Hey there,

 

I have a bit of a strange thing happening with some birds in my aviary. They seem to have a feather issue, but I am not sure what it is. I plan on taking a couple to my avian vet in an attempt to determine what it is.

 

I have no photos yet so let me try to describe what is happening.

 

The bird appear to grow normal feathers (this seems to mainly affect their tail feathers). The feathers grow to the normal length, but in some parts there is a strange "strangulation" affect. It is like the there is some invisible string wrapped around some parts of the tail feather. The rest of the feather then appears to curl and droop.

 

I cannot see anything on the birds, no dark spots of any type.

 

It does not appear to be like French Moult, nor the normal Feather Mites that I am aware of. I will try to get some pics tomorrow but wondering if anyone has any ideas?

Edited June 11, 201114 yr by Dave_McMinn

Try researching feather quill mites and take a closer look at the feather quills

 

Feather quill mites live INSIDE the quill, and are in the birds bloodstream. Hard to eradicate.

Edited June 11, 201114 yr by **KAZ**

I did a search for these earlier, and I did look at the pictures, but there was nothing that I thought looked like the feathers on my birds.

 

That is why I had the confusion.

One of the effects of French Moult is a stranglutation look of the feather. They also appear to bulge slightly which may be cause of the strangulation effect.

have you considered tail rot

it looks very simular to fm but the tail when pulled out of cuticle bit is black and blood rather than dry blood in feathers the feathers dont normally grow back with feather rote if they do they are twisted and smaller never grow fully back

im not sure what causes it

sorry but i know many over look it as is so close to fm

I am going to take some birds to a vet, but until i can I will treat the affected birds with AIL. I will remove these birds from the rest of the flock whilst they are treated.

 

I wonder how these mites came to be in my aviary?

so you sure its mites Dave ?

branches introduced lately ?

I have a similar problem and it is only with my best birds with feather, Like my violet that won the shield, he had 2 tail feathers but at eighteen months he dropped his tail feathers both of them and the never grew back , one grows back but it is like weak, it if very thin and just hangs. I have a few like it, if I get time tomorrow I will take a photo of a bird with a tail I am talking about.

Anyway I was told to pull all affected feathers out and then dunk their tail in pinetasol, spelt wrong sorry, and some one told me yesterday to try dettol, so I think they are suggesting infection.

I would like to see a photo of yours Dave and I would be interested to see what the avian vet says also.

yours sounds like the tail rot i speak of splat

Well Gb it is really annoying!! driving me nuts.

 

 

I wonder how these mites came to be in my aviary?

 

Any incoming birds. What kind of mites, if they are mites, depends. Not everything is noticed on incoming birds until it has taken hold. Feather quill mites, for instance, are not seen until there is an issue or unless you know what to look for..

I hope you get a solution soon Dave. If they are mites, can they come from wild birds?