Face is "eaten away" @ sides of beak...

[GouldieFledge]

Hi forum, it's been a while!

Scaly face mites has been an ongoing problem in my gouldians. However I'm not sure if that's the reason for my one gouldian's face eroding...

I have 6 goulds, one of which was having a bad issue with the face mites. 4 seemed to be affected (but not as badly), and the one I'm referencing in this thread had NO signs of the mites--I was just treating the lot of them. She may have had pinhole bald spots at the sides of the beak, but nothing concerning. I can't 100% recall.

Was treating them with S76, both in-water and painting on the affected areas, to no avail. Switched over to Scatt (on body/on beak), and THAT is when I started to notice the sides looking angry. I continued another 1 or 2 sessions and it got worse, so I figured she was very sensitive or allergic and discontinued on her.

Move forward oh, I don't know, a month or so--her face looks terrible. There are two giant bald spots on each side of her beak, and they look dry/rashy. The left side is worse, it seems scabby and crusty.

Long story short, I want to know if anyone has the slightest clue what could be happening here, or has had a similar experience. None of the other birds had any reaction like this. HOWEVER, the treatments didn't help at all, and they hated it (and were starting to hate me because of it, too). So I gave up. None of them acted ill through this entire ordeal, so I just left them be. Even she doesn't seem to notice her face is an absolute mess.

It will be much more helpful once I get a couple of images to show you all what I mean, but wanted to get this topic started.

[Babs _Owner]

GouldieFledge

Lady Gouldian says you can bathe them with S76. Honey I hope it saves your gal.

[wildbird]

If the medications you have used in the past made them worse, I certainly wouldn't use them again. You are not even sure what they have. Find a good avian vet.

[cindy]

What happens is the feathers can be compromised by the mites and bacteria and staph sets in... any swelling around the eyes?

Suggest you treat with scatt one drop to the back of the neck... it says it stays in the body for 21 days but it is not at full strength At day 21 so with difficult cases especially you overlap treatments, repeat the dose two weeks from the first dose and two weeks after the second dose.

As far as care to the feet and skin you can use chlorhexidine ( plain no dyes no alcohol or no scented) ... there is a product called AviClens ( not to be mistaken for AviClean). AviClens contains chlorhexidine you can wipe the feet and legs with it and the face, beak careful not to get it in the nares. Bacteria and staph can be transferred to the face from the feet and visa versa. You can do this twice a day. Glamgouldians.com carries AviClens

Swelling around the eyes... if there is swelling around the head scaly mites can get into the sinus and cause bacteria and infection... you may need to treat with an antibiotic specific for the issue. ( see an avian vet if you have one).

Avoid using Vaseline or oils on the scales... the scaling you see is actually fecal matter from the mites and the Vaseline or oils will trap the bacteria against the skin.

Another product to wash and treat legs and feet with is Hibiclens 4% it is chlorhexidine also but contains alcohol and is scented so not recommended to use around the eyes. Hibiclens can be bought at the drug store, great to have on hand for injuries to wings, feet and toes.

Hope this helps.

Also another cause we see regarding balding in birds is internal parasites ( not mites) Protozoa and bacteria that have traveled from the GI tract upward... usually with Protozoa sinus issues you will have swelling and possibly some feather loss. Often with issues like Protozoa, giardiasis, bacteria in the GI track the bird is not able to absorb nutrients properly and skin can look flaky and dry and the bird may loose feathers, balding may occur.


I would also change out nesting material if you are using any right now