Sailorwolf

Most people would say he is still too young. I don't really know to be honest. Maybe wait a month or 2. The males don't get as physically exhausted as the females in breeding, however he may only have breeding on his mind, not family raising. lol I think he is just a little too young. You want him putting energy into growing not reproduction at the moment.

Thank you. I hope you do well too. How scary would that have been for the people working with the horse. I bet it probably would have hurt a lot. Yeah they tell us to flush it with plenty of saline and or lignocaine for the pain. He he, this is my break from study. I can only study the immune system for so long, without getting all the letters like IgG and IgM (names of antibodies) mixed up in my head!!!!!

Careful with what you mean by the degree of zoonosis. Viruses are usually very species specific, they don't often like to cross the species boundary. Bacteria are different, they can cross much more easily to a different species, although there are many that do much better in certain species. Colds and influenza are viruses, therefore they are much less likely to affect your bird and also why antibiotics don't cure them. Most viruses rely on the host's DNA to replicate, hence (I guess) their specificity. Point of interest: As far as I know you cannot cure viruses, because viruses depend on the host cell to replicate and thus they live inside the cell. Anything that targets a virus will also target the host cell and kill it. Therefore, with viruses, treatment is mainly easing symptoms making it easier for the host's immunity to deal with the virus. So basically bacteria can be cured, viruses can be treated. That's why the herpes virus (cold sore amongst others) actually stays in your body forever. Some viruses can be destroyed by your immune system, like the cold and chicken pox, but other viruses insert their own DNA into your DNA, so that every time, your cell replicates, it duplicates its own DNA and the virus's DNA and more little Viruses can spread out and infect. However if your immune system is strong it prevents them spreading, but because of this viruses can stay dormant in your body and will emerge when your immune system is down, hence the reason why you get cold sores when you're stressed. (And not all bacteria can be cured, as some, like tuberculosis, live inside the cell, thus the body just walls them off so the bacteria can't escape). Thought that might be of interest to some people

Yeah I think we are doing some of the same stuff as you, but maybe we are doing it more gradually. I'm considered a 3rd year, but for us here that means our 3rd year in uni as we have a half year of vet in the 1st year, whereas when you say you're a third year you are actually in your 4th year of uni. Is that right? However I think that I am like a year, or half a year below you in terms of what we have learned. I wouldn't mind writing a few words here and there in this blog. It could be the vet blog lol. I've got exams next week too so I'm in major study mode. Was your dog anaesthetised with Total Intravenous Anaesthesia, or did you use inhalationals? Our prac was just anaesthetising the dog, watching her throughout the whole duration of the thiopentone and then reviving her. We gave her a premed of Acepromazine and then induced her with Thio and maintained her on Isoflurane, I think. She was such a sweety, I got to choose her and I chose her because she seemed calm, sweet and sturdy (lol). I was just wondering whether you did TIVA, cause with Thio that makes their recovery much longer. How'd that go? Sorry about all the jargon. Thoracotomy, sounds like it would be a tough one to start with. Yes you are right I feel so "Vetland" now lol. I really should get back to studying, but between the BBC and watching Ross Noble on youtube (he's really funny watch him!), it's a little hard. lol

Generally no. Viruses (like parasites) are specific to certain species. There are some zoonotic (can spread to all species) viruses. But I do not think that this is the common cold. I think that human colds and flu (which is often a poorly diagnosed cold, the flu is a lot worse than a cold, some people seem to think they are one and the same, they are not) are not zoonotic. My birds have never picked up my illness. Rodents however are susceptible to our colds. So pet guinea pigs, mice, rats and hamsters should have minimal contact with you when you are sick.

haha kinda funny as I was listening to Nickelback when I saw your post . Yea I think birds like rock especially, compared to other types of music.

Very imaginative and professional looking.

Well if you mix the trill with the other stuff, it should last a little longer as you will use less of it each day. Sometimes poos go green from stress. It think psittacosis can be another cause of green poo

More budgies Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more

Yes, could be scaley face, sometimes they like to only attack certain areas of the body. You can get mite powder made for birds and small animals. Just sprinkle that around the cage and in the budgie's feathers. You have to make sure it is made for birds as they preen themselves anything made for dogs is not meant to be ingested as dogs don't really lick themselves.

