|
|
|
|
Click on the bookmarks below or scroll to read them all:
Clinical signs of Air Sac Mites includes open mouth breathing which has a characteristic clicking sound. Breathing can be severely affected, and some birds can be observed gasping for air. Other signs that may be observed include loss of song, coughing, nasal discharge, vocalization changes, tail bobbing, weakness and weight loss. Death can also occur, and is seen in severely affected birds due to mucous build up and accumulation of other respiratory exudates, leading to the obstruction of the respiratory airways. Seek advise from your vet or try SCATT. Apply SCATT in a single application 1 drop to the bare skin between the shoulders. This is absorbed through the skin & will kill off the infestation. Prevention should also be considered. Keep the area well ventilated & hang Vapona type insect blocks in your aviary, but not during the breeding season.
Usually this due to a vitamin deficiency. May also be worth checking for mites. Provide a three day course of vitamin tonic in the water or mixed with soft-food. An extra pair of hands is required to apply a splint, use a matchstick, which can be held in place with strong sellotape. Be careful when removing the splint. Broken Tail or Flight Feathers Sometimes the tail or flight feathers get bent by other birds (usually hens trying to nest). This can ruin a young show bird. If you pluck the feather it will re-grow, but it will grow slightly longer, which again spoils the look of a young bird. The best way to deal with a damaged flight or tail feather is to try & repair the feather. To do this get a kettle on the boil & fan the tail or wing out & hold it in the water vapor (2 to 3 inches from the spout). This will heat up the air in the quill of the feather & pop the feather back into shape. This is more commonly used with pigeons, but also works for small birds. Coccidiose (also see Enteritis) Coccidiose is a bacterial disease that can have the following symptoms: diarrhea, constipation, bird generally looks unwell & fluffed up. If untreated this can lead to the birds death. Some breeders are used to medicating their birds with antibiotics (Ornicure made by Orpharma) before the breeding season to avoid coccidiose, but afterwards they must also give them multivitamin complexes & pro-biotics to counterbalance the side-effects of antibiotics. However other breeders believe they can avoid all these nuisances simply by using a natural wild seed called Foniopaddy. Within a week of feeding this seed on top of a birds normal diet the birds will recover & normal droppings will be observed. Occasionally you'll come across a bird with a deformed beak. This maybe a sign of some other ailment or nutritional requirement. Never attempt to trim or file a birds beak. Leave it to the experts. A vet will also be able to advice you regarding the probable cause & what actions you can take to help the bird keep its beak in good condition. Both should be rare if the bird is given a good diet. If the droppings are watery administer a little light Kaolin Powder. For constipation offer green food and place the bird in a warm environment. If a hen builds a nest & you expect her to lay, but then find her fluffed up into a ball one morning, then the chances are she is egg bound. I've found the only way to help a hen who is suffering this way, is to warm a little Olive oil and apply it directly to the hens vent. Be very careful when handling her (as gentle as possible). The warm oil should penetrate the vent & lubricate it sufficiently to help her pass the egg. She may lay the egg on the floor or in her nest, either way take the egg as normal until she has laid her clutch. In extreme cases the hen may not come back into breeding condition, so keep an eye on her & care for her as best you can. This is often referred to as ‘going light’ in young birds as they tend to waste away despite appearing to eat off the floor all the time. Many breeders attribute a number of deaths to going light. Try treating as if it were Coccidiose & keep the bird isolated & in a warm draft free environment. Some birds appear to have a problem with one eye and continuously rub the eye on the perch and lose feathers around it. Keep the perches clean, isolate bird, apply diluted TCP to the infected eye and offer antibiotics for 6 days. Don't forget to offer the bird pro-biotics one week after the antibiotics course has finished to help the birds immune system. Occasionally some Fifes, usually the clear birds, will go into a false molt. Each time this has been due to a change in temperature such as a show hall been too warm. If lots of your stock go into an early molt, check for lights at night e.g. garden light or street lamps. Also ensure you haven't made your aviary too warm because this will also induce molting. If you have a breed of canary, where double buffing is common place, or you've experimented with double buffing (as opposed to buff to yellow), your birds may at some point develop lumps just