Open mouth breathing with faint sound-Hen Grey Singer

[frenchstyle712]

My singer starting doing this about 2 days ago. She hasn't laid an egg for awhile, but droppings are fine. She is not in a pair, but in a large flight cage with a rescued spice, adopted society and Gloucester Canary (all are male). She appears a little fluffed up. The research I've done so far leads me to think she may have air sac mites. Please help with suggestions. Thank you.

[cindy]

did you put the bird to your ear in a quiet room, is it a clear ticking noise or a wet sticky sound... several things other than ASM can cause sound, clicking like internal parasites (not mites), yeast, bacterial infection, trichomonas. Do you have a vet?

[Sally]

There is a long stickie in the Health forum covering air sac mites. In that stickie, debbie276 has posted one way to check for air sac mites, I am copying it here:

Usually by the time you hear and see symptoms they have had ASM for quite a while, it doesn't just happen over night.
A positive diagnoses can be done by wetting the feathers on the neck and trans-illuminate the trachea with a bright penlight. It's best done in a dark room, the mites can be seen as dark pinhead size moving spots in the trachea.

If you don't see ASM's then your bird may have a respiratory infection .

Here is a link to that stickie:

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5255

[cindy]

also fatty liver can make breathing difficult as well

[frenchstyle712]

thank you! I am getting ready to do a dark room with a penlight and have a call into my vet.

[frenchstyle712]

Thank you for the responses. I've put her in a separate cage and room and took a couple videos.


https://youtu.be/08VhOEkDze0

https://youtu.be/ND5FCGxQ2js

I took her to The Bird Hut in PDX this morning to treat for air sac mites, but they do not think she has mites since she shows no sign of them. Also, she is molting.

Thanks for looking!

[cindy]

do you have an avian vet... your bird is in respiratory distress... you can hear it squeaking and popping

[cindy]

to me it does not sound like asm but more like trichomonas or yeast... a vet can do a swab to confirm.

[Shannylee]

That's hard to watch. I hope your little singer pulls through. Hopefully, your vet was able to give you some meds. If you don't have an avian vet, another resource would be to talk to a breeder. They might be able to advise on what could be causing this and what meds to use. I belong to a facebook group that has been a tremendous help to me too (finchaholics...and I believe it is run by a member of the forum). Thankfully, I also have a store that specializes in birds 5 minutes from my house and he carries all of the meds I've needed. I wish the best for you and your little hen.

[lem2bert]

frenchstyle712

Poor little girl. I hope she is ok !!

[cindy]

If this was ASM you would have heard something in the bird before it would get to this point, hope you found a vet to help your bird.