okay so Sky is getting better everything is fine until today I come home at lunch and notice tail bobbing and discharge from the cere on Ashley..... so I pull her out of the quarantine cage and put her and the other girl I have who also does not look well in one of my new cages which arrived today (thank god) the third Budgie Kadaj seemed okay so left him in his cage.

 

Go back to work come home and I seriously thought Ashley was dead!

 

So a rush to the vet and get told that she has tmy.. tymr..tyra???? the vets is south african and I can't understand him that well. He wrote it down and I can't read his writing anyone know what I could be talking about? He told me the signs to look for in the other guys, pretty stock standard, breathing issues, messy vent, discharge around the cere.

 

So yeah... he then gives me Doxycycline Hydrochloride and told that ALL my birds even the guys in the avairy should be on it.

 

So I get home and examine the other two that where in with Ashley. The other grey hen looks like she is fading as well but not as bad as Ashley. Kadaj is showing signs of becoming ill and so are the other boys also in Quarantine... I don't get it there where no where near each other but this illness hits them hard and fast however can incubate for up to 2 months. Vet says that she had it when I got her most likely and since MB also lost birds from the same breeder with the same symptoms then I am guessing that it's from that.

 

I split Kadaj into a sperate cage as he came from a different breeder and his signs of illness are not as bad as the others, same with the boys so everyone is split up, everyone is on meds... no one is allowed veggies for the next 15 days... argh MB I am going to have to eat all the veggies I bought! Do you want me to make you more beet water?

 

I am so tired and nothing is going right with the Budgies and I keep having to throw money at them cause of sickness and it is depressing.... I am starting to feel like the gods are against me or are telling me that maybe I should not have Budgies!

Edited July 9, 200816 yr by KAZ

What a rough time for you

I have found that when there are lots of new birds in a short amount of time, there is more to go wrong i had (in a much smaller scale to you) it in April when i went on a bird buying spree

 

It's so hard at times, but it will get better and then you will have a lovely flock of healthy birds to love

Edited July 8, 200816 yr by **Liv**

I am really sorry to hear you are going through all this. These things do happen whne you have lots of birds moving in and out of your home and aviaries I am afraid. Sometimes spread can be from us from bird to bird, on our hands, clothes, hair...airborn stuff etc.

The doxy is for the full 6 weeks or not ??

He has given it to me for 15 days as minimum for everyone not showing signs (eg the avairy, and the guys in my study) I can have the other guys on it for 4 - 6 weeks or untill a week after symptoms clear. So going to keep track and release them into holding cages as they get better then do a short 10 day quarantine before moving them in with my flock.

Sorry to hear this Av, But i have to agree with Kaz on the ins and outs of so many different birds,

I didn't say anything when you kept posting about more and more birds - I really hope that things pick up for you

mate, and when it comes to costs and Vets bilss and $$$$ this is all aprt of being a pet owner

Best of luck to you

Six week course is VITAL.

Six week course is VITAL.

 

 

the measure I have makes 2 liters of water so unless I want to poor it down the drain it might just be easier to keep everyone on it. Do you know the diease that he is talking about I have serched and can't find anything like what he said and wrote.

Six week course is VITAL.

 

 

the measure I have makes 2 liters of water so unless I want to poor it down the drain it might just be easier to keep everyone on it. Do you know the diease that he is talking about I have serched and can't find anything like what he said and wrote.

 

divide everything in half and just make 1 liter if 2 liters is too much

Liv thought about that but my guys use around 2 liters anyway. Also the way the measure spoon is it would be hard to measure out half and i would be worried that they would not be getting enough.

Doxy is generally used for psittacosis....and you didnt exactly have enough to go on with regard to the exact diagnosis....so guessing would be pointless. Maybe phone back tomorrow and ask and get it spelt out. If treating for psittacosis also known by other names...then its generally 6 weeks.

Thanks Kaz that is a good idea.

Hey AV when you ring back tomorrow can you ask them how to treat Lories ie. can it be added to their wet mix? The lories got a mediacion from the vet when they were crook which they have finsihed now but it wasn't Doxy so it would be good if I know whethert is okay to add Doxy to wet food.

 

AV and I both got a couple of birds from a bloke at the bird sale. Two of the budgies I got from him have already died, AV's ones that showed symptoms first are from the same person. The rest seem well but are being treated. It sounds like I should be treating the other birds too so I will add it to their water tonight.

okay so I rang the vet he faxed me through some information then the vet nurse faxed me through the information again written out so I could read it (I am really liking this vet)

 

Ashley shows trace signs of Trichomona aka gapeworm or air-sac mites. These are passed on from bird to bird through feeding (why the other girl got as sick as quick and the third bird in the cage seems better then the two girls as he has nothing to do with them.) He said to look out for Raised caseous lesions around the face or large amounts of vomit if this becomes apparent then we will be looking at putting the birds on Camidazole or Ronidazole but not Emtryl (which a lot of non avian vets give to the bird but has a high toxicity level)

 

However he believes that with the doxyclin and smaller intervals between the invermetcin (e.g. once a week for the next 4 weeks) then we should be covered.

 

She does however have.... you guessed it Psittacosis and a pretty advanced case at that, which is not good but nice to know that I did not do anything wrong in quarantine but something she came to my house with. Again explains why the other hen has it and the cock from a different breeder is boarderline and maybe has it. The cock (Kadaj) will have caught it off them and only just starting to develop signs. The vet thinks that she might have had it in the past and been given something like Triple C which can in most cases mask the effects and diminish the signs of illness, he has known a lot of breeders who will use this to get rid of cull birds at a sale instead of missing the sale with sick birds. Then a week or two out the last of the Triple C leaves their system and BANG they fade and they fade fast, another reason why it seemed to come on so quick and with no warning. They also have been contagious for the entire time even though they have not shown any signs of being ill.

