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My Trip To Dr Rob Marshall


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Update on inspection today most droppings are returning to a more normal appearance, still a few large grey ones but the majority returning to tight dry black, white urates on top and some down feathers attatched which is a very good sign. The birds themselves all seem to be improving. Most of them... and this is scary look 100% healthier than most birds I see in the local pet stores, makes you wonder?

The bachelor pad is full of playing, flying noise and activity. Cere's and feathers all dry, stains are mostly gone. Females are a little slower but better than a few days ago, I think the boys are more into everything and drinking and eating more of their medicated moist food (I mixed some doxy into some baby food in dishes and soaked some bread in honey and doxy and they have been eating it) The 3 downstairs that were weezing were not weezing last night and had started eating again. I may have to give them some drops by beak at night direct for a week or so just to give them a heloing hand. But none have got any worse.

 

It is a lot of work, I am exhausted I am a germophobe I was up till midnight cleaning last night. Those feathers just get into everything.

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Can you post a picture of the verandah setup ? Is it possible the infection was introduced by rodents out there ?

Edited by **KAZ**
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I'll try later, I'm having issues with photobucket. Rodents there are unlikely the cages are off the ground and there is a cat and 2 dogs around them at night (cat is good cat dosnt bother the birds but he is a good ratter/mouser) The veranda is a good 4 meters from ground level down that end so air flow is good and it faces north to north west. Wild parrots really only hang around in the spring to early summer, same with the finches and the marema chases them on site, and they have no access to the birds food or water. Can a human carry this disease and spread it? I wash my hands constantly but I am sure to screw up somewhere. My mother hates the birds and has nothing to do with them. So they only have contact with me. The trays only have newspaper from the newsagent changed daily. That goes into a plastic bag and into the bin. I wash the feed dishes and water containers with anti bac morning fresh each night. Ive been mopping and wet vacuming the deck every night. The germ count has to be much lower by now after all this. If I think of anything else I will tell you, and I will work on these photos, I'll try and get some up by tomorrow night.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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sorry for the double post, I am probably dumb or too tired to find the edit post button I look and don't see it. Also sorry no photos yet camera - computer- internet dropping out slow, just not getting there + brain frazzled by the time I get on here at night. In short, I am stuffed. My complete sympathy to anyone who has to go through this has gone through it or might some day.

 

I lost 2 older budgie hens, and the rest of all the birds various mixed reactions and progress. Almost lost my pet rainbow lorrikeet, some birds have thrush already and Dr Rob advised me to stop treatment and start nilstat and isolate, however a couple recovered from that and have become reinfected or weren't clear of infection and have gone back on antibiotics again. Overall most of the birds are comming along well. The budgies you wouldn't know they were ill. Well average observer wouldn't.

 

In the middle of it all both my dogs got the flu, and it is canine flu kennel cough, vet confirmed NOT psittacosis thank god. I'm broke... Ive spent all the money I had on the birds and the dogs, but have Rob Marshalls full health program now. He has been helping me via email and phone throughout. The baby budgie pulled through and has made a great comeback and has put a lot of weight on, has weaned just about now and has started trying to talk. Still a long way to go till the time I pray the tests come back negative... and I have my healthy flock back again. I wish I had help, I'll be honest I have nearly had a breakdown over it all a few times, but I cant do that the birds need me to keep it together.

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i know how you feel :(

its hard being only one to do it all

and when birds come down sick its even harder

'ive almost chucked it in few times due to the negatives the show birds that is

but all in all when they are healthy they are so worth every effort

so when they are not

i really try to keep it together but all the separating cleaning medicating worrying and no sleep can get you down

and the lack of money

it all very daunting

good luck hun my thoughts are with you

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Thanks :)

 

I realised we are almost to the halfway point now, so we made it this far, not giving up now :)

 

The key thing is getting a routine with it each day that helps.

 

The budgies are doing well, most of the feather stains and wetness has gone from above the nostrils and seeing nice clean feathers. Still a bit of sneezing going on but nothing severe. Most people probably wouldn't notice it.

 

Our lorrkeet peppi however has started sneezing again after comming off the doxy early due to thrush so he will be going back to the vet to see what we do now. I am going to ask about the weekly injections for some of the birds, and if it is possible for me to give them the shots at home. I have given a lot of injections to chickens over the year, but parrakeets are a lot smaller, I'll see what the vet suggests. I could probably afford to do injections at home on quite a few once a week, but if I have to take them in for the vet to do it probably only 1 or 2 of our pets who are having trouble with the drinking meds.

 

The baby chics in the brooder downstairs (silkie chickens) are all fine, they have been on doxy since they hatched as a precaution due to end the same time as the other birds. The chooks in the pens outside are harder. impossible to disinfect the old coops and dirt floors. So I will probably have to build a new coop towards the end of their treatment, keep them as clean as possible and check them carefully before moving them in. We might be able to do some tests, but not for a while, the bills have cleaned me out already.

 

Dogs are getting better.

 

I am fortunate this was a 'low grade' infection with only mild symptoms in most of the birds. Had it been a worse strain it would have been shocking, Ive seen what can happen with severe strains, we have been lucky.

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Any updates

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Sorry I didn't get on here to update. Been very very busy, very tired.

 

The birds finished their treatment, we have a lot of thrush so they have nilstat. I went back to see Dr Rob yesterday and took my 2 pet lorrikeets and he was very impressed with them. I took droppings from every bird for him to do follow up tests. I get the results tomorrow afternoon, maybe tuesday as he has a lot there to do lol.

 

He seemed confident from photos I sent, descriptions and looking quickly that we have won fingers crossed. It was a massive job. He has every sample in a seperate dish and labeled with who it is from, so if anything does show up I will go to treating individually with injections rather than repeat full flock, they wouldnt stand another course. I have his protector disinfectant to spray everything down with so hopefully all will be okay. We have had some nice warm sunny days I have been putting the cages out on the grass in the sun in the morning and the birds are loving it and their colours are so bright now, so shiny.

