FINCHforum

I'm so thrilled with how things are going. I posted a few weeks ago about the death of a few gouldians and the necropsy of 2 of them revealed megabacterium, crypto and trichomonas. My bird vet had said "enjoy them till they die, 'cause there isn't any treatment". Well, you guys directed me to a couple of remedies - Ronnivet-S and Megabac-S. Well, I succesfully completed the 7 day treatment of ronnivet and am now doing a 10 day treatment with megabac. All is looking well.

Now, the question is - how do I "sterilize" the cage with the birds in it? It's a 4 x 4 x 5' cage and I don't want to stress the birds by trying to catch them to disassemble the cage. Or should I? If I do want to take the cage apart to clean it, what do I clean it with? Is there something I can do with the birds kept in the cage?

I have obviously been cleaning the cage daily in my usual routine - papers changed, perches cleaned, etc., but there is probably still nasty megabac, crypto and trich around. Help ! ! ! ! !

I've been doing some reading about grapefruit seed extract to sterilize - apparently it's better than even chlorine (which I'd never use in my house because of the birds). Anybody have any input on this?

Personally I don't think grapefruit seed extract is going to be anywhere near as good as bleach. A few people don't like to use bleach and I understand that, if you can get hold of VirkonS that would be the best as a bleach alternative in my opinion.

Glad to hear your birds are doing well!
Depending on your set up, you may be able to coax your birds into a smaller cage inside your large cage or adjacent by feeding them in the "catch cage" until you can close the door on them. It would be much less stressful than netting them, but requires a bit of patience and ingenuity.
As far as cleaning, you might use a steam cleaner. You wouldn't necessarily have to disassemble the large cage to sanitize it with a handheld steam machine. I picked on up on Amazon a while back and absolutely love it. If your cage has a divider, you might even be able to do one side at a time without removing the birds.
Just a thought. Good luck.

Our vet recommends bleach and water for sterilizing..I agree with Debbie about the grapefruit seed extract. If your birds are sick and you need to sterilize the cages, food dishes Bleach will do it.

I would put your birds into a temporary cage, sterilize the cage, perches, cups down with bleach and water (outside if weather permits.) Sun dry everything and put the birds back into a clean sterile cage. Certain bacteria germs may need something stronger than grapeseed extract to rid the cages of the germs/bacteria, parasites that make birds ill.

If you can get some Virkon-S, it is supposed to be the best virucide, fungicide, and bactericide available. It is safe to use around the birds, too. I soak my water tubes in a diluted Virkon-S solution, then fill them with clean water without rinsing, that's how safe it is for the birds..

I believe crypto is bleach and alcohol resistant.

This an CDC article on Crytosporium, it suggests hydrogen peroxide.

"Cryptosporidium is resistant to chlorine disinfection so it is tougher to kill than most disease-causing germs. The usual disinfectants, including most commonly used bleach solutions, have little effect on the parasite. An application of hydrogen peroxide seems to work best."
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/crypto/res ... tbreak.pdf

I use hydrogen peroxide to disinfect cages during cleaning and paper changings. I also use hydrogen peroxide wipes.

I do exactly same as Sally does. Virkon-S can kill protozoa, bacteria and virus. 100% safe.

I'm not sure if anyone here on the board has used this product, but at the pet store we used a product called Nolvasan that we got through the veterinarian who saw all our animals.

http://www.revivalanimal.com/Nolvasan-Solution.html

It is effective against a wide array of bacteria, fungus, virusus, and even yeast.

We diluted it so that we could use it in spray bottles to practically clean anything the animals came into contact with. The vet stated in its diluted form it was safe to actually spray into the finch and parakeet cages in order to scrub the wire and perches as it's not always feasible to move the birds each day without inevitably turning them loose in the store. We never had any problems using it.

I'd imagine it would be even more effective/potent if we hadn't been diluting it.