Finch Died: Unsure of Cause

[james.uk]

Hello, I'm new here and I'm looking for some advice.

We have recently erected a large outdoor avairy, and, since a few days ago, have a number of finches living in there (Bengalese, Zebra and Java). They all appeared very well and active yesterday, but, very sadly, this morning one of the Bengalese was found dead on the floor of the aviary.

We have never kept finches before, or any birds for that matter, so we are extremely new to this.

At first there appeared to be no obvious signs of the cause of death, but on closer inspection I noticed its neck did not feel quite right as it seemed to be very weakly attached, so I parted the feathers and discovered a wound of sorts.

What is confusing though is the nature of the wound. It is very significant and yet shows no signs of bleeding. It's almost as if the skin had slowly split open and healed around the edges.

I will try to post a photograph so you can see what I mean. There is no blood and before parting the feathers the wound was not visible.

If any one has ever seen a wound like this before or has any advice we would be grateful for your input.

Thank you.

[StodOne]

Have you noticed maybe how this society was behaving?
Was he showing signs of sickness eg. fluffed up , not singing , not active , on the ground a lot?
Maybe it was an infection , maybe he pierced his skin with something and the wound got infected over time .
The neck is pretty normal to feel "loose" after a bird has died ..
Also according to your nick name , I believe you are from UK .
I don't think that the weather in UK is quite adequate for finches , maybe only during the summer
also the worst finch killers are drafts , always secure your aviary so there cant be strong winds hitting your birds , put nests in so that they can hide ..

[Sheather]

It is a ruptured crop, the organ that holds a finch's food before it passes to the stomach. There is no blood because the crop is only made of thin skin, and there wouldn't be enough to really bleed. Additionally, the bird probably didn't die immediately after the injury.

It may have been torn in any way, it's not a common injury, but in theory it could happen in any way if the bird got caught on anything in the enclosure. Once torn, any food the finch ate would have just fallen out of its neck. The finch probably starved.

I wouldn't worry about your other birds. This sounds like a freak accident, nothing contagious or likely to recur.

Your climate should be good for the birds you are keeping so long as they are protected from wind in the winter.

[james.uk]

Have you noticed maybe how this society was behaving?
Was he showing signs of sickness eg. fluffed up , not singing , not active , on the ground a lot?
Maybe it was an infection , maybe he pierced his skin with something and the wound got infected over time .
The neck is pretty normal to feel "loose" after a bird has died ..
Also according to your nick name , I believe you are from UK .
I don't think that the weather in UK is quite adequate for finches , maybe only during the summer
also the worst finch killers are drafts , always secure your aviary so there cant be strong winds hitting your birds , put nests in so that they can hide ..

Thank you for responding. We have only had our birds for a few days and I did not see any unusual behaviour at all, all of the birds were behaving as normal as far as I could tell (and still are -apart from the dead one). The wound did not appear inflamed and did not smell.

I have put in nest-boxes to sheild them and also a hutch insulated with a thick layer of straw, both of which are already being used by the birds now. I am also unsure about the weather in the winter, but the lady I bought them from said they would be fine and so have others. I know it varies a lot depending on the type of finch. I will certainly do more research.

The birds have the hutch and lots of nest boxes to shelter from the wind and the aviary is in a narrow garden enclosed by 6-8 foot hedges with 6 foot fence panels behind them. Do you think they need more protection? Maybe I should cover some of the sides during the winter months?

Thank you again.

[james.uk]

It is a ruptured crop, the organ that holds a finch's food before it passes to the stomach. There is no blood because the crop is only made of thin skin, and there wouldn't be enough to really bleed. Additionally, the bird probably didn't die immediately after the injury.

It may have been torn in any way, it's not a common injury, but in theory it could happen in any way if the bird got caught on anything in the enclosure. Once torn, any food the finch ate would have just fallen out of its neck. The finch probably starved.

