FINCHforum

I am on vacation in Hawaii. I have been gone two days and each day my caretaker has texted me that a bird has died. The two birds are from an outside aviary and they have been out there for at least a month. No extreme temperatures. One was a BCCB and the other was a gouldian. The aviary has BCCBs, gouldians, zebras and societies in it (about 8 total). I don't know what to do exactly. My caretaker is a 15 yr old boy who is very responsible and is freaking out (me too actually). I had told him in advance that these birds are fragile and that not to be surprised if one died. Of course that is easy to say. I don't want to traumatize him any further nor do I want lose any more birds if possible. I have a full complement of medicines (TMP/sulfa, amox) available and I am sure he is capable of mixing them up if necessary. Should I treat for something presumptively or wait another day. All these birds were quarantined and treated for everything (s76, worm away, ronivet, tmp/sx) when I got them several months ago and no new birds have been added to the cage. Could just be an unlucky coincidence but I hate to sit and wait. I am leaning towards the TMP/sulfa as I hear Cocci can cause sudden death and we did have some rain a week or two ago (though their cage stayed pretty dry and dried out quickly in the sun). I am trying to get my caretaker to look at the birds a little more closely and see if any are puffy or breathing hard? They all looked great on Sunday!
Any advice would be appreciated,
Lori

Lori, prior to you going away did you have the boy feed and water them a few times so they get use to him? Perhaps they were startled and it was an accident. I would be reluctant to medicate without knowing what happened or why.

Could that one bird have flown into the cage side and broken it's neck or injuried itself?

The boy has taken care of them for me in the past and there were no problems. I don't know about whether they could have injured themselves but one bird died one day and the other bird died the next. Different species. He doesn't enter the cages to feed them...there is a door at bottom of cage that he can access water and egg food. I doubt he frightened them much.
thanks,
Lori

That is hard news to get when you are out of town and can't do a thing about it. Since the two birds that died came from an outdoor aviary, could there be any night critters (cats, racoons, owls, etc.) that could have frightened or attacked the birds? Is there any chance that the waterers leaked or fell off and the birds went without water for a considerable time? Could a neighbor have sprayed a nearby yard with pesticides and some of it drifted into your yard?

It doesn't make a lot of sense that the birds looked great on Sunday, and a day later there was a dead bird, and a day later yet another. Doesn't sound like disease, though finches are very good at hiding illness.

I would guess it is environmental or an accident. Probably, your only option would be if the birds could be caught up, caged, and moved indoors. I too would hesitate to medicate unless you know what you might be dealing with.

And this may sound terrible, and please forgive me if it does, but there is not much you can do from Hawaii, and it would be a shame to have your vacation ruined by something that is out of your control.

The two may have been startled by a noise or animal in the yard, etc and accidently flew into each other, one more injured than the other and passed away before the other. I've seen birds collide when startled...perhaps this is what happened.

Sorry this is happeneing while you are away trying to relax. If you loose no others, perhaps then it was an accident.

Thanks for the response. I had not considered some other non-disease related cause of death. I have several sources of water in each cage because of my fear of one or another waterer being knocked over so I don't think it is that. I will ask the boy though. I had just changed all the waterers in all my cages prior to leaving. Cats or raccoons could have come by but my dogs pretty much keep them out. There is a sheltered area in the aviary so they have somewhere to get shelter from other animals but it is a possibility. As for neighbors spraying, that is also a possibility but their gardener was over there the day before we left so it would have to have been several days after exposure. I am trying to get the boy back to check on the others more closely and will guide him (as I am able) to check to see how the other birds are looking. He has seen puffy birds before in my hospital cage so I think he can tell me if they look like that. If they are then I think I am compelled to act on that. Can't decide whether to do amox or tmp/sx.
Thanks for your thoughts about my vacation. It does nag at me a bit but I won't let it ruin my vacation....I know there are risks with these little birds. I actually am more concerned about the boy taking care of them. He is a sensitive kid who is very responsible and I don't want him to be traumatized by this too much.
Lori

I can understand your concern about the boy caring for your birds. Back in the 70s, I went on vacation and had a neighborhood boy take care of the birds. One bird died while I was gone, and this poor boy worried that it was something he had done. He actually put the dead bird in the freezer so I could check it when I got home. It took some reassurance from me before he felt better about it.

