Twirling

[poohbear]

I went into the birdroom last evening and was confronteed by a diamond dove at the feeding station absolutely contorted with the head nearly twisted upside down...'twirling' immediately came to mind as I watched it take off and stumble into the wire mesh.
It was getting dark so I decided not to disturb the others and leave any action until today.Not the best feeling knowing that I would have to put it out of it's misery.
This morning not a sign of the bird...so I figured it had gone into one of the boxes to die...

I've just gone out to close the flights for the night...and lo and behold there is the pair of Diamonds looking and acting perfectly normally???

This birds head was absolutely twisted sideways like an owl looking at the ceiling and stayed like that for several minutes as I observed it.Today normal....any ideas anyone? It's a new one on me.

[Smurf]

Could he have taken a fright when you entered birdroom and been a little concused ?

[Sally]

That is a strange one. Perhaps it is in the early stages, where it doesn't have it's head twisted around all the time? I've never had to deal with this, but I know that others have used a combination of trimethoprim sulfa and nystatin with some success.

[poohbear]

I'll observe over the next few days and let you know.

[monotwine]

My doves used to do that whenever a large shadow passed over them, after they got a huge fright as they were dive bombed by a hawk once. Went badly for the hawk who got a headache from the collision with the mesh. But think the doves has Post Traumatic Stress for like a year thereafter. They not the brightest , but to be on the safe side observation is always a good call.

[poohbear]

Just been in to feed the birds and the condition has returned. I'll have to see how it goes.

So in the last week I've lost a quail and hen gouldian....not good,but not unexpected...they have both been lethargic for weeks.I'm overpopulated with male gouldians this year.

The good news is for the first time I can hear youngsters in a box of Diamond Sparrows...wish the beggars had laid earlier though....cold nights on the way soon.This is the trouble with a large free mixed flight...no control over who does what and when.

[monotwine]

sorry to hear that!

[Finnie]

This won't be much help, but I one time Googled this twirling behavior, when I had a star finch that seemed like it was having an epileptic fit, twirling around on the bottom of the cage. Then he got over it and within a few minutes seemed normal. It came up that for just about every possible disease or problem that exists, the twirling behavior can be an intermittent symptom at one time or another. Although apparently more often in the later phases of the illnesses, shortly before death.

Sorry that doesn't really shed any light on your problem, except to say that having it come and go is typical.

[poohbear]

Not much of a picture, taken of the feeding station on my kitchen monitor.But there she is feeding late last night...the twirling behaviour comes and goes....I'm happy I can let her continue living as long as she can feed herself.

[MiaCarter]

I'd definitely try trimethoprim sulfa and nystatin.
My girl was pretty constant with her symptoms, but I've heard from others that they saw them wax and wane.

[poohbear]

I'll look into it further...thanks

Quite amusing that nystatin is used to cure thrush...wonder if it's ok for doves

[MiaCarter]

poohbear -- Yes, it's safe for doves per the side of the bottle.

Indeed, Nystatin is an antifungal and there's some thought that it's a fungal infection that causes twirling.
What's more, trimethoprim sulfa is a very potent drug and it kills off the good bacteria that keep yeast in check, making yeast infections a problematic side effect. I made the mistake of starting the trimethoprim sulfa but then realized my Nystatin was expired. So I kept giving trimethoprim sulfa for 3 days until the new Nystatin arrived in the mail.
By that time, my girl had a raging yeast infection in the vent area. She kept biting at it until it bled. It was clearly itching her.
After 12 hours on the nystatin, she stopped biting at the area totally and it healed right up.