I wouldn't worry about your other birds. This sounds like a freak accident, nothing contagious or likely to recur.

Your climate should be good for the birds you are keeping so long as they are protected from wind in the winter.

Thank you for the advice.

I should have said the wound is on the bird's back, between its wings, so I don't think it is the crop that is showing.

On inspection of the wound it did not appear that any internal organs were cut/split/torn. I would guess the lung would be the first organ reached from that area, but as I say, it appears that only the skin is torn.

I would expect bleeding from skin being torn as it would need a blood supply to stay alive, but yet there was no evidence of blood, and the edges of the wound appeared fully healed, which makes me think the bird must have cleaned itself after healing and the wound had healed open, but I am not sure. It's a shame that it wasn't noticeable as a result of it being hidden beneath the bird's feathers with no evidence visible.

Do you think the birds' access to next boxes and an enclosed hutch insulated with straw (both of which contain plently of nesting material), would be sufficient shelter from the wind during the winter, or do you think I need to cover some of the ends of the aviary with some sheets of plastic during the winter?

Thank you again for the input.

[Sheather]

To me it still looks like a ruptured crop, the crop is basically a bag on both sides of the neck. It's accessible from the back.

[james.uk]

Thanks -I didn't realise that it could break the skin on the back of the bird. How long do you think it will have taken him/her to die from that? Do you think it has been an open wound for sometime?
Also do you know what the cause could be?
Thanks again.

[StodOne]

james.uk I think that societies are more hardy then the rest of finch species ( English not my native language sorry if I pronounced and said some things wrong) but still I am not sure what temperature they can tolerate .
Autstralian finches need a minimum of 20 degrees celsius or higher , +/- 5 degrees , Societies originate from Asia I think ..
I live in Serbia which is not that far away from UK , still I think the weather here is a bit hotter and I am afraid to make an aviary and put them there.
They would probably need some covers to keep the heat in the aviary and a heater during the winter .. always use a thermometer in an aviary so you know when you would need to turn the heater on ( Do not put the thermometer inside the aviary if it has mercury , put it on the outside of the aviary .
Canaries on the other hand can handle colder weather , if you adjusted their temperature slowly and carefully , they can withstand freezing temperatures ^_^

[wildbird]

The injury looks like it happened some time ago and the bird lived long enough for it to heal substantially. It later could have ruptured an air sac near that injury, being so close, and died rather quickly. I understand that there are air sacs in that area. I once had a sparrow with a minor injury to one. A good avian vet diagnosed that and it was in that area.

[james.uk]

james.uk I think that societies are more hardy then the rest of finch species ( English not my native language sorry if I pronounced and said some things wrong) but still I am not sure what temperature they can tolerate .
Autstralian finches need a minimum of 20 degrees celsius or higher , +/- 5 degrees , Societies originate from Asia I think ..
I live in Serbia which is not that far away from UK , still I think the weather here is a bit hotter and I am afraid to make an aviary and put them there.
They would probably need some covers to keep the heat in the aviary and a heater during the winter .. always use a thermometer in an aviary so you know when you would need to turn the heater on ( Do not put the thermometer inside the aviary if it has mercury , put it on the outside of the aviary .
Canaries on the other hand can handle colder weather , if you adjusted their temperature slowly and carefully , they can withstand freezing temperatures ^_^

Thanks. Do you know if that applies to all Australian finches? The only Austrailian finches here are zebra finches.

[james.uk]

The injury looks like it happened some time ago and the bird lived long enough for it to heal substantially. It later could have ruptured an air sac near that injury, being so close, and died rather quickly. I understand that there are air sacs in that area. I once had a sparrow with a minor injury to one. A good avian vet diagnosed that and it was in that area.

Thanks. I thought similarly about this. The birds have only been here for about a week, so I wonder if the wound occurred before they arrived as the healing of the edges seems complete. Perhaps the bird then ruptured an air sac bumping into the aviary (they had been in a very small cage before we had them).