"If a finch looks healthy, it is healthy"
The truth is a healthy looking bird can carry
pathogens capable of destroying your entire flock!
My quarantine procedures have evolved over the years, as I'm sure they have for other breeders. These procedures are extremely important to me because one sick bird entering my flock can destroy my entire flock. My procedures are working well for me, but I'm sure that there are other avenues that one could take. My babies this season seem to be doing so much better than in previous years because I now use a modified 'procedure' before each breeding season.
How to Select a Healthy Bird
If you can select your new birds in person, there are a few things that I would suggest that you check first. You will want to select a bird that is "clear eyed" with no discharge from the eyes or nostrils. The bird should have tight' feathers. By this I mean the feathers should lay tightly against the body with absolutely no sign of " puffiness'. Give the bird time to settle down from your entrance into the bird room before making your selection. Excited birds will have tight feathers unless they are on their 'deathbed.' Only when a bird is relaxed will you see whether it has tight or puffy feathers. Look at the vent feathers for any sign of current soiling. This would be a clear indication of diarrhea and a possible intestinal problem. You will also want to physically hold the bird. Feel the breast area for fullness.
You should be "slightly" able to feel the breast bone, but only slightly. Any bird with a pronounced breastbone is 'going light' and wasting away. You definitely want to stay away from this and any and all birds that are in direct contact with this bird.
Purchase Birds Sight Unseen
If you purchase birds that you haven't seen but have had shipped to you, give them several hours after placing them into their new home to settle down before evaluating. Remember that birds that have spent 24 hours inside a shipping box may have soiled vent feathers unless they have had perches on which to stand during shipping. They may also be stressed, so peace and quiet will be greatly appreciated until they acquaint themselves with their new surroundings. If you are at all unsure of the birds' health upon arrival of the shipment, I suggest an immediate appointment with an avian vet to have them checked out. All reputable breeders will allow a veterinarian to check their birds.
First Things First
The first thing that I do when receiving new birds is a thorough spraying of Pestex. This product is entirely safe for all birds and will not even injure their eyes. It is used to control any external mites or parasites that may be on the birds. If you bring the birds home in a small cage or carrier, I would suggest spraying them while they are still inside this enclosure. In a small space it is easier to get the spray on the birds and the spraying will kill any parasites that crawled off the birds and onto the cage. Next step is to wash the cage/carrier with a disinfectant solution Pet Focus and place it in the sun for several days to dry off. If the birds were shipped to you, this step will be slightly more difficult. As long as the birds will not be housed in a large open flight, you can release them into their new cage and spray them there.
S76 in the birds bath water is another way to treat the birds for an feather parasites. This should be followed up several days later with a KD Water Cleanser bath. This second bathing/misting will remove all the dead mites and help promote lustrous clean feathering. If they are going to eventually reside in an enclosure that is very large, I would suggest that they be placed within a smaller cage for the duration of the quarantine. This will allow them to more easily find their food and water sources.
Find a Quiet Corner
I set up my new arrivals in a cage in a quiet corner of my office. They will not set foot into my bird room for at least 45 - 60 days. They are given daily my finch seed mixture, along with dry eggfood, oyster shell, cuttlefish bone and my homemade egg food mixture. Every day they are offered a different green spinach, romaine, lettuce, parsley, turnip greens, beet or carrot tops etc; the darker the green food, the better. They very seldom will eat either the greens or the softfood because most breeders don't seem to find it necessary to provide this much needed nutritional food. Gouldians are notorious for not eating nor even trying anything new in their diet. See "Teacher Bird" for helpful hints on this topic on my web site ladygouldianfinch.com.
Change Treatments Daily
All of the treatments involved in my quarantine procedures are mixed daily. For this reason I suggest you purchase a small water tube or medication tube so that you will not be wasting the medications nor treatments. I do not use the water tube on a constant basis, but whenever I have to mix anything daily they are invaluable and cost effective.
Gouldians in excellent condition and health will exhibit colors that border on the 'unnatural'. |
STRESS-Major Factor in Mortality
For the first 5 days the water source that they are offered is NV Powder. It is a booster which raises the electrolite content in the system of stressed birds.
Stress can be a major factor in mortality at this point if there are ANY underlying health problems. When a bird becomes stressed, their normal bodily functions do not operate properly. The NV Powder gives them an added boost. Without the presence of any disease factors, any bird should come through the stress of moving just fine. During these first five days I leave the birds quietly to themselves.
Airsac Mite treatment in the water
After this time period I treat the birds for airsac mites with S76. Gouldians and Canaries are mostly infected with this mite. If the infestation is too great when the S76 is given, the airsac mites die, clog the air passageways and the bird suffocates within days. If there are no mites, the birds seem to be unfazed. If the infestation expelled the dead mites. Please note: don’t hesitate in carrying out this step so that your birds don’t die. If "heavily infested, you will only be postponing the inevitable. All birds that have airsac mites left untreated and multiplying will eventually die from a secondary respiratory infection or suffocation.
S76 is so safe it can be administered to breeding parents feeding their babies! S76 should be administered to the entire flock for two consecutive days. This treatment must be repeated each week for three weeks to break the life cycle of the airsac mite.
Coccidiosis a Chronic Problem
I have found over the years that perhaps the most chronic problem that can occur in Gouldians housed in outdoor aviaries is coccidiosis.