under the skin. This happens when the feathers become so fine that they don't break the surface & start to grow under the skin. I've read that some people have successfully removed lumps themselves, but inexperienced breeders or pet owners should really take their birds to a vet to remove the lump if necessary. The advantage in removal is that the lump may never return. The following URL has a couple of emails explaining the removal process if taking the bird to a vet isn't an option. http://www.birdsboard.com/faq/index.cgi?noframes;read=33 I've also seen people question the lump on a chicks neck, this is normal. The chicks crop is on the right hand side of its neck & fills with food before the food is taken in to the stomach. The amount of work they carry out will affect a hen that is not fully fit. This was a mystery for some time but was eventually diagnosed as Ecoli-peritonitis. If many hens die at this stage then consult your Vet. (You will always lose the odd hen every now & then). An infestation of Red mite (Dermanyssus Gallinae) or Lice can be seen easily if you have light coloured nests, cages or birds. These parasites aren't nice & will increase the risks to your birds health. The best defense is prevention, but even the best breeders in the world know about mite from first hand experience. Here are a few good ideas to avoid mite and lice:
If you are unlucky enough to get mite during the breeding season, you should clean & treat only those cages & birds that have left the nest. Use powder on the birds & sprays on clean empty cages. Use liquid mite killers on the perches. It will be a battle that you'll never win, but it will reduce the impact. After the breeding season you will need to treat all birds together twice a fortnight apart & clean & treat the aviary. Try and identify how you were infested e.g. new birds, shows or wild green-foods & avoid exposure for the future. Occasionally a bird will get its ring caught on a branch if kept in an outdoor aviary, or an old bird’s leg scales will grow so that they grow over the ring. Long nails have a habit of getting caught if not checked, so cut them back each year. Better to have a bird without a ring than a leg, so if in doubt remove the ring. Slip claw is when the rear toe is pointing forward along with the other three toes & is usually discovered when youngsters leave the nest for the first time & is something that has occurred during the development of the chick. To help this bird, you'll need to use a thin strip of sticky tape to secure the toe to the leg (see image below). The bird will need this for a couple of weeks. If the tape doesn't fall off its self after this time, remove it yourself.
Sometimes you'll see a bird crouched on the perch or will regularly lift one of its legs. If the foot looks sore, then it may be best to treat the bird & reduce the risk of infection. Ideally clean out the cage & provide fresh floor covering & clean perches. Next catch the bird & wash its feet with diluted TCP or Witch hazel. If symptom persist, you may have to repeat the foot wash once a week (for a month) until the foot heals. You may also want to use differently sized perches which will help exercise the feet & reduce the likelihood of sore feet. Stiff claw usually affects the rear toe (straight toe, not curving around the perch) of either foot. You will usually see youngsters with this condition, which is usually caused by the jarring of the toe when a bird jumps from perch to perch. Less experienced birds are more likely to misjudge the perch, which is why young birds are more likely to be affected. If you use perches that are ridged between the bars and the rear wall, you are more likely to cause this injury to your birds. I use a perch that is connected to the bars only, which allows a little movement when a bird lands on the perch. This is exactly what a bird would expect in nature because the branches they land on also give a little on impact. To improve the situation you need to encourage the bird to grip, some people use thin metal rods at an angle as perches, which forces the bird to grip to stop slipping. Others use thinner wooden perches, which again are there to encourage a bird to grip. You will usually find a bird that has suffered stiff claw will never be as upright or show as much leg as those that have never suffered. This may mean a good bird will never be able to show its true potential in a show cage. Old birds are more liable to have strokes. They appear to be paralyzed on one side and are unable to perch. Like humans they vary in intensity. No cure other than time if you're lucky. This is a condition from which hens with chicks suffer very occasionally when the chicks have not been reared correctly. If this condition is limited to only some hens, try providing wooden nests & loose nesting material. Original source information gained from Terry Kelly's website. Another excellent website for bird illness is:
This page was last updated on 31-Dec-2005 .
|
|
to kill the Air sac mite > 
