FINCHforum

On Sunday, April 15, we came home to find one of our female zebra finches quite wobbly. Since she had been laying so many eggs (Mistake #1), we concluded that it was calcium deficiency. Since we didn't have any liquid calcium on hand (Mistake #2), we mixed up some Prime vitamin water and fed that to her with an eye dropper once or twice a day. We also put it in her water. Slowly, over the course of a week, she got better. Since she was almost completely back to normal on Saturday, April 21, we discontinued the vitamin water (Mistake #3) and allowed her in with the other birds (Mistake #4). This Monday, April 23, she "regressed" worse than the initial sickness. Over the past three days, since we still hadn't ordered any liquid calcium (Mistake #5), we have been trying various things to no avail. We tried human liquid calcium from the pharmacy on Tuesday (three drops over the course of the day), but there was no visible improvement. At present, she is in a small (1 foot x 1 foot x 6 inches) hospital cage, with her mate, with a 60 watt lightbulb over her (it is about 82 degrees F in the cage). We put seed, water, egg food, and oyster shell in small, low dishes (spice container lids) on the floor of the cage. Since we also didn't have any hand-feeding formula on hand (Mistake #6) We have been giving her Prime vitamin water and whey protein powder with honey water three times a day. While she seems alert and can fly around the room given the chance, she still is very, very weak, thin, and doesn't really have the use of her legs. She can move her legs, but she can't support herself on them. I did order liquid calcium, Thrive, and Vitalize last night. Hopefully they arrive as soon as possible. I share this in the hopes that others won't repeat my mistakes. Is there anything else I can do?

I can't really help you. I'm knew to finches and still learning myself, but I hope and pray she will get better.

Thank you for sharing your "mistakes".
I've made a series of my own this past week, and posts like yours will help me avoid future ones!
Fingers crossed for your little one!

This topic thread may help you some...

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19782

While she may not want to be alone, I would not put her mate with her. Don't want her breeding again. She needs to spend her energy recovering, not mating.

I would also give her chopped up fresh egg.

Thanks so much for the well wishes. Cindy: I have been following that post, but thanks again. This has been far more stressful and frustrating than I would have imagined. While I have ordered liquid calcium, I just found out that it won't be here until Monday. I called four different pet stores; none of them carried it. I called a vet clinic that claimed it treated birds, but they didn't have any either. I called the university vet school in town; they DO carry it, but they won't sell any to me because I'm not a client. I have one more place to call, I REALLY hope they can help me.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I did manage to find some liquid calcium for humans at the Whole Foods Store. I have been giving one drop to her twice a day for several days. She has been showing SLOW improvement. My Morning Glory Calcium Plus arrived in the mail today though! Yay! I gave her one drop at 2:30 pm. Does anyone know when I could/should give her a second drop (depending on if she is showing improvement or not)? Thank you!

With the human grade I would follow Kenny's outline. It seems to work quicker and helped Dee's bird out. In regards to the other product I am not familiar with it. Try calling the company/maker of the product and ask their recommendations on dosage in this situation.

The dilution rate for water based calcium supplements is 10ml per litre. I mentioned in a previous post that weak legs and frail condition is indicative of calcium deficiency and if this is so and the bird is in a very poor state then it is possible for something else to eventuate. I would keep in a cage by herself and continue the calcium drops as mentioned as this can take weeks to improve-depending on the level of deficiency and eggs laid etc. I would definitely put her in a cage by herself because it is impossible to monitor progress when she is mixed with other birds. You mentioned she originally improved but regressed when in the group aviary which seems to tell me that when placed with a male she goes into breeding mode and doesn't have enough calcium reserves. Don't forget that the call on calcium reserves starts well before the beginning of egg production so just being with the male will trigger that process. Birds with this deficiency are completely worn out and in a state of total exhaustion. Just as with any human, rest and palliative food is the key. If all other birds are fineit is unlikely to be either worms or coccidiosis. Anyway I would not give any other medication until the treatment with calcium is finished. Keep me posted

So the state of things today is that she has eaten a lot of hand-feeding formula. Her stools were more normal. She is very alert and chirps and such. But she can't walk or fly. She tries. But she can't.

kenny66: Thank you for the suggestions and help. I'll continue calcium and hand-feeding formula, but take away her mate. She has been (and will continue to be) in a small hospital cage with a heat lamp. Hopefully she can get over this. Thanks again.

good-the hospital cage setup is perfect and continue the calcium. Anything that hydrates will also help, either a bird based product like thrive/sparkle or human grade electrolyte replacers (non flavored) diluted to 1 satchel per 5ltr.

