Weight loss from a molt?
Since it's summer I'm traveling a lot. I boarded Kappa for two weeks at a boarder that she's used to. Since it was for two weeks, on their insistence I let them clip her wings so she could get time out of the cage without flying onto bigger birds' cages and losing toes. Even clipped she can fly across the room though, but it discourages her from trying since it takes so much effort. While she was there she also was throwing her food around a lot, so they gave her smaller amounts more frequently. She was starting a molt (her first significant one in the year and a half I've had her). When I dropped her off she weighed around 107-108g.
When I picked her up she weighed 96-98g, a loss of almost 10%. Since she had no other symptoms I waited a week, but with her weight continuing to yo-yo between 95g and 101g I took her in to the vet yesterday. He said that she doesn't feel unhealthily thin, and that a 10% weight loss could be due to a stressful molt and the stress of being away from me for two weeks. We are also getting a gram stain (results supposed to come in today) of course, but does that sound reasonable to other people? The gram stain will at least rule out most illnesses, but until it shows up, what do others think?
Edit:
A lot of people mentioned stress from boarding. She's boarded with this place in the past, I think for a week and a half at most, and never lost weight. It's possible that this time the slightly longer time made it more stressful, or that her clip made it more stressful, or something else, so I'm not dismissing it out of hand, but it would surprise me.
I called this afternoon to check on the gram stain results and they didn't yet have them for me.
When I picked her up she weighed 96-98g, a loss of almost 10%. Since she had no other symptoms I waited a week, but with her weight continuing to yo-yo between 95g and 101g I took her in to the vet yesterday. He said that she doesn't feel unhealthily thin, and that a 10% weight loss could be due to a stressful molt and the stress of being away from me for two weeks. We are also getting a gram stain (results supposed to come in today) of course, but does that sound reasonable to other people? The gram stain will at least rule out most illnesses, but until it shows up, what do others think?
Edit:
A lot of people mentioned stress from boarding. She's boarded with this place in the past, I think for a week and a half at most, and never lost weight. It's possible that this time the slightly longer time made it more stressful, or that her clip made it more stressful, or something else, so I'm not dismissing it out of hand, but it would surprise me.
I called this afternoon to check on the gram stain results and they didn't yet have them for me.