Dead budgie

Question
My budgie died a month ago, i didn't know why...and i was utterly confused.

I came back from school one day and found a layer of snot-like substance covering her head. I gave her a quick bath and she seemed fine after that. After about 1 week, i came back from school and found her sitting on the bottom of the cage, falling asleep. I put her back up...but she couldn't support herself and fell back down. I immediately took her out and called over 10 animal hospital....unfortunately, the nearest animal hospital that takes care of birds is over 30 miles away. The bird kept collapsing and slipping...she couldn't support herself, i laid her on her side. I thought she was tired and wanted to sleep, i let her lay there for about 10 minutes...she closed her eyes..and never opened them again.

I'm so confused and sad. Do you have a clue what happened to her?....She's only 3 years old. And was very healthy and alert two weeks before she died.

Answer
Hi, Vivian.

I'm sorry about the loss of your budgie.  It sounds to me like your budgie was ill and needed avian veterinary care.  I would have to have lots more information about what was going on before I could even attempt to guess what might have been wrong with your bird.  I'm not a bird vet, so I would only be guessing based on your information.  At first sign something was wrong with your budgie, you should have driven the 30 miles to obtain medical attention for your budgie.  When birds become ill, they hide their symptoms for as long as they can.  By the time we notice they are ill, avian vet care is usually required right away because by this time, the bird is usually real sick.  This is why it's important for bird owners to carefully observe their birds and learn their behaviors so that when they aren't behaving normally, we can try to determine what the problem might be.  Often times this problem is illness and a bird might need medicine from the bird vet right away in order to get better, even if it means traveling 30 miles to see a vet.   

Chrys