FINCHforum

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, though have always found it so helpful visiting before become a registered member to read a lot of the posts.

I have two canaries, one of them began making a coughing type sound and showed beak wiping, etc. typical signs of air sac mites. I treated both with Scatt about 10 days ago, improvements were seen slightly after the 2nd day, but things have slowly deteriorated for one of my birds, Brownie, he is a two year old male canary. He is making this sad whimpering sound from his chest! Its so heartbreaking, he also does a cough/sneeze type thing and wags his tongue around. At night, its most prominent the cough/click/wheeze. Could it be a respiratory infection caused by the ASM?

I have been keeping him warm, giving him probiotic in his water, lots of good high quality seed from Dr. Harvey's, fresh organic romaine, and apple, also millet since he loves it and boiled egg in the morning.

I am not sure wha to do, and feel helpless! I went to a vet before and it was such a let down. I have just ordered via express mail from Lady Gouldian Finch a product called AMOXITEX. It says it is a broad spectrum antibiotic, does anyone have experience with this? Or has anyone used it after using Scatt or other ASM treatment?

Please, any suggestions or advice is welcome.

Thanks,
Olive

Olive


Sounds like your canary got airsac mite (ASM), normally the life cycle of the ASM is 14-21 days. Since you used SCATT about 10 days ago, sometimes the medication need or take more time, Scatt will remains active inside the bird's blood stream for about 3 weeks. If any eggs or mites in the bird, scatt will kill them in about 21 days. Try not worry too much for now, it's been 10 days since you used it, just wait and see if any improvement each day.

Sometime it depends on the symptoms of your bird, if not too serious inside of him, then the symptoms will become less intense within 48 hours after SCATT treatment, which means little better not worse. If your bird continue get worse after use it and still not improve within 48 hours then more chances he got the Respiratory infection, so I think you are doing right by offered the Amoxitex as well.


You are doing great by provide fresh food for him to eat, but please observe him each day see if anything changes or symptom is getting better. I really hope your canary will get well soon. Please keep post up here and let us know how your bird is doing Olive. I hope this will help you some.

You should add a heat lamp to the side of the cage so they can stay warm while not well.

Hi Olive 23,

definitely get some advice for treatment from the vet or someone knowledgable for your canary. By the time that finches or canaries start actually showing illness, they are definitely usually VERY sick. Rapid care and medication is needed. Good luck with your little one.

Zebrafincher
Proud owner of:
*Kevin aka “The Old Man” – very cranky canary – 13 years old and rules the Roost!
*Beaky aka “Beaky Beak” the Zebrafinch – 1 year old – and a real, real cutie!!!
*Merlin aka “Merl” the Starfinch – 3 ½ years old – and “bossy as anything for such a small fry!

Doesn't sound like ASM to me, once you treat for air sac mites you should see an improvement within 48 hours.
I would suspect a respiratory infection. Are there any other symptoms? Off colored or loose droppings?

Here's an article that may help figure out what type of infection.
https://ladygouldian.com/Respiratory-In ... s-in-Birds

At this point you may not have a whole lot of time to figure it out so I wouldn't hesitate to call or email Larraine and see what she recommends.

best of luck, keep us posted

Agreed with debbie276.
This definitely sounds like a respiratory infection.

Sometimes in extreme cases of ASM, there are lots of dead mites. And it takes their body a while to flush those out. In the interim, those dead mites serve as a breeding ground for bacteria and you end up with a respiratory infection.

And the slight improvement, followed by decline is exactly what I'd expect to see.

Amoxitex should hopefully do the trick.
That's what I use.
I've seen lots of respiratory infections while treating ASM so I've taken to doing a course of S76 (similar to Scatt) AND Amoxitex.

So hopefully the antibiotics will help!

There are also many times when a respiratory infection is misdiagnosed as ASM. ASM can be easily diagnosed by wetting and illuminating the trachea, looking for pin size black dots.
I personally don't think that ASM are as common in birds as we think, it just always seems to be the "go to" diagnosis.

Thank you everyone so much for your caring and helpful responses. I spoke to Lorraine from Lady G. and after hearing the symptoms she said I indeed ordered the right product, she recommended that I administer the Amoxitex (still waiting for it) for 14 days (since I already administered SCATT recently). I've never given antibiotics before and am praying this doesn’t do harm to them. Anyone familiar with this? Have you noticed significant improvement on your bird if you used it? She also recommended that if I don’t see improvement after the Amoxitex to administer another dose of SCATT after the antibiotic.

Thankfully, this morning Brownie was perky, less coughy, and was eating very well. Unfortunately his dad, Sawyer, older male who is 5 years old, who hasn’t showed any symptoms is now looking really listless, tired, and shutting his eyes for what looks like little naps he’s not eating as much as usual, but is still eating none the less. his poop looked brown! which is quite different from his usual dark with a spot of white. I wonder if what Brownie has might have been passed on to him? I've kept them as warm as possible last night, I don’t have a hospital cage or heat lamp, and all i could find to purchase last minute was a heated spa blanket, so I draped that around the cage for warmth. I wonder if they both have the same thing? They are in separate cages.

Olive25
Glad you got some response.
If it's some sort of a bug, it could be air borne. When the meds arrive, I think maybe both birds should be treated and any others that start showing the same symptoms.

Warm regards and best of luck.

Scatt stays in their bloodstream for 21 days so don't re-treat sooner then that.
good luck

Thanks everyone.

Just a quick update. They situation appears to be the same, definitely not worse. I should have the amoxitex today and will hopefully begin administering it tomorrow.

Olive25,

Glad it's not getting worse, good luck with the medication and hopefully it helps your bird, let us know now things going.

David thanks so much. I just recieved the medication late today. You mentioned in an earlier comment that that scatt can sometimes take some time to work, and so I wonder if since my bird is not getting worse, and dare I say it, even a bit better (not coughing during the day anymore and just a bit at night), If I should continue to monitor closely and provide warmth and good food, probiotic, etc. it's a bit hard to tell with canaries, they're so good at hiding their ailments! it was unusually warm in nyc today (80 degrees) and so I put his cage in the sunny warmth of the window which he seemed to relish in and even took a bath, perhaps I should hold off on the antibiotics? Ive never administered antibiotics before and am afraid to make matters worse. I will hold off for today and will assess the situation tomorrow.

Olive25, you are so welcome! since I just want to help the best I can, because like you said the bird is really good when come with hiding their discomfort or symptoms, once you notice the bird is in sick-like, that mean is very ill already.

Indeed they the scatt takes sometime to work. I'm glad you got the medication, and happy hear they your bird even took bath under the warm sun. Try to observe how the bird is react before use the medication, since sounds like the bird is getting better not cough daytime anymore but only little bit nighttime. Just hope the air sac problem will go away soon, but i don't think will cause the symptom worse if you use the medication, since the Amoxitex rarely cause side effect. Maybe try reduce the amount even if you are using it for your bird, for example cut in half from the instruction amount for treatment. Your bird is getting better, perhaps hopefully the scatt will do it but just take sometimes to get fully effective on the bird. Make sure you provide fresh food and water each day and carefully observe anymore coughing occur even nighttime. Good luck to you and let us know any info you need or advices. hope your bird will fully recover soon!

Olive25....birds indoors?