Yellow Nape died

Question
After 28 wonderful years my Yellow Naped Amazon died rather suddenly. I intuitively new something was wrong but could not put my finger on it. She was still active two days before, but for a week she had started to eat less, and began to refuse food from my hand in a strange way; she just turned away, instead of taking it and throwing it. That morning she seemed to drink water excessively. She had been seeing an exotic pet vet for many years at four month intervals for grooming and etc. Last week i had my receptionist bring her to the vet, who said she felt a mass near her liver, that also showed up large on x-ray. Vet said either fatty liver disease or cancer. She went into cardiac arrest, was resuscitated, and later died in my arms. Background includes: she was well known as my dental office parrot. Some were allowed to pet her and many talked to her. There have been no changes in office procedures. She does not visit the work area, just the front desk area. The only change, and I had truly worried about this, maybe not soon enough, was that the night cleaning people had begun (two weeks) to leave a strong bleach smelling agent in the toilet over night. The parrot stayed in my private office overnight weekdays and her cage was fifteen feet from the closed door to the small bathroom. Two days before she died I had affected a change in the cleaning procedures to eliminate the bleach being left in the toilet. I cant stop crying. She was so special, so kind, so trusting, talkative, and brilliant.
Please help me understand why she might have died so that I can prevent it from happening again.
Thank you,
Gordon

Answer
--  The cleaning agent isn't likely to have led to hepatic lipidosis.  From what you've described this has been an ongoing condition; probably for years.

And I will be blunt:  The moment we see or feel something is 'off' with our birds, chances are that we're right and that it's been going on without our being able to see, for weeks, months or even years.  Birds are natures most adept 'maskers' and can often hide disease, illness or injury right up until the last minutes of their lives.

How do we stay a step ahead?  The first recommendation is weekly weights.  With a gram scale (not ounces).  We can tell when something is wrong by a bird's weight very early on if we do weekly weights

We also don't assume a 'wait and see' stance with birds.   It's always best to err on the side of caution

Now, the big factor in liver disease is usually diet.  If we feed seeds, including sunflower seeds, peanuts and other junk food promoted as good bird food, we're going to see shorter lifespans riddled with health problems along the way.   It's just the way it is.

You can see more about ideal feeding here http://www.4animalcare.org/birds

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I am truly sorry for your loss.  Please don't beat yourself up over this.  Most bird owners don't know more than what a pet store or breeder tells them.  Neither of these sources have any education whatsoever in avian health and nutrition, nor do they need to have.  Imagine owners surprise to discover they've been following the advice of a 16 yr old store clerk who dropped out of high school and is merely echoing the sales pitch that came from the distributor as shelves were stocked.  

Breeders can sound very authoritative and I'm not saying all of them are whacky, but I've met a huge number who know nothing whatsoever about bird nutrition and think that just because their birds have successfully bred it must mean they are geniuses.   Frankly, birds have been reproducing for billions of years before we got here and will be thriving long after we're gone.   Taking credit for that is like taking credit for the sun rising and setting.



If and when you honor your bird's life with the adoption of another bird I will be happy to work with you at the ideal set up, feeding and caring.

Just let me know what you need here or thru my site (listed above)

Again, I'm deeply sorry for your loss