Signs of Coccidiosis
Watery droppings, fluffed up, inactive birds with shaking and weight loss followed by dark green, tacky, smelly diarrhea are signs of coccidiosis.. The Coccidia are protozoan parasites that live in the lining of the bird's intestine. Because birds are unable to absorb nutrients from their food, they gradually loose so much body weigh that they die. The parasite is picked up by birds hunting the floor of their flights and cages for food or is passed between the birds by eating another infected bird's droppings. The eggs contained in the droppings are quite small. Diagnosis is made by examining the droppings under the microscope, but finding them is often difficult as there are several stages to the infestation and the "occytes" are not shed during all the stages.
Juveniles dying at 10-12 weeks of age
If your adult birds become infected during the breeding season, you will most likely start loosing your juveniles at 10-12 weeks of age. The nestlings are infected very early on and degeneration of the liver begins. At 10-12 weeks there is so little liver function left, that the juveniles begin to drop weight and "waste away".
If your adult birds are infected with Coccidiosis the treatment of choice would be Trimethaprim Sulfa. Only a drug can eradicate the parasite from birds’ already infected. This should be done before you set the birds up for breeding.
As a preventative measure, CocciCARE can be administered to your birds in their water, anytime conditions are right for them to become infected. These times would be during rainy weather or the warm temperatures and high humidity situations like those found in the Southern United States. Coccidia need moisture and warmth to survive and multiply. As the birds are hunting around the floor of their cages, they can easily pick up the coccidia parasite.
Your birds do not however, need to be housed outdoor to become infected with Coccidiosis. Leaking drinkers or water bowls can wet the floor of indoor cages and allow the parasite to multiply there also. And even if your cage is totally dry, coccidiosis outbreaks may appear secondary to other diseases. Treatment with CocciCARE would be useful as a preventative anytime they have been exposed to conditions that make them susceptible. We do not include CocciCare in your Safe Bird Kit, because it is not necessary to treat new birds during this Quarantine time unless the conditions become right as explained above. CocciCare can be purchased separately if required.
Protozoal Treatment
Next I treat for any Protozoal infection. Many of the protozoa will affect one species of bird and have no affect on another. A perfectly healthy looking bird can be carrying a protozoa that will be lethal to other species you have in your flights/aviaries. Cochlosomosis is the most serious protozoal infection I have found in my finches. It is especially a problem in young birds from the age of six weeks until the end of molting. The main signs of the illness are watery droppings which contain undigested seed, molting problems and apathy. I use the product, Ronex, for prevention of cochlosomosis. It is mixed daily for a 7-day period. Ronex can be safely used at any stage in the birds breeding cycle. My vet has advised me that cochlosomosis disease will only be controlled and not eradicated by the use of drugs. He says that eradication can only be achieved by breeding Cochlosoma resistant finches in a well managed aviary.
Worming
Treating for any worms present in the bird is my next step. The product I use is WormAway that kills any internal worms including tapeworms. According to Ritchie Harrison (Avian Medicine, "Principles and Applications"), most finches are very susceptible to not treat for this parasite. WormAway is a one dose treatment administered in the drinking water. If I am not absolutely sure where the birds originated, I always include it in my quarantine period. Worms can cause problems as they interfere with the absorption of nutrients in the intestines. If they build-up to large numbers, they can cause an obstruction in the intestines. Birds housed outdoors are most susceptible to worms.
Limited Use of Antibiotics
I don't like to use antibiotics. However, if during the quarantine process your new birds begin to frump and tuck their heads or seem to be eating large quantities of food constantly, this should be an indication that something isn’t right. Particularly check the breast area. If the breastbone begins to protrude, they are wasting away or "going light ". One indication that this is happening is the constant eating that I mentioned above. They are eating huge quantities of food because they are not getting the proper absorption from their food. Therefore, they continue to eat trying to satiate themselves. This symptom of "constant eating" will also happen if the birds are in a continual state of stress because of improper functioning of their digestive processes. If housing and diet are proper, then I would treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic Amoxitex.
This will eliminate any bacteria that the bird may be carrying in his gut. Again, the bird may be asymptomatic but the bacteria may be lethal to your flock. Make sure you follow the label directions and give the full course of antibiotic.
Safe to release into the flock
By now you should have had ownership of the birds for around 45 days. My quarantine procedure covers most avian pathogens with the exception of the viruses. If the birds are suffering from a virus, they should be showing symptoms by now. I usually then watch them for another two weeks, paying particular attention to their droppings. If all seems well after that, I will introduce them to my large flight or a cage with their new mate. Always remember that if you purchase a number of birds at the same time, but from different breeding sources, you should carry out the above steps in separate cages. If you mix them all together, you could be infecting healthy birds unnecessarily.
Repeat for the breeding season
In most instances I repeat the above procedure every year, starting 2 months before breeding season. This will get my breeders in top form before they experience the stress of raising young. It will also ensure healthy offspring. If I suspect a problem at any time throughout the year, usually judged by the droppings or listlessness in my birds, I will have a fecal test done by my vet and proceed according to the results of the test.
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"..I do not have words that would express my gratitude for saving my 11 nearly dead gouldians. I live in Guatemala and I have been very luck in breeding Lady Gouldians since 2000. I bought 4 pairs and had 19 babies all parent raised. Now I have 23 birds but 11 fell ill, 2 died. Then I call Laraine and she sent me her Safe Bird Kit and voila! They are much better, no more deaths. Followed her Quarantine procedures and they are flourishing!! Thanks Laraine!!!!!!
Edelmira - Guatemala
"..I took your suggestion and used your quarantine procedure before I set up for the breeding season and I had the best breeding season in 16 years!
John Walters- Michigan
Article © lady gouldian finch.com 2005
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