I went to check on my birds this evening and give them their supper(apples) before shutting the garage doors for the night and found three of my lorikeets dead in their cage and the rest looking not good at all. I have no idea what has happened, they were alive this morning and there is no evidence of injury so I can only imagine that it is some sort of disease. Luckily these birds are kept seperately to the rest of my birds so they can't have passed it on but one of the ones sick is my baby girl tame one who I have had for over seven years! I have checked them and they feel a little skinny so I think maybe it has been brewing for a little while and the cold weather the last couple of days has brought it out I have brought the remaining four inside in two cages and turned my second bathroom into a sick room, which has the advantage of having one of those heat lights in the cieling so the room is now nice and warm and thy are chomping on half an apple each for short term energy and have some medicine in their water. PLease cross your fingers for me that the rest will pull through, most especially miss Fruit Tingle as I will be an absolute mess if something happens to her :sad:

Oh no.... how upsetting. Biggest ((((((((((((hugs))))))))))) to you MB. I'm sure you've cared for many sick birds. I hope they pull through. An avian vet check up in the morning I'd say... Good luck and Ihope they make it. Please keep us updated.

Such a shock when things like this happen Here's hoping you find out what the problem is and no more losses.

Sorry to hear this

When were they last fed? Lorikeets burn up their food very quickly due to it being mainly carbs and how active they are... Perhaps they burnt it up too quickly during the day and were not able to keep their temperature up against the winter colds... I know my lori's even overnight are starving for their morning feed.

Mine eat dry lorie mix so it doesn't need to be replaced quite as often. They had a nearly full bowl of dry mix when I checked them this evening and they get fruit every morning as well. I can't think of anything that would have caused this, just bad luck I think, maybe they picked up something from a wild bird, it's the only thing I can think of...

Oh Honey that is... oh ((((((hugs)))))))

Sorry to hear this. Hugs. I ho[pe all goes well from now on

Whats Dry Lori mix , I thought they need a wet type food as they have fine bristles on their tongue for eating nectar , If they are given seed diets I know the bristles can wear off and this can lead to all sorts of probs.

Sorry for your loss.

Very sorry to hear this did you add a new one to the flock recently? This is where I would start maybe?

Dry mix is specially formulated mix which is a fine powder.

 

 

Haven't added any new birds for a while, I leave the garage door open during the day and I wonder whether a wild bird has visited.

awe maybe , are you having a necropsy done on 1 of the birds?

How big is the cage , 7 lorys in one cage , they are not the cleanest of birds at the best of times , I would guess , Salmonella ? it has the potential to knock off a number of birds quickly.

No, in reality in the amount of time it will take to have it done I will probably know for sure whether the rest will be okay anyway. They are sitting in the cages preening each other now and they have finished their apples and they are looking alot brighter since getting into the warm room. I suspect it will be one of those cases of the next 12 hours will tell and if they are okay by tomorrow then with continued treatment they should continue to recover. Because I do wildlife care I keep a number of medications in the house for emergency treatment so I will take one of them to be checked tomorrow to confirm my treatment and get more medication.

 

They weren't all in the same cage but the cages were next to each other, they get cleaned very regularly because they are messy critters. The ones that died were a pair(in a cage together) and a hen who left her mate behind.

Edited June 25, 200817 yr by melbournebudgies

That's a shame Melb .. I hope the rest of the birds pick up & are going to be okay !

I am so sorry to hear of your losses MB, i hope the rest improve especially Miss Fruit Tingle.

So sorry to hear about this MB.The wild lori's always visit my lori,everyday.They hang off his cage,so maybe you are right about it being from a wild bird.Hope your birds get better soon,I know they are in good hands.Your a great animal owner!sending (((((((((((((hugs)))))))))))))!

Sorry to hear of your problems MB, what a blow, I hope the rest pull through & you find out what the problems is, nothing worse than having things like this go wrong & not knowing what the cause is. Best of luck.

Well the rest are looking substantially better this morning, so I have turned the heat lights down to the lower setting.

Good news MB…but if they haven’t got such good condition, there must be some underlaying reason, but the cold weather is the real teller & the weather there has been something terrible from the reports, best of luck.

Oh yes they will stay inside on meds for a full course, they are just looking well enough that I felt the light up igh was a little overkill

I'm so sorry for your losses

I am so pleased the others are looking better. I hope they continue to improve and you can find out what happened

 

Could they have been spooked by a cat or a bird of prey??

Not likely, it happened during the day and they are in my garage area which opens up with a roller door onto the backyard. They are used to the dog and she wouldn't have bothered them plus she keeps any other critters out of the yard.

Are they breeding in your garage?

I wouldn't have thought there would be enough direct sunlight in a garage for them?

Perhaps lack of vitamin D which would definatly cause some major problems with their food intake in this cold weather?

What else is in the garage ? Do you move a car in and out, are there chemicals stored in the garage ?

Garage is used as a bird room only so no car or other nasties in there. The garage has a full size roller door on the back and front which gets opened during the day so they get plenty of sunlight through there. I haven't bred them yet I was hoping to start getting them ready for breeding once I got my new cages next week.

 

I really think it must have been a disease of some sort as all my other birds who aren't in contact with the lories are fine