Hi, I have a hen who's been in quarantine now for 6 weeks. The reason I haven't ended her quarantine yet is because I'm concerned that she's not putting weight on. Though she is skinny she doesn't have any other symptons apart from her small weight. She's eating well but won't try vegies. Her poops are normal looking. She's not lethargic. She's bright and attentive and very vocal. Too me she doesn't appear ill. It's only when I feel her breast bone that I think she is skinny. But I'm no expert and I'm not at all sure about how much you should be able to feel the bone there. For all I know it could be normal. She was wormed about 3 weeks ago when I first noticed her weight. I'm unsure if I should put her with the other birds or have her checked by a vet. Is it possible that she is a bird that doesn't carry alot of weight or could there be something wrong?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Skinny in addition to symptoms of unwell ( pooey bottom and lethargy and depression ) add up to being "too thin" . If budgie is fine in all other ways then just watch her. Has she been wormed ?

Edited March 21, 200916 yr by KAZ

I agree with Kaz,

 

Skinny in my mind is sickly when you can not feel any real "meat" on the rib cage. You want to be able to feel the breast bone, not so its really sharp, but so you can still feel it. If you cant feel it or it feels really dull then the bird is over weight. Also a skinny budgie has a real light feeling about you. a budgie should feel solid in your hands.

 

Megabacteria can be a wasting disease and can stop a bird putting on condition and will eventually kill them if left untreated.

 

I might be worth getting your budgie looked at to make sure she is healthy before putting her with the others.

Just a quick update on Shya...I finally got around to getting her to the vet today. And she has a fungal infection...some sort of thing that eats at their stomach lining. Can't remember what the vet called it but I'm pretty sure I can't pronounce it anyway. She's now on medication and has to be kept separate for at least another 3 months to make sure the infection is completely eradicated.

The vet said she should start putting on weight pretty quickly now that she's being treated.

Hopefully she'll make a full recovery as she is a very pretty little bird and she is fast becoming one of my favourites.

That would be megabacteria.

 

Glad you have a result and she is getting treatment

Just a quick update on Shya...I finally got around to getting her to the vet today. And she has a fungal infection...some sort of thing that eats at their stomach lining. Can't remember what the vet called it but I'm pretty sure I can't pronounce it anyway. She's now on medication and has to be kept separate for at least another 3 months to make sure the infection is completely eradicated.

The vet said she should start putting on weight pretty quickly now that she's being treated.

Hopefully she'll make a full recovery as she is a very pretty little bird and she is fast becoming one of my favourites.

If you only took her to the vet today,You jumped on the problem real quick & no dought she will now put on

weight just as quick

I was having a bit of a look at this megabacteria...very unpleasant stuff from what I've read.

But now I have a problem.

When I thought Shya had finished her quarantine of 4 weeks my 14 yo daughter (who does all the handling of the birds) excitedly put her with the other birds with my permission. It wasn't till after she'd done this that she mentioned that she was still skinny. I did question her as to 'how skinny'. But you know kids she really couldn't explain it to me.

So I told her to get the bird back out and I'd have a look. She did and she was still skinny so I told her to put her back in her quarantine cage for a little longer and we'd try to fatten her up. That was when I wormed her and left her to hopefully put weight on. A little while after I came on here to question as to why she wasn't putting weight on since we did all this and try and work out what was going wrong.

My question is...the brief time (approx. 10-15 min) in the aviary with the other birds, was it enough time to infect the other birds as well and do I need to treat them also?

I had completely forgotton that we'd done this until my daughter mentioned it this afternoon when we were talking about Shya's trip to the vet.

From what I've read it's possible to get the treatment yourself without going to a vet. It cost me $110 for one bird today and I've got another 10. It's going to be damn expensive to do them all. Can someone help me with a less expensive way of doing the treatment if I have to treat them all?

I love my birds but my budget will not allow me 10 treatments with a vet.

If anyone can give me advice on what to do I'd appreciate it. I'm totally devestated that I've made such a grave mistake and put all my birds at risk.

