Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

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ac12
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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by ac12 » Sun Jun 23, 2013 12:49 pm

Ginene,

Hang in there.

I had a similar problem when one of my CFL lamps went bad and released "something" into the air. It STUNK the entire room. I lost several gouldians within a month or so, and several more were/are in bad shape (feathers constantly fluffed) over a year later. I lost about 1/5 of my gouldians from that incident, including breeding stock :cry:

I have also lost almost an entire tank of tropical fishes, several times. And that gets expensive, especially with harder to find fishes. Because it is in a tank, ALL the fishes in the tank get affected when one comes down with something. I have yet to restart my fish tank. Every time I look at the empty tank I get frustrated. My wife has been trying to get me to restart the tank.

As was said. Keep it it in perspective.
As much as it hurts, these are your pets, it isn't your son.
Gary

gouldians (GB,YB,BB), blackbelly firefinches (trying to breed), societies (foster parents).
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finchmix22
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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by finchmix22 » Sun Jun 23, 2013 1:31 pm

Wow, Ginene, I finally read the whole thread! What a tragic situation and I totally empathize. :( Like Sally, I had a problem about 2 1/2 years ago, when two of my rccb's just died within an hour of me finding them fluffed. They had a disease I was not familiar with at the time and I had to clean and do all of disinfecting stuff to make sure no one caught the illness. I saved all the flock, except the two rccb's, but I think it was because I found them right away, even though, they died.

I agree with everyone else's comments that you should give them Probiotics. I have not used any other probiotic, except Morning Bird, so I don't know the difference in the type of illness (pox), but my birds always perk up after a cycle of probiotic.

You and your finches are in my prayers. [-o< [-o<
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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by lou » Sun Jun 23, 2013 2:34 pm

Hi Ginene, bummer, Don from house of crests ( canary breeder ) has a good probie ( live ) bacteria
I use a plain yogurt- chobani brand, mix a little in their eggfood or just pinch in the water and change
that same day. It works!
Now about the pox, if it is really pox expect up to 90% mortality in your flock.Always good to relocate infected birds to another place, As noted, this stuff has many avenues to get to other birds.
Did you or the vet happen to look inside the birds mouth? Any signs of yellow cheesy growths inside? It can be canker- it would be better than pox. You can call Maggie at birds express and get the vaccine from her (expensive ) I think you might have to have a resale license ( not sure though )or have the vet get it for you. One can also use F10sc to disinfect everything in the bird room, None corrosive. I have had the pigeon pox many times when racing pigeons, not as bad as the canary pox
lou

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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by Nerien » Sun Jun 23, 2013 5:54 pm

when one of my CFL lamps went bad and released "something" into the air. It STUNK the entire room.
There is BAD STUFF in fluorescent lights! You are lucky you didn't lose everybody!

Sometimes it is the ballast in the fixture that goes bad and has a meltdown. Also very bad stuff. One place I worked, big old building with overhead hanging fluorescent light fixtures, the ballasts would occasionally go bad. You'd start to smell something like burning sugar, if you didn't realize it right away and turn off the offending light immediately, you'd turn around to see a huge cloud of smoke around one of the lights, and the stink would fill the room. Somehow, one of the darling maintenance men mixed a box of bad ballasts in with the good ones in the stockroom, so they were burning almost as fast as they could replace them. Ugh!

A million years ago, back in school, one of the fluorescent lights went bad and released "stuff" during my french class. The teacher, who was too high strung to be teaching 8th grade, was fed up with us and refused to let us leave the room. In fact, he shut the door and kept us and all the smoke and smell in there. I coughed like I had bad bronchitis for over 6 months before it started to ease off. I hope he did the same, the jerk.

Fluorescent lights are really bad news when they go bad. Immediate removal and fresh air for all living things!!!

Nerien

Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by Nerien » Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:00 pm

Ginene,

I understand completely about the little BC's. No problem.

Besides, I am still getting away with 8 zebras relatively peacefully in my double petco cage set up, which shouldn't really be working. If I took in any more zebras, I'd have to start another cage because I wouldn't dare upset the balance in there.

And then another cage would mean extra room for more finches, which would mean either breeding them or buying them or rehoming them, which would then lead to filling cages, which would then lead to needing/wanting more cages, which would then give me more room for extras, which would then.....

Hubby and I and daughter spent all day today cleaning 4 of 5 cages thoroughly, which was overdue. Still have Spice cage, guinea pig cage, and degu cage to go, on another day because we are exhausted. Much as I hate to say it, No New Birdies.


(yet. :lol: )


(I wonder if I can hire someone to come clean cages for me...?)

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Ginene
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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by Ginene » Mon Jun 24, 2013 12:57 pm

Nerien
Lost my 1st Gouldian this morning. :(

Nerien

Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by Nerien » Mon Jun 24, 2013 1:03 pm

Oh no! So sorry. :|

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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by Nanajennie » Mon Jun 24, 2013 1:57 pm

Oh Ginene. I am sorry!
Jennie

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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by Musetta » Mon Jun 24, 2013 2:06 pm

I am very sorry to hear this. How are you holding up?
Rachel

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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by Nanajennie » Mon Jun 24, 2013 6:55 pm

Ginene wrote: Nerien
Lost my 1st Gouldian this morning. :(
What happened? was it an adult? I saw that at work and all I could do was post a quick reply.

