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by Leanne Burton
Consider this: If the bird was around a smoker during the first several months of his life, his body may now be working to rid itself of the toxins associated with the second hand smoke. This may manifest itself as sinusitis. If you suppress the symptoms you see with antibiotics or Benedryl, you could be stopping the body from healing, in other words, you will force the body to retain those toxins which are unhealthy. Not to say that when a bird is sick it should just suffer through, using something to give symptom relief isn't out of the question. However, most conventional drugs are very strong and simply mask the symptoms, not addressing the underlying cause of the problem. Ongoing, strong drugs used for symptom relief will suppress the body's ability to heal itself. When the body takes on a massive attempt to heal itself, many people refer to this as a healing crisis (as in, you get sick while getting better).
If you don't mind, I'll give you a personal example (long) for clarification. My dog was overdosed with thyroid hormone for 1.5 years or so (prescribed by a vet), her symptoms from this were all related to the skin, the vet treated these symptoms as allergies with suppressing drugs. The problem was finally discovered & her dose lowered by a new vet. At that time her 'allergies' went away. I learned about dog nutrition about a year ago, changed her diet to a natural diet, stopped all conventional drugs and she started to blossom.
Then, working with Dr McCluggage (a holistic vet I consult by phone) I took her off of all thyroid supplements. Guess what happened? She became anemic and an auto-immune condition arose. My local vet did tests to the tune of $1000 or so and wanted to proceed with a skin biopsy and suppressing drugs (part of the treatment of choice in conventional medicine for auto-immune is prednisone/cortisone type drugs, usually for the lifetime of the pet).
She had intense itching, her body was attacking her skin and possibly her bone marrow, she lost all her hair, she emitted foul odors/fluids from her skin, lost all hearing for several days, almost lost sight in one eye, needed to eat twice the food to maintain her weight (and other symptoms I won't bore you with) - she was in bad shape. I consulted Dr. McCluggage & we proceeded to support her body during this time rather than suppress the symptoms. I asked myself just what was going on.
Dr. McCluggage agreed with me, her body began to heal itself, as it became healthier and we discontinued putting synthetic thyroid hormone into it, it started attacking her skin to rid itself of the toxins stored within the skin cells. That's why some of her symptoms were similar to when she was being overdosed - toxins going into the skin & toxins coming out of the skin. She's still not healed, but I know when she pulls through this she will be healthier overall than before her body set out on this long journey. We did put her back on thyroid supps and have used many, many herbs and nutrition to help with the anemia and other symptoms, but nothing we use suppresses the body's ability to heal itself - instead it helps the body. Just as your body heals a paper cut, it can heal itself if given the right tools.
There are many holistic vets that will consult by phone and with your keen observation of your bird, can treat the bird without seeing it. Some diagnostic tests may be needed from a local vet to assist the consulting vet. I have posted Dr. McCluggage's information to the holisticbird list & it can be found in the archives, or contact me privately & I'll pass it along. He is the only holistic vet I have experience with and I'm very pleased with his services. To locate a vet in your area that may have interest in or is open to holistic medicine (although may not be versed in using it), check out: http://www.altvetmed.com/ahvmadir.html
Leanne
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