Help please!

[Branching out]

I have a sick budgie in the room with my finches and canary. I have read what people can and cannot be expected to offer in terms of help and guidance, so thanks in advance. The budgie is a hen, living with two others in a flight cage, about 5 years old and has been healthy until yesterday. She has laboured breathing yesterday but ate millet from my hand and appeared to eat from the feeder. Flying is fine, eyes, nostrils and vent are clean and she is interacting with the other two but she is slightly tail bobbing and today I can hear wheezing (I think rather than clicking). The last new birds in the room were java sparrows in July; they, the other finches and canary all look fine at the moment. I don't understand where air sack mites would have come from if that is the problem but obviously I am worried about that and a potential spread. 5 doesn't seem old for a budgie, she has never laid an egg. This evening she has looked a little fluffed up and her beak is open for breathing. I caught her earlier and she was strong enough then to try to bite me. There are no local avian vets and the vet I use for my cats doesn't have anyone who knows about birds available before Christmas. Assuming the budgie is still with me in the morning, do Isolate in the same room (nowhere else would be stress free)or leave her where she is and not add to stress? Is it really likely that air sack mites (not that common in Budgies) have appeared and affected a budgie but not canary or finches? Do over the counter remedies work and is is better to treat the water or 'spot on' the bird? Should I be worried about a wipe out? What else could the laboured breathing be a symptom of? Anything else I should know?

[wildbird]

It is not likely to be air sac mites. It might be a respiratory infection. I would offer some heat like a heat lamp near the corner of the cage. Be sure there is room so that the bird can get to a cool area if it wants to. I use the ceramic Zoo Med bulbs with a dome that is made for ceramic bulbs. The bulbs I have don't emit any light, just heat, but I also have used a red bulb from the pet stores that are for reptiles. It's just that most birds don't like the light from a light bulb at night. I would not give any medication for air sac mites. It is not a good idea to treat for anything unless you know for sure what is wrong. Offer some grated hard boiled egg, maybe with some shredded carrot. Change out every two hours. Also provide finely crushed egg shells, crushed oyster shell and a cuttlebone, just in case she is egg bound. Provide millet spray as it is easily digested and other foods she likes. I would keep her where she is. Hope this helps

[Branching out]

Thanks. They always have access to cuttlefish and I added some oyster grit into a food hopper yesterday and made sure there were no seed husks around. I'll try her with millet now, she usually takes it from my hand. It is quite humid in the room as it has tropical fish tanks in and I have been keeping the door shut since she has been ill. I have some egg food, so I will offer that and some greens. She threw carrot back out of the cage yesterday but would normally eat that. I have an ordinary lamp that I could put on for extra hear during the day, it wont get too cold at night. Most of what I have read says isolate her but my gut feeling is that would really stress her and if what she has is infectious, the others probably have it already. They are interacting with her okay, so she doesn't need to be moved for her own safety.

Are air sack mites common or rare? Once you start reading health articles, you could end up believing they are everywhere! With no new birds it seems unlikely that it would take 6 months for her to catch them.

[wildbird]

If you are able to get some from a pet store, you might try giving her some of Higgins Sunburst leafy greens and herbs. I provide that and Twin Beaks Aviary Herb Salad which I order from ladygouldianfinch.com 800-579-7974. Many times the birds will self medicate themselves by picking out the herbs they need. It has helped mine. The Twin Beaks is very good. Air Sac mites are not that common. They occur more in Gouldian Finches. People seem to think that every time a bird has some respiratory problem that it is air sac mites.

[Branching out]

After looking a little better yesterday, she wouldn't eat today and sadly died at some point between 3.30pm and 4.30pm. At 3.30pm her eyes were still bright, nostrils and vent clean, balance was fine, although she moved to the bars and also held on with her beak at about 3pm.

From the start I felt that the laboured breathing was an indication of something else and not the problem itself and not mites because where would they have come from?

Thanks for the advice, I don't think anything was going to make any difference but it is reassuring to know that I was doing most of the things you have suggested and not what most of the rest of the internet seems to be suggesting. The increased humidity eased her breathing, I think. She spent her final days with the company of her flight-mates in familiar surroundings with a variety of food available; and not it a small dark box dosed up on drugs that wouldn't have made any difference anyway.

[Branching out]

RIP Matilda. Not a finch but a lovely tame bird.

[wildbird]

I am so sorry for your loss. Matilda was a very pretty bird. Take comfort in knowing that you did everything you could have, and I do believe the birds want to remain in their familiar environment. Many times the drugs don't do anything but add to the the stress, don't help, and sometimes harm them.