Was it related to the pox? or do you not know yet? Ugh, I feel so bad for you I wish I could wave a magic wand for you! But I can pray, and I am.

:(
Jennie

Coconut: Pineapple Green Cheek Conure LOVE OF MY LIFE

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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by finchmix22 » Mon Jun 24, 2013 7:01 pm

So sorry you've lost another finch! This kind of situation makes us all sick at heart. My prayers go to you and your babies. [-o< [-o<
DEBORAH

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Ginene
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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by Ginene » Mon Jun 24, 2013 8:52 pm

finchmix22@Nanajennie@Musetta
Thanks Guys...I can only assume its the virus. She was puffed up at the bottom of her cage at 9am (She never perched after this, so I gave her a flat surface to rest on at the cage bottom) I gave her a drop of liquid calcium and put her in the hospital cage with a heat lamp and all the support goodies. I gave her another drop of liquid calcium at 11am but she already looked worse...not able to stand, wings spread out to balance herself, feathers missing from her head (weird), her vent was perfect. She looked awful right before noon, so I held her in my hand while I sat in the recliner, and she died in my hands at noon. Very peaceful...just stopped breathing...
And so we wait and watch the others very closely...the vet said to expect this over the next month or so...Lil Joe is hanging in. The Shaft Tails were technically Daddy's birds and Bella was mine...I think this makes it a tiny bit easier on him, but if "His" finches start dying, its going to be very hard for him to deal with. We are burying Bella in the garden tomorrow. Lil Joe was upset that the vet "buried" Romeo and Juliet, but it was really for the best. I will keep you all updated. Thanks again and again for the love.

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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by Lisa » Mon Jun 24, 2013 10:24 pm

she already looked worse...not able to stand, wings spread out to balance herself,
Ginene, these are classic signs of eggbinding as the pressure from an unlaid egg can cause severe pressure on the spine effecting their ability to perch and/or even stand. Often when they have wings splayed like that, they are also straining to lay the egg (which may or may not be noticeable). An eggbound hen will usually pass away in a matter of hours if she is unable to lay the egg. I had one shaft tail hen that I had to administer drops about 4-5 times over a matter of 2-3 hours because she was severely eggbound. Did not even think she was going to make it as she was going downhill fast. Thankfully, she finally laid and took a few hours to recover and was fine.

I'm sorry, I'm still suspect of this vet's visual diagnosis of something as extreme as avian pox based on visual only and when only one of your birds has had any sort of lesion. Sally's story about her vet doing the same thing even with a confirmed test that later turned out to be a false reading further makes me wonder. I can respect that you want to listen to the vet's advice but I've heard almost non-stop stories of misdiagnosis from avian vets and very few stories of avian vets actually successfully treating finches (and other birds). With a diagnosis this rare and extreme, if it was me I would certainly demand more proof before I would believe it, and certainly a second opinion. I consider my birds to be members of my family - if my husband or one of my kids received a diagnosis of a terminal illness, I would want more than just one opinion. I do think you are doing all the right things in taking precautions, maintaining a cautious attitude, I would just hate for you to go through all this heartbreak only to find out you were yet ANOTHER person wrongly diagnosed.

Even with people doctors, they can often and do make mistakes. When I was pregnant with my middle son, I had some unexpected bleeding and was taken to the emergency room. They admitted me and one of the obstetricians from my obstetrics group visited me. She told me in no uncertain terms that I was having a late-term miscarriage and it was certain the baby would die. As you can imagine, I was absolutely devastated. That was one of the hardest nights of my life. By the way, my son just turned 24 on June 7th. He's alive and well, no medical problems, in fact he was bumped up TWO grades ahead of his classmates during elementary school and junior high so no mental side effects or anything either. This doctor basically just decided to state her opinion or lack of knowledge as truth and unfortunately, I thought doctor's had so much knowledge they could never be wrong. Found out that was not the case but so glad she was wrong, I have a darling son to prove it.

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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by dayhiker » Mon Jun 24, 2013 10:30 pm

Just catching up to this again, I am so sorry that you continue to lose your well loved finches. I couldn't post a response as I didn't know what else to say but say some prayers for their health and your peace of mind and heart.

I hope there is a good turn of events and that you feel better bad your finches be healthier in your care.

Ed
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Re: Strange Growth on Shaft Tail's Beak

Post by debbie276 » Tue Jun 25, 2013 6:48 am

I'm sorry and I may be out of line here (probably not the first time) but I don't think it is helpful at all to question Ginene's vet and her qualifications. I'm sure Ginene doesn't need to hear this over and over when she's trying to keep it together and get through this.
A vet that works in a zoo and private practice and has experienced this disease before first hand, in my book is experienced enough to give me guidance and advise.

Sorry if I offended anyone, this just breaks my heart and Ginene needs support not criticism. :(
Debbie
long time breeder of lady gouldians:
Green
SF Pastel (SF Yellow)
Pastel (Yellow)
Blue
SF Pastel Blue (SF Yellow Blue)
Pastel Blue (Yellow Blue)

GREAT articles on avian lighting:
https://mickaboo.org/confluence/downloa ... ummary.pdf
http://www.naturallighting.com/cart/sto ... sc_page=56

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