Respiratory Infection?

[Tiffany2]

I feel like I jinxed myself by asking about antibiotics in a different thread. My female zebra finch looks like you can see her heart beat when she sits on the perch. When she stops flying she opens her beak for a few seconds then opens her beak again. She's active and peeps a lot, eats and drinks like normal. Could she have a respiratory infection? I watch my birds everyday throughout the day and she just started doing it. She isn't wheezing making a clicking noise or anything else just looks like you can see her heart beat.

[dan78]

It could be a respiratory infection of some sort, I would look at quarantining her with some heat for now. It seems that you have caught it early so hard to say right at this point what exactly it is. With no clicking wheezing or coughing I doubt that its airsac mites. If any changes please let us know. If your worried you can give a dose of triple c antibiotic.

[Tiffany2]

I was going to order some Baytril just so I'd have it on hand, but now I'm wondering if I should just pick up the antibiotic at the pet store. The only kind they have at the pet store is Sergeant's Mardel Ornacycline Tetracycline for Birds and I don't know if it would work. I will separate her and keep her warm.

[Brette]

I would look up "air sac mites" and see if any of your bird's symptoms match those. It oftens makes the bird gasp for air. There are several threads about air sac mites in this forum that you can read as well.

If it IS air sac mites, a product called Scatt will get rid of them.

[cuillinmoon]

Hi Tiffany

I treated a respiratory infection in my Gouldian using herbs. He was beak breathing after flying and you could see his heart pounding just like your finch. I posted details of his symptoms, herbs and doses on Finchforum under the title 'Grindelia, Sundew & Calendula to treat respiratory illness' in Health. Hope this helps and you get your finch well again.

Liz

[Tiffany2]

Thank you. I got her some antibiotic from the pet store and tomorrow will be day 5 of use, but i'm going to keep her on it for a little longer cause I know the pet store antibiotics are weaker. Sometimes she still has the symptoms especially if she gets stressed, like when I change the food and water the dishes hang inside the cage so I have to stick my hand in her cage. I checked her and she isn't getting worse still no clicking noise or wheezing, just beak breathing and seeing her heart beat. I will definitly check out the herbs. If the antibiotics don't help her hopefully the herbs will.