I'd love to hear what others do to quarantine their new birds. I'm getting 8 swees and a strawberry on Friday! I'll keep them as far away from the others as possible, and have AIL, Scatt, Worm-Out, Amtyl, Ronivet and a probiotic per some quarantine advice I read online. They're going to be so small, though, that I'm wondering if I need the scatt in addition to the AIL or if it's overkill. I've also read very differing opinions about using the Amtyl as a preventative with new birds (always do it, don't you dare ever do it....).
I'm assuming that you treat one thing at a time, though I'd love to be able to spray with AIL and treat with scatt (if it's necessary) before letting them loose in the quarantine cages. ??
Also, I currently have one cage with OCs and CBs in the same room where I'll have to keep the new arrivals. Better to leave them there in the familiar space on the opposite side of the room, or move the cage temporarily upstairs?
I'm so excited about these little guys - hope they arrive ok!! Thanks!
Hilary
Quarantine Questions
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Hilary
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Crystal
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In order for quarantine to be truly effective, you need to keep your new birds in a completely different area from your current birds--preferably they shouldn't even share the same air source. So yes, I do think you should move your OCs etc. upstairs before placing the quarantine birds in the room you have set up for them.
Quarantine needs to last at least 6-8 weeks to allow ample time for birds to exhibit [most of] the diseases they may be carrying (some birds can be silent carriers of certain diseases indefinitely). You should ALWAYS take care of your current birds BEFORE visiting the quarantine cage--and never the other way around. Always wash your hands after dealing with the quarantine birds. You become a "fomite" (object harboring potential pathogens) when you visit your quarantined birds, and you can transfer these (potential) pathogens to your current residents on your hands/shoes/clothes/etc. if you don't take the proper steps to avoid it. Don't use the same sponge to wash the dishes from both the current residents' cage and the quarantine cage, etc.--just keep everything separate.
As for what treatments you can use safely:
You can treat for parasites (internal and external) safely such as mites, lice, worms and protozoa, but you should *never* treat preemptively against bacterial infections. Frequent indescriminate and unnecessary use of an antibiotic can cause the bacteria living in the bird to build up resistance to the antibiotics, so that once the bird does become sick with that bacteria, there will be no effective cure from the antibiotics.
This means that you can use your SCATT, AIL, Worm-out gel and Ronivet, but do not use the Amtyl. Also (a little known fact:) probioitics in passerine species are basically useless--these species of birds are different from parrots and other birds in that they do not have an established normal gut flora, so there is no point in trying to "replace" something that was never there to begin with. Passerines (including finches) only have transient gut bacteria which is why healthy birds have so few bacteria present in their stool samples, and why you should be alarmed if you find moderate to high bacterial counts in finch droppings.
I am pretty sure that you can treat with SCATT and AIL at the same time, but I would only spray a small amount of a very fine mist of the AIL in the vicinity of the birds as opposed to spraying the birds directly. I like to spray AIL on the enclosure itself (using the fine mist setting) to control spiders and so forth in outdoor cages. The birds inevitably will get a little of the mist on them during this process.
The meds that go in the water (worm out, ronivet) do need to be given separately. I believe worm out is a 2 day treatment and when it is over you can start treating with ronivet.
Congrats on the new arrivals!! Quarantine is always the most difficult time for me because 8 weeks just feels like a really long time--but it is definitely better to play it safe than be sorry and potentially lose ALL your birds to some awful disease.
Quarantine needs to last at least 6-8 weeks to allow ample time for birds to exhibit [most of] the diseases they may be carrying (some birds can be silent carriers of certain diseases indefinitely). You should ALWAYS take care of your current birds BEFORE visiting the quarantine cage--and never the other way around. Always wash your hands after dealing with the quarantine birds. You become a "fomite" (object harboring potential pathogens) when you visit your quarantined birds, and you can transfer these (potential) pathogens to your current residents on your hands/shoes/clothes/etc. if you don't take the proper steps to avoid it. Don't use the same sponge to wash the dishes from both the current residents' cage and the quarantine cage, etc.--just keep everything separate.
As for what treatments you can use safely:
You can treat for parasites (internal and external) safely such as mites, lice, worms and protozoa, but you should *never* treat preemptively against bacterial infections. Frequent indescriminate and unnecessary use of an antibiotic can cause the bacteria living in the bird to build up resistance to the antibiotics, so that once the bird does become sick with that bacteria, there will be no effective cure from the antibiotics.
This means that you can use your SCATT, AIL, Worm-out gel and Ronivet, but do not use the Amtyl. Also (a little known fact:) probioitics in passerine species are basically useless--these species of birds are different from parrots and other birds in that they do not have an established normal gut flora, so there is no point in trying to "replace" something that was never there to begin with. Passerines (including finches) only have transient gut bacteria which is why healthy birds have so few bacteria present in their stool samples, and why you should be alarmed if you find moderate to high bacterial counts in finch droppings.
I am pretty sure that you can treat with SCATT and AIL at the same time, but I would only spray a small amount of a very fine mist of the AIL in the vicinity of the birds as opposed to spraying the birds directly. I like to spray AIL on the enclosure itself (using the fine mist setting) to control spiders and so forth in outdoor cages. The birds inevitably will get a little of the mist on them during this process.
The meds that go in the water (worm out, ronivet) do need to be given separately. I believe worm out is a 2 day treatment and when it is over you can start treating with ronivet.
Congrats on the new arrivals!! Quarantine is always the most difficult time for me because 8 weeks just feels like a really long time--but it is definitely better to play it safe than be sorry and potentially lose ALL your birds to some awful disease.
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Hilary
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Crystal -
Thank you so much for the thoughtful reply! I haven't quarantined in the past (I know - shame on me), but I added up what I'm spending on these birds and what I've spent on the rest and decided that it wasn't worth taking a chance so want to do it right. Plus I've become attached to the little buggers! These are being shipped from a shop, and even though they specialize in finches who knows what they might have picked up while they were there, so I want to be careful. I'd never heard that about probiotics - very interesting - and will save the Amtyl for any future need (hopefully it'll remain unopened). I didn't want to disrupt the existing birds too much, but I guess removing the OCs/CBs from possible contamination is worth a little disruption. The quarantine room will actually end up being the permanent residence of the swees and OCs, so I'll end up setting up the new guys in their ultimate homes for the majority of their quarantine - just won't move the OCs back until it's over.
Thanks as always for the great advice!
Hilary
Thank you so much for the thoughtful reply! I haven't quarantined in the past (I know - shame on me), but I added up what I'm spending on these birds and what I've spent on the rest and decided that it wasn't worth taking a chance so want to do it right. Plus I've become attached to the little buggers! These are being shipped from a shop, and even though they specialize in finches who knows what they might have picked up while they were there, so I want to be careful. I'd never heard that about probiotics - very interesting - and will save the Amtyl for any future need (hopefully it'll remain unopened). I didn't want to disrupt the existing birds too much, but I guess removing the OCs/CBs from possible contamination is worth a little disruption. The quarantine room will actually end up being the permanent residence of the swees and OCs, so I'll end up setting up the new guys in their ultimate homes for the majority of their quarantine - just won't move the OCs back until it's over.
Thanks as always for the great advice!
Hilary