Shya just never seemed sick and I suppose if I was more experienced I would've thought something major was wrong and investigated further.

Unfortunately we learn from our mistakes, but I'm hoping that this lesson will not cost me the lives of my birds.

Thanks for any help

My question is...the brief time (approx. 10-15 min) in the aviary with the other birds, was it enough time to infect the other birds as well and do I need to treat them also? :budgiedance:

 

No you don't. Megabateria is in most birds and in the birds environment in manageable numbers that the bird is not affected. Its not something that is airborne, its shed though droppings. Mega is normally a secondary infection to something that is bringing down the birds immune system.

 

There is a product called Megabac S that you can get though your vet. Funglin can also be gotten though your vet. I feel the chances are slim that any of your birds would have been affected. If you seen any signs of sickness in the flock then get the medication.

 

Try giving a dash of apple cider vinigar in their water - it is believed to help keep mega (And other nasties) at bay.

Edited April 2, 200916 yr by **Liv**

Hi, thanks heaps Liv, you've taken a weight of my mind. I've been so worried.

 

I'm going to try the apple cider vinegar today. What sort of strength in the water should it be?

 

Hi, thanks heaps Liv, you've taken a weight of my mind. I've been so worried.

 

I'm going to try the apple cider vinegar today. What sort of strength in the water should it be?

 

I use 8mils ACV to the ltr of water, 3 days a week.& have done for years.

Hi, just wanted to say that unfortunately on Easter Sunday Shya passed away.

I'm totally stunned because from the time I got her she has not shown any signs of being ill apart from her weight.

She was fine on Saturday, she spent the day outside getting some sun and freshair. I've done this off and on the entire time I've had her. Sunday morning we woke up and she was fluffed up. I put her cage near a window to get some nice warm sunshine but she was out of the way of any breeze. She managed to eat some seed though she was very quiet. That night when we came home from visiting family she was gone. I don't understand why she went down so fast. She'd been on medication for 10 days and seemed to be doing fine.

Why did she seem the most ill when she was on medication? Why did she die so quickly?

My daughter is totally devestated, Shya was her favourite and was really bonded with her.

I just don't understand why it happened so fast!

I'm so sorry to hear you news...

Always sad to hear, though I have to say sometimes it is better to lose 1 bird than a whole lot of other birds. I recently made that decision with a very good show bird, a hen as well, but sometimes with our birds, the needs od themany outweigh the needs of the few.

That's really sad but it sounds like you did all the right things.

Megabacteria is an older term for what this organism is, it is avian gastric yeast or macrorhabdus ornithogaster.

It isn't a bacteria, it is a yeast or fungus.

 

http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/CLERK/Son/

 

There are quite a few internet articles on this. Do a search and you can find them.

 

I'm sorry that your bird died. Living things tend to do that unfortunately.

 

Even if she seemed okay before taking the medication, sometimes animals can be gravely ill, yet they do not show outward signs of weakness until the very end, because this is an ancient survival mechanism so they do not get noticed by predators. They can seem to be eating, but are really just grinding and playing at their food.

 

If the bird was already thin, wasting away and gravely ill, she would have died eventually without the medication anyway. Medications are poisons designed to kill specific organisms. Unfortunately there are many complexities and side effects. Especially, if in an already stressed animal. Sometimes the addition of a medication or remedy can be too much change for an already stressed bird to cope with.

 

Also, the one that died may have been exposed to other normal flora from your other birds in the short time she was with them, and that may have upset her particular balance. You have to remember that it is not just the bird coming in to the aviary that is colonised with its own flora, your birds have their own flora, and she may have picked that up as well. If she was already sick, her system would not have coped with it. Even normal healthy flora can become disease causing if an animal is already sick from something else.

 

Unfortunately, death is a side effect of life, and we all have to come to terms with it in our own way. However, a quicker death is less suffering for the bird than chronic wasting. As sad as it is, it is probably a blessing in disguise.