FINCHforum

I had a lone american singer canary for a few weeks as well as a pair of bccb finches and some green singers. I noticed the american singer breathed faster than what I thought was normal but continued to sing and eat well, my blue capped cordon bleus seemed well but one day I found the hen hopping around the bottom of the cage looking thin and week. I isolated her and gave her lots of different foods and within a day she seemed to regain her strength but I am still puzzled as to why she seemed ill initially. My green singers have always looked ok but now that I've acquired 7 new canaries and paid good money for them I am thinking of buying several different medications and treating them all at once. I'll definitely be using an ASM treatment but am unsure of what else to use. I don't want to unnecessarily medicate, so would baytril be a good choice to use for a respiratory infection? The canary I had orginally didn't respond to SCATT, and he hasn't been singing as well.

I was also wondering how long after I treat them with medicines should I wait before attempting to breed them, when I bought them the original breeder had them in their breeding cages ready to go and had just introduced the pairs together. I separated the males in individual cages and kept all the females in a smaller flight cage with no nests or anything. Is there something I should or should not do to prevent the hens from becoming eggboung? I wonder because if any of them were mated then they would have no where to lay their developing eggs.

Hmmm you have a lot going on there but I'll answer one part.

I treat all incoming birds with Scatt and deworming in the drinking water (including my Canaries).

Congrats on getting the new birds. I hope it all works out for them breeding. I'll let those more experienced answer those questions.

thanks, I've never had to deal with animals that have to be treated with medications regularly.

I personally haven't treated new birds with any kind of antibiotics, just the SCATT and wormer, as Liz does. I just hesitate to give too many medications, as unless you know what you are treating, you can do more harm than good. Baytril is one I would not use just as a preventative. Some on here have used Ronivet during their quarantine.

As far as eggbinding, if you feed a good balanced diet that includes eggfood, veggies and a mineral mix, and the hen has room to fly and get exercise, you should be OK. Hens don't get eggbound because they have nowhere to lay the eggs, they will lay them on the floor of the cage if they have to.

I agree with Sally and Liz, I only treat new birds with Scatt and a de-wormer, nothing else. Quarantine them for at least a month and watch for signs of illness, then treat accordingly if you need to.
Good luck

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I'll treat everyone for air sac mites and a dewormer and see how they look a few days later. I'm glad to hear hens don't become eggbound from having no suitable nesting sites. I have quite a few reptiles and females do sometimes become eggbound if there isn't a suitable nesting site.