Abnormal hematology in a Palm cockatoo and Hyacinth
I have two male Goliath Palm Cockatoos 2.5 years old and one male Hyacinth 8 years old along with three female Hyacinths each 4.5 years old. All have a very low lymphocyte count under 1. Tested in November , December and now January . Their Avian Vet is Dr Elliot at the Onderstepoort veterinary research University in Pretoria South Africa. Everything else in the CBC is normal along with eating , flying , playing. All virus tests come back negative. Their weights has been constant for at least 12 months. Their day consists of being woken up in their bird room and given fresh fruit and veg. They then go outside to a 188 sqm flight for the day. they have mixed nuts ( checked ) and palm nuts along with Kaytee chunky. At 16h00 they come in to the house for time with me. At 18h00 they go into their stainless steel sleep cages inside and have a hot soft food mix (Harrisons , Purity baby food, Coconut , Walnut oil , mashed banana . Kaytee macaw hand rearing ) before getting Mac nuts ( checked ) and Palm nuts. Lights out around 19h30. Do you have any suggestions as to cause or what can be done to raise the Lymphocytes ?
Many thanks
Trevor
Trevor - viewing the description you have posted here, I am first and foremost concerned that the hematologic abnormalities you are seeing are either laboratory error or artifactual changes, rather than representative of a true problem within these birds. I would not suggest “treatment” of this abnormality for this reason, but would strongly suggest that you confer with your veterinarian about interpretively what these results may mean, including artifact or stress-related changes.