FINCHforum

I was cleaning out my finch flight today and noticed my female Shaft-tail has some feathers missing on her head right under her eye. While I was cleaning the cage, she scratched the area with the missing feathers twice. It made me think if she might not have lice or mites, however we have gotten no new birds and they are in an indoor flight with no contact with wild birds or other pet birds. We do have dogs and occasionally leave the back door open for air, which they aren't really too close to, but i don't know if mites or lice could get in that way. A few days before I noticed the feathers missing, she was on the bottom of the cage breathing very heavily. She does this occasionally, usually before or along with severe twitching, which we assume are siezures that she's had since we've gotten her. The other day, one of our silverbills was preening her, but I don't think he pulled any feathers and she wasn't complaining about the preening. You can't tell from this pic, but she is missing enough feathers that if she moves her head just right I can see her ear. I haven't seen any of the other birds harassing her. Is it possible she could have mites or lice without coming in contact with a new bird and without the other birds seeming to have issues, or did she just get plucked and for some reason is itching it often.



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How is she today? She sure does look fluffed in that pic and yes I can see her ear too.

I would put a heatlamp on her cage and if she has not been treated for ASM - then give her a drop of Scatt.

Yesterday I didn't get a good look at her head, but she was acting fine. Chewing on the cuttlebone in the cage and normal bird stuff. I checked on her this morning and she was on the bottom of the cage breathing heavily again, and at some point went into her nest. I could not tell if she was still breathing heavily in there or not. I also snapped another pic of her, I think the missing feathers look worse, but it could be my imagination. The rest of the birds look and are acting fine.



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She does not look happy at all. Have you treated her for mites?

Could it be a really bad molt? Otherwise it might be best to treat her for mites. You can also try to give her a bath with small amount of sea salt, it can help clean the feathers and skin.
But I don't like the fact that she is sticking to the cage bottom...

No, I have not treated her for mites, since I wasn't sure if that's what she had. I'm assuming the treatment is not something that will hurt her if she doesn't have them?

No ,treating her will do her absolutely no harm. In fact all of my birds are treated during quarantine, unless the owner is someone I know who lets me know that it has been done recently.

Ok, we went to the store yesterday, and in lieu of them having any bottles of Scatt, I purchased a medication called Iverlux. It says to add 1/2 teaspoon of it to a quart of clean drinking water. I've never done this before, and wanted to know how long to leave this water in their flight. Do I leave it all in there until all of the medicated water is gone, should I leave it in for only 24 hours? The bottle doesn't say, but I don't want to over-medicate them. Also, they sometimes take baths in their drinking water, even though its a dish that supposed to be "bath-proof", I'm guessing it won't hurt them to bathe in the medicated water?