 

Overall they look really good. They seem happier and more active than I have ever seen them and they are getting very frisky lol. I did loose some budgies some younger ones and some of my older hens. But most of them came through it well. I lost some silkie chickens, but I have to focus on what lived and keep them on the mend.

 

I will update tomorrow when I get the results.

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Sorry again for the double post, can't work out how to edit the previous. But I have the results and it is good news. All the tests came back clean as a whistle, he was most impressed. What a relief. They are still a little tired, and a few are still a bit sneezy but he said it will just take some time and TLC and they should make a full recovery. We will continue with his budgie health programe and they will get a nice rest from breeding and plenty of good food. And if the weather will co operate lots of nice spring sunshine out in the garden.

 

I have started re-building all my aviaries from the ground up I cant wait to get everyone back in there!

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All sounds promising. Your vet sounds really good. Great work between the pair of you.

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Awesome news. You must be so pleased! Onwards and upwards from here hopefully.

 

Also... You haven't doubled posted, it's fine. A double post is when you post straight after the other, i.e. within minutes etc... It can be done by member when they try to keep their posts/topic at the top so they are read and responded to. It doesn't happen a lot now days, but used to. Updating as you have done is no problem at all. You also only have a limited amount of time to edit a post (I believe it's 15 minutes), which is why you couldn't edit your post from the other day.

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Sounds like great News. I'm a client too of Robs.

 

 

 

The highest i've paid in Brisbane was $790 for a check of a few birds.. but the best money i've spent.

 

Just remember i've spent $875 on a hen at auction so that was little money.

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Thanks everyone! Droppings have improved a little today, seeing some smaller tighter ones again. Still a fair bit of dry sneezing but no mucous or wetness so I am not too worries about it, I will often sneeze after I have a cold for a while they look perfectly healthy otherwise, and I realised today a possible cause. I always used to give water in tube drinkers before and during and since treatment now give it in stainless steel bowls and they have been bathing in it a lot and they get theur whole heads in there. If it gets worse or I get worried I will ring Dr Rob again but he seemed very sure they are okay. He said it could be the humidity because we had a very wet winter, or possibly some dry mucous from when they were sick they are still trying to clear from the sinus. My alexandrine hen has always sneezed a lot since she was a baby, my friend hand raised her and she could have inhaled food she is a real pig. I never worried about it she is 3 now and still does it but her nose is always dry. My lorrikeet has sneezing fits when he gets really exited but Dr Rob saw him just this weekend and said he looked magnificent. I do get very paranoid about my birds :rolleyes:

 

I am not going to breed the budgies for a while yet, they are getting a nice rest and sunshine. Hopefully when they are ready I will have a good season.

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Well it was too good to be true, 5 budgies have runny nose back, moved them downstairs into isolation. they will have to be re tested, it will be a week till I can afford it the vet bill on the weekend took almost my entire pay. It is all starting to get a bit much.

 

To top it off my mother woke up really sick this morning. And do you think she will listen to anyone? NO. Mum... you 'might' have caught chlamidia just go to the doctor and get tested PLEASE! she just says... 'bah' its a cold. 2 vets have told her at the start of all this if you get sick,.. get tested, It might just be a cold... but we KNOW the birds have had psittacosis. I drove my doctor nuts at the start I went 3 times to be checked and mine turned out to be hayfever from the wattle trees comming in flower. But mum has the works... fever, stomach, headache chills. I have put the info sheet on her bed and said if she will not go I will call the hospital. It is another stress I dont need. I do feel for her but we dont get along well at all... she hates the birds and dosnt like me very much and I know if she does have it it will be my fault, the family will blame me and try to make me destroy or get rid of the lot. BUT if I got sick they probably would just scoff and say I had it comming.

 

She works one day a week at a nursing home so she probably caught this there but she has to get checked. She is in the high risk category.

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What a drama Fire Bird!!! When your birds get ill it is always a nightmare. Especially tricky for you 'cause your birds have been so healthy .... for most Novice breedeers however, the first few years we learn ALL about budgie ailments and diseases :(

 

Avian Vets are worth their weight in gold and you have been very lucky to see the "budgie guru" himself, Dr Rob Marshall. Obviously you are now a registered client of his, I wonder Have you thought of getting access to his book on Budgerigar Health? I believe you can access it online as well as getting the hard copy.

 

Chlamydia Psitacosis and Megabacteria are very prevelent in budgies, at least over here in Perth ... Mega is very hard to erradicate entirely but an annual 2 month course of Doxycylcine goes a long way to keeping your birds healthier.

 

I hope that helps. :)

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Yes, fortunately they do not appear to have any problems with megabac if anything most of my birds now are on the 'heavy side' and some are now on a diet lol. I pumped the food into them when they were ill and Dr Rob's turbobooster, what a difference that makes. The ringnecks were gutsing down the E powder. I think a bit too much lol.

 

I spoke to him again, and the current problem is a combination of a little thrush, maybe some strep and just basically they could be feeling a bit irritated or raw in their sinus or throats after such a long course of antibiotics and from having the respiritory trouble, just one of those things that will take a while to go. He just said keep up the health program and good food. No breeding for 7 weeks. I still watch them like a hawk, it is amazing how tame a few of the previously 'wild' budgies have become with my constant fussing, they now sit on me, which helps I look at their faces everynight with a led torch for any stains or wet spots. My family think I am nuts for worrying this much about birds. If they understood the value of the ringneck parrots just for a start they would probably faint, and ANY bird here that gets ill is a risk to the others... to me it is simple to understand.

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