Since my children, ages 11 and 13 help with out birds and we have lost several since owning finches, I can add my thoughts. I hope this is helpful. I tell the kids that we are doing our best to care for them and sometimes they die and we may not always know the reason, but we can take comfort in knowing we are taking good care of them and we are concerned about their health and happiness. If one dies, we try to make sure it is not something contagious or something we missed and then, we must let it go. They have learned to deal with this life lesson and I believe it helps them in other of life's tough situations. I am sure he will do the same if you give him your take on the finches and death and illness. Good Luck.

Hi Lori,
Is your outside aviary heated? I only ask because it's been unseasonably cold here in San Francisco due to a cold front. Our temperatures are in the 50's at night.

My aviary isn't heated but it is generally warmer in Oakland than san Francisco. It does get down into 50's at night but these birds have been out there for a while (when it was more cold). Update for this morning is that there are no new dead birds! A couple are puffy per my caretaker but they are moving around. I am having him give probiotics fir the next couple of days...figure it can't hurt. I have a new theory though.
It is based on the fact that the birds that jave died are such an odd constellation of birds to be affected. A couple of weeks back as I was giving my BCCBs their mealworms I decided to sprinkle a couple of worms on the egg food in all the other cages. I just did it one day to see if they would be interested in them (I had a lot of mealworms to use up). Most of them disnt seem too interested so that is why I didn't put anymore in there after that one day (except for BCCBs which continued to get them). In my mealworm container I use carrots for moisture/food and they had gotten a little moldy. I obviously replaced those carrots but I am wondering if the mealworms ate the carrots with mold and if the birds ate the mealworms could the birds have gotten a gut dose of fungus that is multiplying in the gut up to the point that they are now getting sick and dying. All the birds that have died were exposed to those mealworms at that time. This accounts for different birds in different places dying as I had moved some of those birds to different cages. The problem with this theory's that it was 2-3 weeks ago that the birds were exposed. But maybe it would take some time for the yeast/fungus to grow in the gut. I am giving the probiotics (sprinkled on food) to see if maybe this can help establish a more normal gut flora. It's just a theory but all I can come up with at this point. With a couple of puffy birds today I am worried I will have more casualties tomorrow
My caretaker seems to be doing okay with all this though so that is good.
Cross your fingers for me!
Lori

Can he put a heat lamp next to the aviary?
That way if the heat will help, the puffed birds can get next to the lamp.

I would like to just toss another thought out there. This is an outside avery if I'm reading things correctly. What has the weather been like? I'm not talking about cold or warm. I'm talking about storms. Could there have been some birds startled because of a flash of lightening/clap of thunder and then they panicked and flew into something, hurting themselves to the point of no return? Not a common thing to occur but not unheard of either. As I said, this thought crossed my mind so I'm just tossing it in the mix with the others.

Thanks Mary for thinking of me and the birds. I know that people in other parts of the country get violent summer weather but here in Oakland the only inclement weather we get during summer is fog . No lightening or thunder to speak of. I guess that's why we live here!
Gary I put a lamp on the cage and will leave it on 24-7.
Lori

Update...two days and no new dead birds!!! I added a heat lamp to the outside aviary where the last two females died. I feel much better but am still afraid in the morning that I will get a text that tells me there is a new dead bird. Two days is pretty good though so I am crossing my fingers!
Lori
PS. I am going to dump all my mealworms as I really have a hunch that somehow they were involved in all this...they are the only commonality to all the birds that died.

I pray that you have found the culprit, and that there are no more losses