Sorry to hear this Maesie. Biggest hugs and all the best wishes in the world

Thanks Chryso. All my tests went very well and I got some good marks (although everyone else did too, so that isn't as special) I have another path test tonight and am currently relaxing on the forum before I return to studying the urinary tract. I suppose I should start a blog. But I am notoriously bad at forgetting my camera and then updating it. We've had some awesome pracs in the last few weeks. This involved me anaesthetising and intubating a dog, which I thought was really scary at first but wasn't actually that bad. I was mainly scared at the fact that we were using Thiopentone and what if I missed the vein!!!! (Thiopentone causes necrosis and sloughing if injected perivascularly (outside the vein)) I didn't get to induce the dog though, someone else got there before me. hmph. However I did intubate it and that was fun. The next week we got to play with horsies and give them clinical exams. Then we moved on over to the cows to practice pregnancy diagnosis (rectal examination)! That was actually very fun and interesting and I am amazed at how much you can actually feel in there. I was proud, I found my first ovary! lol. The next week was the week I was looking forward to for ages. First we had to watch a video about bandaging. That was okay, but the next half was awesome. We all went down to the local park where there are these huge aviaries and each of us were made to catch and examine some Java sparrows and Zebra finches and then catch, examine and crop feed budgies. They ran out of budgies when it came to my turn so I got to crop feed a lovebird instead. We were medicating them in that crop feed as well, so it was very useful. There was also a lovely cockatoo that joined our prac on the shoulder of the aviary manager. He was very lovely and adored his scratches. Then after the handling, we got to look around all of the aviaries. Anyway better get back to studying. Ps. I don't mind parasitology either, as some people have noticed from my posts in the "EWWWW Worms" topic. lol Regarding the use of live animals for teaching. Unfortunately it is neccessary evil. If it isn't done then noone learns from it and noone learns how to save and benefit other animals in the future. The animals are always looked after. Our uni uses animals that are going to be put down anyway, as they are sick or ill thrifty etc.

Hi and welcome to the forum. Just to add to what Maesie said. Make sure that any branches you get from the garden are those from safe species. Anything like poplar, apple, fruit trees and eucalyptus trees are great for your budgie. Make sure that branches you pick are fresh and mold-free. You can clean your perches with vinegar and water mix then leave them in the sun to dry. This should kill any germs on the branches.

Perhaps if he has some toys that he is overly aggressive of, remove those. Rearrange his cage and see if the aggressiveness disperses. A male budgie will constantly flirt with anything, animate or not. It is one of my favourite qualities about them and I find it quite endearing. Budgies don't have heat cycles. By the sound of his age (8months) he is going through puberty. He will stay pretty flirty for his whole life, but will settle down when he reaches adult hood. Getting a female won't fix it, he'll still flirt with anything. My boys have numerous females and they will even flirt with my nose!!! there is no stopping them lol

I've seen some budgies the size of cockateils here

Welcome to our lovely forums

Welcome

Is it your budgie? Red and pink budgies aren't supposed to exist yet, so if it is yours give us a little more explanation behind it and where you found it. Did it have any pink mineral blocks in its cage?

Are you sure he's a boy? Because if he is actually a girl then she may be coming into lay thinking that the mirror is her partner. Could you show us a picture of him please.

I like to think it means he is carrying opaline.

Yes. I'm wishing I did it earlier, but I only just got them back in Autumn time and because I can only work on my aviary cover during the weekends, it has taken me two weeks just to get to applying the first coat of paint. It seems warmer today, so hopefully it will be lovely this weekend and I can move them all out, which will be a mammoth task in itself, as my cage won't even fit through the door, so i have to pull it all apart then put it all back together again. Haha Mel, timeshare I like that.

Most of you know i have 11 budgies living inside my bedroom. I love them all to bits but they are very noisy and messy. I managed to cope with this last year, but his year after being away from them for awhile I haven't managed to re-adapt to their noise. So I built myself a large wooden box that will completely enclose their cage leaving only one side open so that I can roll the cage in and out of it, and have placed it on the deck. It will be completely waterproof when I'm finished, well insulated with blankets and even a shower curtain to go over the front when it rains but will allow them to see through it to outside. It has gotten very cold here at the moment though, so i am going to invest in a box that I can suspend up the top at the back of their cage, with perches in it and maybe a slot for a heat pad or hotwater bottle, just so they have extra warmth and a place to snuggle into. Do you think they'll cope okay with the sudden outsideness and cold? But Now I have to decide who I want to keep inside. I really want to keep Arkady, Izzy and Bacardi inside, but i can't decide who the 4th budgie should be and ehether or not I should ahve a 4th. I really want to have another blue budgie inside especially Nikio, becase then I will have equal numbers of girls and boys inside. She is also fairly tame. Problem is that she has a boyfriend, who I don't intend keeping inside and I'd feel bad for separating them as they seem quite close. I thought about having a boy as the 4th wheel, but having 3 boys and 1 girl might be a bit too much for a little girl budgie and there might be fights between the boys. Anyone have any ideas? I'll post pictures of my contraption later. It basically looks like an enclosed aviary with any mesh, which I can roll my large cage into. Once I've moved them out I'll have a whole 1/4 of my room back!!! It takes up a lot of space that cage.

It doesn't matter what the pecking order is as long as they are not constantly fighting and hurting each other. The boy will probably be boss for now, but it may change later

All budgies should have access to cuttlebone and calcium bells. If you give some of those you will be fine. Try this out Excess calcium shouldn't cause problems if they have free access to water and each budgie will eat what it needs

My friendliest budgie is a hen and she never bites. How much are her feet turned in? My Arkady has his toes slightly slanted so he sort of walks on the side of his toes a bit, like some people do. He only does this when on a flat surface and I think it is because his claws get in the way. But he is fine.