, watch TV, and savor every single bite of ice cream.

There are two reasons I don’t want them to eat ice cream. One, I don’t want them to consume chocolate. Two, and this is the biggest reason, I don’t want to share my ice cream with them. Almost anything else they can have my share, but not Teresa’s homemade ice cream (that I can only eat about 4-6 batches of per year, or I’d double my weight quickly).

The other is turkey. Teresa is the master of moist, flavorful, perfectly-cooked turkey. Whether she smokes the bird in our smoker or cooks it in our Green Egg, it comes out tasting of the citrus brine and smoky pecan wood, turkey that just melts in your mouth.

Again, the dogs are standing up on hind legs like Roy Roger’s horse, Trigger, raking the air with their front feet. They root with their noses, scratch with their feet, often even pull the napkins off of my lap to get my attention, and more importantly, some turkey.

There you have it: All my sins. How about you — do you sometimes or frequently feed your pets at the table? And if you do, is there any food you absolutely, positively, keep to yourself?

When your cat bites after petting

Pet Connection

A reader asked about the common problem of a cat who bites after being petted. I enlisted my daughter, trainer Mikkel Becker, to help me respond.

Q: My brother’s cat will come over to people purring, so we’ll pet her, and then all of a sudden she bites.

A: That’s a common complaint of many cat owners. It’s one of the weird things about cats: As much as they love being petted, they can take only so much of it. Too much petting causes them to become overstimulated; that’s when they lash out with tooth or claw.

Some cats give little warning before nailing you. Others give several clear warnings before taking matters into their own jaws (or paws).

Signs that a cat has had enough stroking can be as subtle as a flick of the tail, twitch of the ear or shiver of the skin. The whiskers may rotate forward. When you see these signs, stop immediately.

You can work to increase a cat’s tolerance of petting. Sit down next to her instead of picking her up for petting. Don’t pet her while you’re doing something else that holds your attention, such as watching television; you need to be able to watch her body language so you know when to stop.

Start by petting less sensitive areas of the body: behind the ears, beneath the chin and at the base of the tail (the area where it joins the body). Some cats are easily set off by long strokes down the back, and the belly should be completely off-limits.

Try to gradually pet the cat for longer periods, always stopping just short of the point where she becomes uncomfortable. Giving a treat during the petting party can also help to increase the cat’s enjoyment and toleration of the experience.

Finally, it’s always a good idea to take the cat in for a vet check to make sure nothing physical is causing the behavior. — Dr. Marty Becker and Mikkel Becker

Read more, including about animal memorials, in this week’s Pet Connection!

How to kitten-proof a house

Veterinary Medicine,

We’ve promised our granddaughter, Reagan, that she can adopt a kitten in the spring. The events of that day will certainly be captured on smartphones and seared into our consciousness, but we also want to make sure, before we let the kinetic kitten down and he takes off in turbo mode, to protect him against household dangers — and the house against kitten problems.

Here are my top kitten-proofing tips:

1. Sew there’s a problem. If you sew, knit, or do any kind of needlework you must have all of the thread, yarn, twine, ribbon, and needles put away and not left out.

2. Waste management. Either use covered wastebaskets or have them inside a cabinet.

3. Paper hanger. How many photos have you seen of kittens unspooling toilet paper? To prevent that Kodak moment, have the toilet paper unwind from underneath or use a dispenser with a cover.

4. Keep the lid down. Believe it or not, kittens can be attracted to the sound of running water in the toilet, fall in, and drown. I had this happen to a client’s kitten early in my career. Keep the lid down.

5. Remove all poisonous plants. My number one plant species to remove is lilies. Visit the ASPCA Pet Poison Control website for more.

6. Take breakables off the mantle. Kittens love to climb, leap and clear mantles and shelves of decorative items. Either move them, or use a product like QuakeHold (I buy at Amazon) to secure.

How to know if a dog’s cough means he needs to see the vet

Pet Connection, Veterinary Medicine

A cough in a dog can be no big deal, or it can be life-threatening. Here’s what I told a reader who wanted to know if her dog needed to see the veterinarian.

Q: My dog has been coughing lately. Is this something I should worry about? Does he need to go to the vet?

A: We all need to cough sometimes, but a persistent cough in a dog is a concern. Coughs can have several causes and may call for veterinary treatment or different management.

A deep, dry, hacking cough that becomes worse after activity may suggest canine cough, also known as kennel cough. This is a highly contagious viral or bacterial infection. Tell your veterinarian if your dog has been boarded recently or was otherwise in contact with many other dogs at once.

A wet cough can suggest fluid or phlegm in the lungs. That’s usually associated with pneumonia. This is a real concern, especially if your dog is very young, very old or immunocompromised. Pneumonia can be bacterial or viral, or is sometimes caused by fungi or parasites. Dogs can also develop what’s called aspiration pneumonia if they inhale an object or throw up and accidentally suck in some of the vomit. Both canine cough and pneumonia are usually treatable with antibiotics.

Your dog may have something stuck in his throat if he’s making a high-pitched gagging cough. It may not be visible to you and may require a veterinary look-see with an endoscope to identify and remove the object.

If a deep honking sound is coming out of a small dog such as a Chihuahua, toy poodle, Maltese, Pomeranian or Yorkshire terrier, he may have what’s called collapsing trachea. This usually occurs when the dog pulls against his collar. Try walking him with a harness to ease the pressure on his throat.

Coughing can also signal congestive heart failure in breeds prone to heart disease. Get to the veterinarian right away for treatment and medication.

Read more, including how to make sure your pets are safe when traveling in the car, in this week’s Pet Connection!