FINCHforum

I'm in SoCal, and it's been uncharacteristically cold the past 2 weeks.
I have an outdoor aviary and I noticed one of my male Gouldians (Stevie Wonder) stopped his daily singing and started heavy breathing. The rest of the 20 Gouldians appear to be fine and happily sleeping with a heat lamp in the aviary.

I brought him inside to the hospital cage and put him on Ronivet 12% and a drop of Scatt on his leg.

Day 1 showed little improvement.
Day 2 showed much more activity and the return of chirping.
Day 3 showed improved activity, eating, chirping but no singing.
Day 4 - RIP.

Could the Scatt and Ronivet have overloaded his system?

Other than some non surviving tossed chicks, this is my third adult loss this year and its no fun. My wife is going to be really sad. Stevie Wonder was one of her favorites with his all day singing and antics. He was a BH, WC, GB and tried every day to court a BH, PC, YB hen who would have nothing to do with him because she already had a mate.

How do you treat your Gouldians if you notice they stop being themselves?

So sorry to hear of your loss.....It never gets easy

How do you treat your Gouldians if you notice they stop being themselves?

What I do for all of my finches pretty immediately -- because if they are looking poorly they are already in trouble:

1. Separate into hospital cage. Provide warmth,water and favorite foods inc. millet. (Sick birds will often eat millet when they will not eat anything else).
2. Observe -- look at poops and overall behavior
3. Diagnose based on #2 and any environmental factors.
4. Treat and hope for the best.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

Sorry about your lost hen. I lost 3 goulds, a green singing, a male RCCB and Lavender recently, not because of the cold but due to sudden move to another aviary. I live in Socal too and I agree with you that it's very cold at night recently. Last night was 41 and the night before it dropped down to 39. My outdoor aviaries dont have any heat source, the back of my aviaries is right nest to the block wall, I covered 2 sides of the avairies at night, I'm thinking about covering all sides to reduce the cold. I'll probably put some heat lamps out there for them soon. Each aviary is 12 feet long, not sure how many heat lamp would be sufficient.

There are medication interactions that you have to be careful of.
Using the MorningBird drug interaction chart
http://www.gouldiansgalore.net/Photo_Al ... _Chart.jpg
I equate SCATT to Iverlux, and Ronivet to Ronex
That combination is advised to NOT be used at the same time, so there could be adverse drug interaction between the 2 medications.

I would use SCATT only if a bird has ASM, or as part of the quarantine procedure. SCATT is quite strong and an overdose could also be a factor in his dying.

First thing I normally do is to separate the bird and put a heat lamp on the hospital cage. Hopefully heat is all that is needed for the bird to recuperate.
I might give NV powder in the water, if the bird looks "run down." But be careful as NV powder is sugar and cannot be left out very long.
Selection of medication would depend on what the symptoms are. Pay attention to the drug interaction chart and separate different medications by at least 2 days.

Coming into and during winter I add oils to the birds seed,feed them hulled oats to put plenty of fat on them in winter.It gets down to
28 F here,The birds can handle the cold but they cannot handle cold draughts so it is very important to keep the cold winds off the birds with clear panels to stop the wind chill factor.