Lump on Galah

[cephei]

Hi All,

As you can see in the photo attached, and also the links below, my male galah has a lump near his leg. He is roughly 20 years old.

The lump has been present for about six weeks, we noticed it and spoke to the local vet who said it is probably just a fatty lump and to keep an eye on him. We changed his diet and cut out sunflower seeds, his personality has not changed at all, but the lump has grown and in the past week was grown quite large.

He still has the same personality, and at this stage he is able to walk, but I don't believe it is a fatty lump anymore and not sure what to do. He isn't very tame, if you try to put your hands near you he will bite you, and he especially hates males, if one goes near the cage he will try to attack them. I know I should get him to a vet, but the stress of catching him and taking him to the vet (who is male) is something I don't want to put him through just yet.

I am guessing it is a tumour as a haemorrhoid would of affected him majorly by now, but other than the lump he is okay. He still talks, he doesn't walk around as much but that is due to the location of the lump. If it continues to grow at this rate, in a week or so I suspect he won't be able to walk.

I am posting this message on forums and also emailing avian specialists just to get some advice, and will be looking to take him to a vet or have a vet come out. Has anybody had the same on their galah? If so, what was the outcome?

Thanks.

www.flickr.com/photos/staceylee74/5091601192/
www.flickr.com/photos/staceylee74/5091602718/
www.flickr.com/photos/staceylee74/5091004099/
www.flickr.com/photos/staceylee74/5091601764/

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[lolwutburds]

Wow, that looks serious. I would be getting him to a vet ASAP.

Sorry I have never seen anything like that before but i just wanted to say whatever happens, i hope he gets through it relatively pain-free.

[cephei]

Taking him to the vet on Wednesday, spoke to an avian specialist and he said it looks to be a tumor =[

Up until yesterday, he looked to be getting smaller or at least not growing but when I saw him yesterday it looked so much larger. He says he is mostly going to need surgery, I really hope now as I don't know how he will recover.

Thanks for your reply!

[vankarhi]

I tried to reply before but it didn't post ....... but it doesn't matter now as I thought it might have been a fatty tumour because Galahs are prone to this apparently (well in captivity they are anyway......probably due to diet and not as much exercise than their wild cousins).

Glad to see he is getting treatment.......keep us updated on his progress

[asharee]

what are those things around his eyes??

[avinet]

Definitely looks like a fatty tumour - something Galahs are especially subjected to. I reported on a Galah that came into our shop a while ago with an enormous tumour, which the owner couldn't afford to get treated and gave the bird to us. We organised an operation which in the end was successful - see aussiebirds.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Cockatoos&action=display&thread=7517

In fact she needed a second operation, since the first failed to remove the whole tumour and it started to grow back. The second was fully successful and I can report that Penny has been tumour free now for over a year, and has a lovely life with her present owner that we passed her onto once she had a clean bill of health.

So a fatty tumour can have a reasonable chance of success - Penny's was much worse than your birds' lump. Of course if it turned out to be a malignant tumour that is a different ball game but 95% of the time they are fatty tumours.

cheers,

Mike

[indigo]

Don't feed your galah seeds but a good quality bird pellets and you won't have a problem with fatty tumours.
Cheers.

[cockatoo]

Surgery is really the only answer.
My Galahs dont get pellets, I feed a hand full of sprouted/soaked seed each morning and a hand full of small parrot mix each evening feed, I try not to over feed my cockatoos. I have 16 Galahs here in three subspecies.
Refer to Australian Cockatoos By Bob Lynn & Stan Sindel-Singil Press Chapter on Galahs
My Web //members.westnet.com.au/yowerweena/
Cheers John