Just lost a Gouldian, worried about the flock

rottielover · Post by **rottielover** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 12:53 am

I had my first finch death about 20 minutes ago...

My Gouldian Yellow Back, Red Head, White breast male just died in my hand.

He was perfectly fine and normal at 9am this morning (as was he on all the days prior, I've owned him for about 3 months now)...

I left for the day, and returned home at 5 pm, and found him on the bottom of the cage fluffed up and sleeping. No other symptoms.

I immediatly placed him into a hospital cage, and put in some commercial anti-biotic water (it's pre-mixed in a bottle).

At about 6:30 we saw him eat a few pellets, and drink a little from the anti-biotic water dish, and then settle in next to the heat lamp to sleep.

Then I went to check on him again around 10pm, and saw him sprawled out on the bottom of the cage, still alive, but just barely. I picked him up and tried to offer from clear peadiylite (spelling?) in a dropper, he drank one drop, looked up at me and died.

I placed the body in a plastic bag and put him in the freezer, I plan to call my Avian vet first thing Monday and request a necropsy.

However, I am in terror for the rest of my Gouldian Flock... I've read in the books and on the internet about when finches get sick, but I had no idea that something could kill them in a matter of a few hours! I thought I would have slightly more time to diagnose and treat.

Anyone have any idea's on what I could be? Should I treat the flock with anti-biotics?

The dead male had been in my main flight cage ( 7 other Gouldian's are in there, representing quite a bit of money and emotions!)

I'm quite freaked out right now.

Post by **Hilary** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:03 am

Oh Rottie, I'm sorry! Did you notice if he was having problems breathing? If so it could have been air sac mites (my main problem with my goulds). If not, it could be anything and hopefully your vet can help you figure out the problem. I've heard that freezing the bird, though, makes it hard to necropsy - tissues are destroyed when they're frozen like that. Is the rest of the flock behaving normally?

rottielover · Post by **rottielover** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:10 am

Hilary, No respritory problems as far as we could tell, eveyone in the flock (including the dead bird) were/and are breathing normally.

Eveyone else in the main flight seems perfectly fine, and the other males were singing right before lights out as normal.

In fact the dead bird was singing just yesterday.

I wasn't sure what else to do with the bird other than try to preserve it... the vet's not back in the office till Monday, and I'm afraid he'll decay before then...

That's why I'm so scared, I've checked them all for all the known symptoms I can find for all the various ailments, and I can't find anything wrong!!!

Post by **Hilary** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:42 am

If they're all acting fine I would take a deep breath and just keep an eye on them. As we all know, sometimes we just lose a bird. Hopefully you won't have any other problems!

rottielover · Post by **rottielover** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:49 am

I hope it's just a fluke...

Post by **Sally** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 2:04 am

So sorry for your loss, rottielover! It is always hard to lose one of our finches, and yes, sometimes it is within hours. I've read that wild birds hide any symptoms when ill so they don't attract the attention of predators, and our domesticated birds still do that as well. By the time we realize they are sick, it is often too late to do much about it, though we try. Like Hilary, I would say just try not to worry too much but keep a close eye on the flock. All of my finch losses have been individual cases, so the chances are it was only that one bird that was sick.

H2015 · Post by **H2015** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:30 am

I'm sorry for your loss rottielover, these things happen and there wasn't much for you to do beside giving it anti biotics - I would've done the same too.

I currently have a sick finch as well (airsac mites) and I'm also afraid I'll come back to find him dead or on the verge of it since things like that can happen very unexpectedly.

I wish you the best with the rest of your flock and hopefully there are no more problems!

rottielover · Post by **rottielover** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 11:48 am

Well I called the Avian vet and found out that a necropsy was going to cost $60 ... That's about 1/2 of what I could buy another Gouldian for ... so after much thought and a lot of observation of the flock, the wife and I decided not to have the necropsy done for now (the bird is still in my freezer though just in case something happens in the next few days).

He was my only yellow back finch, and we didn't get him direct from a breeder like I've done with the other birds. He was an "impulse" buy from a bird store.

I had a pair of gouldians setup in a breeding cage, they were seperated from the main flight flock for about a month now an the female puffed up a little the day after we lost the yellow back.

I removed the nest box (she had been removing the nesting materials as soon as the male would add any)... I moved the male to another empty breeding cage, and I setup my heat lamp on her cage. I also started her on the AntiBiotic water solution we got from Petsmart. The next day she was acting compeletly normal again. Again today she was completely normal before I left for work.

So I gave her the Antibiotic again (package says to continue for 5 days), and I also went ahead and gave her a little dish of unflavored pedialyte (sp?)

This female and the male that died haven't had any direct contact in a month, and are seperated by about 5 feet in the bird room... The male in her cage seems completely un-affected, and is singing his heart out looking for his mate.

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 10:05 am

hi rottie
so sorry for your loss!hope everything turns out ok with regards to the other birds

ken

rottielover · Post by **rottielover** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 3:21 am

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, they are appreciated!

Well it's been several more days, and the flock is all looking and acting normally.

The red head hen that was acting "puffy" before the antibiotic treatment is now acting completely normal, so much so that she began searching for her mate, quite frantically I might add. Since he had been in the cage with her before when she first started "puffing" I surmised that if he were going to get sick, he would have shown some symptoms by now. So I went ahead and put the male back in the cage with her... They were both searching around the seperated cages frantically calling to the other, and seemed to be wasted a good bit of energy in the process.

So it seemed like the logical course of action. The birds were placed back together yesterday, and both seemed perfectly normal today. I plan on further careful observations tomorrow (well actually today, I couldn't sleep and it's late!).

No other birds seems to be ill at all now that the red head hen has had her antibiotics, and she's acting normally again also.

I'm going to keep the nest box out of their cage for a couple of weeks at least to see how they fair.