This is all sound advice. She should stay in the hospital cage for at least two weeks, after signs of being normal I would look at turning heat down slowly as to let her get used to normal temperature. Even after a few weeks I still would place her in a larger cage by herself at least for a month to allow her to build weight. Try and keep calcium supplements such as grit, cuttlebone and egg shells to name a few at all times even outside of breeding season. Unfortunately her recovery will be slow and even when they look fine she still might not be quite there so don't rush her back to her mate. All the best and at least you have worked out where you have gone wrong not everybody will admit a mistake . Good luck.

Just an update for those who might read this in the future:
On Friday, May 11, I reasoned that she had surely had enough calcium and discontinued the calcium.
Today she has complete control of her legs, but still isn't standing or hopping. She can fly, but we don't really let her. She is very alert, pecks at seed, chirps, tries to get away from me. I'm still giving her handfeeding formula three to four times a day.
My sister is studying to become a vet, so I presented her with all of the information. She replied with this:
"(The zebra finch) started out with hypocalcemia from her egg laying and lack of access to her fish bone. Because of her small size and young age and the magnitude of the deficiency, she started pulling calcium from her bones, resulting in softening of the bones and potential multiple pathological fractures (fractures not from trauma, but from the softness of her bones), hence the prolonged recovery time since her bones need to re-calcify and the fractures need to heal. The prolonged nature of the disease and her on-again, off-again healing is likely a result of not only the fractures, but Vitamin D deficiency as well. Part of the contents of the oil in birds' preen gland is precursor molecules for Vitamin D building - the oil is spread on their feathers, the sun hits it, and voila, Vitamin D. The enlarged preen gland that you mentioned is a good indicator that she was probably not preening like usual. And, without her preening, she was likely not getting the amount of Vitamin D that she needed for this time of stress. And, since Vitamin D is so crucial to calcium absorption, if she was deficient in this as well, the calcium that you were giving her was likely not all getting to where it needed to go. I don't think you were ever dealing with hypercalcemia, since they get pretty sick pretty fast from that (diarrhea, lack of appetite, mineralization of soft tissue including the kidney and consequent death).
So what's the plan, you ask? The key is what her over-all strength is. Does she carry her head up-right; does she preen; are her wings tucked strong against her body except when she wants to fly? In short, is the only perceived weakness her inability to stand? If so, this could be from the potential fractures that occurred over the course of the disease. Her calcium/Vitamin D problem has resolved, it's just the secondary complications. The only way you would know for sure is if you took her in to a bird vet, anesthetized her, and took x-rays. With rest, time, and a good diet, these fractures should heal.
However, if she is still kind of weak, they you could still be dealing with deficiencies. If this was the case, although it doesn't sound like it from your description, my professor suggested one drop of cod liver oil to address the Vitamin D deficiency and then another course of liquid calcium, but instead of stopping the calcium treatment abruptly, taper it off so the body can re-mobilize it's natural calcium regulating mechanisms.
Since she hasn't been flying for a month she'll probably need to get her general strength back, so any weakness that you are seeing at this point is more likely due to that than any residual deficiencies.
Good to hear that she was getting her Vitamin D3 along with her Calcium. That means we can probably assume that the slow healing was more fracture related.
From what I found through my resources, bird bones heal remarkably quickly, taking around 2-3 weeks in a bird her size. Granted, if she had residual calcium deficiency for awhile and then added more fractures to her legs every once in awhile, the healing could lengthen. The dangers associated with healing - the fracture cutting off blood and nerve supply to the foot and the foot losing function and necrosing, and callous formation by the healing bone impinging on the tendons that run over the back of the leg, resulting in decreased movement. Is she moving both of her feet/ can you tell if there is blood and nerve supply to the foot? Are there any more obvious bends or bumps along her legs? If the break had just happened yesterday and you could see which bones were broken, a splint could be placed on it, but this far in the game, you would be doing more harm than good. If they were at super weird angles or lost blood supply, then we would have to worry about her not being able to use them.
As far as what else to do - rest, not letting her smash into things, careful exercise, and good nutrition should do it. Bird bones heal well and fast with all of those things in line."

so she is doing better? great! congrats!