FINCHforum

Hello all,

I have had a very upsetting morning. I have never had a sick finch before, so I am scared and worried to death. I woke up and my male owl finch was sitting on the bottom of his cage all puffed up and his eyes closed. Remembering what I have read on here, I went and got a very small cage I thought I could use for a hospital cage if I ever needed it, and I also got a heat lamp. I set up the cage real quick and I went to catch him to put him inside and he did perk up quite a bit and he easily flew between perches. He remained puffed up but did open his eyes. He was difficult to catch but he is safely in the hospital cage now. He has been chirping just a little bit.
I looked at him closely and could not find anything visible wrong (no discharge, no broken or missing feathers, no blood etc). Just puffed up and stressed looking. There have been no recent changes at all in their environment in any way. I have had them since June I believe and there have never been any problems with them before. There have been no temperature difference, no drafts, etc. I am very careful with my birds. I won't let any kind of air freshener or anything that smells pretty into my house.
This is all that I can think of to say, I will post a picture of him on a perch all puffed up from a few minutes ago.

I do not have any medication on hand that would be suitable for a finch.
I am a vet tech, but unfortunately didn't specialize in birds.
These two Owl finches were supposed to go to a new home tomorrow (to moonrise). But I will not do that now because I don't want to give her a sick bird.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much.

From
A very worried finch owner.

Also I have a thermometer in there, and I need to know how warm it needs to get in the cage

Hi Amy!! Can he be getting ready to moult? A heatlamp should be fine, don't worry about temperature.. But I would try keeping it alteast at 80. It is not a female right? Because she could be eggbound.. I hope he gets better

Would they really act that sick if he was getting ready to molt? I have never actually had one to molt before (my parrotlet has but not my finches).
100% sure he is a male.
And that is good, I put the heat lamp far enough away so it only gets to about 80.

Hm, I'm not sure, this is hard. When my male gouldian moulted he acted pretty tired and lethargic. But also sand and flew around during this period.. How are the owl's droppings? Also, I would move the lamp closer, so it can get higher than 80. 80 would just be a minimum. Make sure the is a spot where he can get out of the light though. Also, some spray millet on the bottom of the cage if possible.. Closed eyes and puffiness.. Could be anything Is there a possibilty of a draft?

Thank you Dante for trying to help me, sure means a lot! I am just so worried!

I do not see any droppings that do not look normal in his flight cage with his mate. I just put him in the hospital cage not long ago so I should hopefully see his droppings very soon.
No drafts what so ever.
Will do with the spray millet.
I went in there to move the light and it scared him a bit. He was flying around but when he was on the bottom of the little cage he kind of rolled over funny but he was able to get back up.

No problem Amy!! I know I don't have the answer but we can sure try to figure out!

When he rolled over he may have lost his balance. If you have bee pollen of cuttle bone, is it possible to break a piece and crush it into powder? I know it is for calcium but it is known as a natural remedy and also aids digestion if he is having some stomach issues we on't know about.

I would email Laraine at ladygouldian.com right away, she may be able to help.. I will go message Cindy as she may have more experience with this.. Keep me posted!

Thank you a bunch Dante!!

I do have some cuttlebone that I can shave, I will go do that now. And I will email her. Thank you again. I just hope this little guy is going to be alright! He is about two years old, maybe 2 and a half. I just don't know what it could be since absolutely nothing has changed at all with his environment. :'(

Thank you again for all of your help and advice

Amyrs2880 wrote: Thank you a bunch Dante!!

I do have some cuttlebone that I can shave, I will go do that now. And I will email her. Thank you again. I just hope this little guy is going to be alright! He is about two years old, maybe 2 and a half. I just don't know what it could be since absolutely nothing has changed at all with his environment. :'(

Thank you again for all of your help and advice

No problem Amy! I just wish I could offer more info! I posted the link on the facebook finchaholics page, so maybe Cindy, and Charlie and others will see. Try putting the shaved cuttlebone over his food.

Is it possible he had a night fright? I know he is not showing visual injuries, but he may have bruised something on the inside. Also is he eating and drinking? The last thing you want is for him not to eat and drink.

DanteD716 wrote:

Amyrs2880 wrote: Thank you a bunch Dante!!

I do have some cuttlebone that I can shave, I will go do that now. And I will email her. Thank you again. I just hope this little guy is going to be alright! He is about two years old, maybe 2 and a half. I just don't know what it could be since absolutely nothing has changed at all with his environment. :'(

Thank you again for all of your help and advice

No problem Amy! I just wish I could offer more info! I posted the link on the facebook finchaholics page, so maybe Cindy, and Charlie and others will see. Try putting the shaved cuttlebone over his food.

Is it possible he had a night fright? I know he is not showing visual injuries, but he may have bruised something on the inside. Also is he eating and drinking? The last thing you want is for him not to eat and drink.

I did shave cuttlebone now and mixed it with loose spray millet and some seed and put it in the bottom of the cage. Hopefully he will eat it!
I haven't seen him really eat yet, he looked like he was picking at some spray millet for just a few seconds but them stopped...so I am not sure if he actually ate any or not. He has not been very close to the water that is in the hospital cage.
He flys everywhere when I go into the room that he is in so I am trying not to go in there but just every little bit or so to check him. He is not near as puffed up as he was, and he is actively going from perch to the bottom of the cage. It almost looked liked he had a head tilt for just a few seconds or so. But my owl finches have always been very fast moving and twitchy so I am not sure if that was normal or not, I have not seen him do it since.
Thank you so much for posting other places where people can see, it is so great to have this forum and people like you to talk to and get help from.
I am not sure if it could have been night fright or not, I suppose it could easily have been! I have a night light in their room, so it never gets completely dark in there.
I just hope he gets better really soon, he is worrying me a lot!

I feel really bad too because I was supposed to drive him to his new home tomorrow with moonrise. I guess it is better for him to have shown these signs today rather than after moonrise got the birds home.

He is "talking" back and forth with Tootsie, the female. I have them so they can hear each other.

Now he looks almost normal (just maybe a tad puffy) and I just caught him eating his loose spray millet/cuttle bone! I wonder if he is ok?

Sounds great!!!!! I would give him a few hours to be sure! In a few hours if he is still looking good, carry the hospital cage to his regular cage, and open both doors, and let him fly in on his own. Catching him may stress him out

will do! That is a very good idea, Owls are super hard to catch, so that should work great because I definitely don't want to stress him. I think I've been more stressed that he has been today lol. I tend to worry very easily. I am just so glad he is eating less than a minute after I put the cuttle bone and spray millet in there!

Peeked in again without him noticing and he is still munchin away on his millet and cuttle bone, and now he looks perfectly normal... no puffiness at all. Hope he keeps this up!

Great news! Maybe he had some bad gas.