FINCHforum

My male gouldian has something growing on the corner of his beak and feathers on his face. He had this before and i treated it with scatt. now it's show up again and he started tucking his head and fluffing up. i put him into a separate cage and want to treat him but want to make sure that this might be the problem. i clipped a few of his nails but can see that when he sits on a perch a couple of his nails are a little curled and kind of sideways. these photos are not the best but maybe it looks familiar to someone.

It's really difficult to tell from those photos.
I zoomed in as best I could, but really couldn't tell.

If he had it before and you treated with Scatt and it went away, then that would suggest mites.
There are some good up-close photos of beak/face mites here:
https://ladygouldian.com/node/223

Mites can also impact the legs and toes, so that could be significant in that way. Though nails can also grow sort of sideways due to contact with the perch, so that's not all that abnormal. If that's the only abnormality there, I wouldn't worry.

thx

rancho2
I couldn't tell from the pics either. Can you get a close up of what you think might be the scaly face? Take a pic of just the face, close up.

I couldn't get a better picture of him but when another finch started making the clicking sound in the morning I put all of them on s76. since there are possible new hatchings in one of the nests, I cleaned and sprayed all things with AIL and put the diatomaceous in the bottom of the cage. any other suggestions?

rancho2 -- I'd keep a close eye on them.

It's possible what you're seeing is discharge from the nostrils, which could also be the result of an infection or ASM infestation.

Also, severely ASM-infested birds can experience respiratory infections during treatment. This happens due to a massive die-off of mites, which take time for the body to flush away naturally. In the interim, they can be points for bacteria growth and infection.

So just watch out for anyone who seems to be getting worse or not improving.

I've taken to administering antibiotics for a few days on those who seem really severely affected by ASM as they seem to get an infection 9+ out of 10 times in those cases.

MiaCarter,

what antibiotics do you use?