 

GRRR at breeder.

 

So everyone gets the doxyclin for 6 weeks, the aviary guys and the guys in the study who show no signs should be right with a 2 - 3 week course but as I have said before the measurement spoon makes two liters I go through two liters when I do water up for everyone so just going to leave everyone on it for the same amount of time. Also found out the aviary guys are drinking water off the roof of the aviary but they have to come into holding cages while I do my breeding room so I know they will be treated when that happens. I also have to disinfect the cages on a weekly base to stop Trichomona from remaining in the cages and re infecting the birds however this is rare as they parasites do not live for long outside of the birds body. I am glad I split the two hens up from the cock as if the do have Trichomona they can't be feeding him or him feeding them and therefore should stop the transfer. As I get more cages together I might even split them up as well.

 

MB Dr said - Antibiotic medicines should be added to a teaspoon of Lorikeet's favorite juice at a rate of 25 - 50mg of medication to 1 kg of bird. He hopes that you can get some doxcylin as it sounds like they have the same thing my guys have. Make sure they drink and do no vomit it back up, if they do repeat process no more then twice for the next 30 days at least. He would like to see them however...

 

So all in all I think I have found a vet I like. My vet is good but he is never there and it takes about 30min to drive to him. These guys are 5 mins down the road and the other lady who works at this clinic is good but a bit rough with my birds and gives lectures of what you are doing wrong and wants you to spend big bucks. This guy is very relaxed, did a bunch of tests and cost me less then last time when I saw the lady and she did squat and charged me almost $200!

I had a "feeling" Good thing the vet seems to be a good one All should be well in the end, as you are good at follwing advice and the vet visit shows how responsible you are with your birds. Best of luck

Thanks Kaz it's good it know what I have to do to move forward. As much of a pain in the backside this is it's also not in a strange sort of way. My guys fromthe avairy had to get moved to the cages anyway and really now i just have to make up water for them and got get it out of my dispenser. Also saves me time as they are all on veggie free diets

 

Every time something like this happens I learn something from it and hopefully I can be a better Budgie owner and breeder because of it.

 

More cages going up tonight and avairy guys getting caught on the weekend as the builder wants to cut wood near them and I don't want them near the dust. All in all I think not a bad result and if I come out of this with all my birds then yeah me.

 

PS I assume you updated the topic title for me, thanks.

Thanks for the info AV, I have put them on Doxy and I have also put the lories on it too so fingers crossed we have seen the last of the sick birds. I'll also more often use the Ivermec.

I'll just pull up my notes on Gapeworm and others for you, just for interest's sake.

 

Pretty much direct quotes from my notes:

 

Gapeworm

It's latin name is Syngamus trachea, is a nematode (roundworm) and inhabits the trachea of many birds, particularly fowl and game birds with wild birds acting as reservoir hosts for domesticated ones. Large numbers of nematodes partially occlude the trachea causing respiratory distress "gaping".

Morphology and biology: Male and female are permanently in copula. The female is usually about 20mm long with the male being 5mm long. Have a large mouth armed with teeth. Eggs are coughed up and swallowed by the host then passed out in the faeces. The larvae develops up to its third stage in the egg and birds can become infected by ingesting [L3] (ensheathed larval stage 3) in the egg, the [L3] after it hatched or [L3] encysted in earthworms, slugs or snails. Larvae migrate to lung via the blood stream from the gut. (Once ingested the break through the intestinal lining into the blood stream supplying the intestines and travel in the blood stream to the liver and then to the lungs where they break through the lung tissue and crawl up the trachea and find a mate).

 

Trichomonas is something completely different: It is a protozoan parasite. Trichomonas gallinae inhabits the upper alimentary tract (gut, so mouth, oesophagus, crop and stomach). is most commonly a cause of disease in pigeons and doves with ulcerative lesions (cuts that have turned to ulcers) in many organs especially th emouth, pharynx, oesophagus and crop. The organism multiplies by binary fission and is transmitted when parent birds feed their young).

Another species of Trichomonas has been found to be a common cause of vomiting in budgerigars. (hmmm interesting)

 

And Air sac mites:

Sternostoma tracheacolum live in the airsacs and trachea of birds. can be a serious problem in aviary birds which can cause asphyxiation in finches.

Cytodites nudus lives in the airsacs and surface of internal organs of birds but are probably non pathogenic.

Edited July 9, 200816 yr by Sailorwolf

PS I assume you updated the topic title for me, thanks.

No worries

 

PS try some multigrain bread soaked with their medicated water too. They may see it as a treat

I hope they will be better soon

Oh no!!!!! You poor thing. I hope they get better soon. In answer to your first question... Why do you have birds??? Because you LOVE them!!!! Biggest hugs to you and keep your chin up mate. If it were me, I'd probably also ring the breeder... a) To let him know that his birds (probably ALL of them) have these diseases and should be looked at, and b ) to let him know you're not happy. He probably wouldn't do anything about a), but he should atleast know about it. That's my two cents worth anyway Good Luck!

Edited July 9, 200816 yr by maesie

OH NO !!!!

 

I hope things pick up for you

sorry to hear about your budgies not being well, i hope things improve for you.

SW thanks for the info I am now confused so going to go do more reserch.

 

Kaz sweet idea will try the bread soaked in meds water

 

Everyone else thanks for the well wishes and kind words.

yes, I was a little confused too

It might be me reading the fax or the vet nurse trying to write it out. will check the fax again tomorrow when i am at work.