Zebra Finch Dirty Vent

[seeprapeippo]

So our white finch seems to have a problem with a dirty vent. When she firts arrived, she had this huge yellow blop on her butt, and we tought it was an egg stuck half way through. We carefully removed it and maybe it was just poop, since it was stuck on her butt feathers.
Since then whenever she poops, she does alot of puffing and tries to clean her behind and does this sort of twitching, as if to make sure everything falls off. She seems to be very conserned about the cleansiness of the shaft.
Now I noticed she has chunk of poop stuck again. Her male companion seemed to notice this too, since he poked her there and took one little feather with him. So is this normal?

[Ginene]

Poor little girl...No, it's not normal for her vent to be soiled. A clean vent is a sign of a healthy bird. Does she have any other symptoms? Puffy, sleepy, loose poop, sitting on cage bottom? As for your male, he may sense she is under the weather. He might continue to "pluck" her, which would only make her stressed and possibly more sick. Do you have a hospital cage? Any small cage where she can be alone to rest would work. If she were mine, I would put her in a separate small cage with some clean bath water so she can clean her bum. I would also provide a heat lamp on one side of the cage for warmth and put some electrolytes in her drinking & bath water. Of coarse food should be readily available (maybe some fresh egg food too, for extra protein), but I would hold off on any greens that might effect the look of her poop.

[seeprapeippo]

Thank you for the reply. And no, she doesn't have any other symptoms, she is very active. Maybe she tends to nod off more often then the others, but still she is very cheerful. When she arrived, it did became clear that she is very small and scrawny compared to the others. And you can actually see her heartbeat! It's also very fast heartbeat very often.
I mean the person she was bought from said he had all the papers to prove that she is not a result of inbreeding, which I understand could be the cause for her small frame. So who knows, this dirty vent seems to be the only major problem with her.

[Ginene]

Would you be able to give us some info on your set up...for ex. how long have you had her? how long has she had her dirty vent? how many finch she is housed with? are they all zebras? If It's just her and her mate, you can keep a close eye on her to be sure she isn't being bullied. You could also put a heat lamp on top of their existing cage and put electrolytes in their water. If its a bunch of zebs, it might be harder to monitor her and her droppings.

[seeprapeippo]

Ah, yes. Her name is Selene and she has been with us a bit less then a month now. She had the dirty vent when she arrived, we assumed because of the stress from transportation and all that. She has done the twitchin and puffing of the poop ever since. She seems to know she has a problem with it.
She lives with three other zebra finches, Horus, Isis and Zeus. Horus and Isis are the alpha couple. Zeus is their son, and we hope he will become a boyfriend for Selene.
We have two cages. One big and one not so big right next to each other. A bigger cage to house both couples is planned. In the beginning she was bullied, but mostly by the alpha, Horus. She was not allowed into the big cage at all. Now she is allowed to eat there, but after that she is shown to the door.
Since the big cage is Horus's and Isis's territory, Selena and Zeus are housed in the smaller cage. During the day the birds fly free and are locked up only for the nights in their respected cages.

[Ginene]

seeprapeippo...thanks for the background info . It sounds like you are able to keep a good eye on Selena. If possible, add a heat lamp on one end of the smaller cage so that she has a warm place to sleep and rest at night. This will help her reserve her energy for being well. If you notice Zeus bothering her, put him in the big cage with his parents at night. I would still add some electrolytes to their water & bath water, provide them with egg food and hold off on fresh greens. Hopefully you will notice a difference in her soiled bum soon. Does she like to bathe? Most of my finches jump right into their baths which gives them a thorough cleaning, while a few just stick their little faces in. It would be good if she could get her vent into her bath so she can get it clean.

[seeprapeippo]

Alright, we don't have a heat lamp but we'll try the other things. She does go into the pool all the way, so she should get thorough shower. She appears perfectly fine except for her dirty vent. Even Zeus seems to be like "you got something there, partner" when he's trying to pluck her behind. But mostly they just keep making nest noises together in their favourite spot. So hopefully her new diet will fix this. So thank you for the advice!

[CHIRP]

Just saw this thread, this is exactly what my male nearly died of, I used

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=30269

THREAD REFERS;

"Thanks, I was so stressed, scared I would hold him to tight, he is so small. It is now a few hours later ---------- he is in good shape, and eating and back to normal. I hope that build is past. The doctor prescribed the two meds and it seems to work great. Protexin over his eggfood and .2ml Baytrail in his 100ml water for 10 days. As I write this he is beeping and kaching outside, so he seems to be recovering well, I started at 12 o clock past Saturday.... so its been 2 days and looking good."