FINCHforum

Okay so I went to bed thinking all was well, Agnes was less puffed out and she was sitting with Devin instead of ignoring him. I changed out their light bulb with a red one so they could still have heat over night without being disturbed. I was in the process of trying to sleep when I start hearing a clicking noise of sorts. At first I didnt know what it was, but then I looked up and saw Agnes asleep, but she would pump out her wings and make a little clicking noise every few seconds, almost like she had the hiccups...btu she hasnt stopped and its been over a half an hour now. She wakes up ever ten minutes or so, puffs out completely, then gives herself a quick once over preening and tucks back in for sleep. After a second or two of being "asleep" she starts this jolting thing again. I got a video of it and put it on you tube so you guys could see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwObwL9JS7w

any thoughts as to what the heck is going on???? I am sort of freaking out now because none of my animals has ever done this before...
sorry about the bad lighting in the video, I was afraid that if I turned on the regular light that she would wake up and I would not have been able to get a shot of what she was doing.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrb68RRXsfA

Came across this youtube vid, this gould is doing the Wing Flicker thing. and it also looks like open mouth breathing. Clicking noise to me indicates AirSac Mite or some sort of Respritory Condition. Has your gould ever had AirSac Mite?

is this a newly accuried bird???

Jarryd

Sounds like air sac mites.To diagnose wet area around wind pipe and shine a bright torch on wind pipe.somtime you can see the mites moving around.If it is this all birds in contact with infected bird should be treated.They can live for months with this condition or pass very quickly.
Other posibilitye are respartory infection.gape worm infestation.or airway irratation.(fumes,sprays,perfumes.)

Bonnie,

It really look like air sac mites. Anytime you hear that clicking sound.

You need to try and treat her quickly. Also the others. Birds can recover from this depending on how bad they are. Please keep us posted.

I literally have been up all night watching her...to the point that when I fell asleep and woke up I realized that I missed my final for a class. She is still doing that wing thing. I saw the ivertex or whatever it is called that is the treatment for it at the bird store I bought the pro-biotics from.

Should I do the single drop/single dose or the three week course of treatment? I am really concerned that if I do the single drop that it may be too much for her to handle (if all the mites die at once and cause her to sufocate) but I am afraid the other treatment may take too long. I saw somewhere on Lady Gouldian that if I do the 3 week thing, then I should treat for 2 days with the air sac treatment, then 3 days with the respiratory antibiotic treatment and repeat for 3 weeks in a row. And if I do the one time treatment, then I should do a full 5 day course of antibiotics. The antibiotic treatment was supposed to be a preventative for infection sense they are weakened at the time of treatment. I am pretty sure the store carries both. I will be calling ladygouldianfinch.com also (a little later in the day) to get the Ronex sent my way...though it seems kind of a moot point right now...

Misso - In answer to your question, no this is not a new bird, she has been with me for just a few weeks before I joined the forum and literally was fine the day before yesterday, she got puffy yesterday but didnt have breathing issues, then all last night and this morning she has been doing that...The people I bought them from never said anything about air sac mites, so I don't know there history on that.

Gomer - I tried to shine her throat with a flash light after I wet it, I didnt see anything moving, but I took the opportunity to listen to her up close to my ear and I heard a soft click several times.

Sounds like air sac mites to me from your description. I hope you get it resolved quickly. Ask Larraine when you call her today - she'll know exactly which product to send over and she'll tell you how to use it.

All my new birds receive 2 applications of Scatt (one immediately upon arrival and then another 3 weeks later) while in quarantine. Then I place all my finches on a 3-month maintenance schedule.

Sorry to hear about your girl, I hope she recovers soon.


I have a question. Is it normal for finches to sleep with their head tucked behind or under their wing? I just never seen that with my finches. My cockatiel sleeps like that sometimes.
Renee

most of my gouldians sleep like that, with their heads tucked. they seem to like to block out all light I guess.

GOULDYGIRL wrote:I have a question. Is it normal for finches to sleep with their head tucked behind or under their wing? I just never seen that with my finches. My cockatiel sleeps like that sometimes.
Renee

My finches and parrots usually sleep with their heads tucked behind their wing.

I treat my whole flock of birds every other month preventively for air sac mites. I use s76.

Okay, I have started treament for the airsac mites with the iverlux (made by morning bird, has the same active ingredients as the s76). I put it in their water instead of stressing all of them out by having to catch them all. I have the Ronex and the antibiotic on the way from Ladygouldianfinch.com (they were very helpful, thanks for the suggestion on calling them!)

Cross my fingers and pray! I am going to leave very specific instructions for my boyfriend and I can prepare all of the treatments before I leave so he really only needs to grab the right bottle from the fridge to put in the waterers that day.

Agnes is still drinking/eating okay and does not seem as puffy as she was yesterday. She did not stop the wing flapping thing completely, but at least she is not doing it every few seconds like all last night. I gave specific instructions that if the night heat bulb gets turned off and my bird dies because she got too chilled at night while recovering from her illness, that my boyfriend would be sleeping on the couch for a month, or until he replaces my bird which ever comes sooner! (he hates having the lights on in the room, but I have no where else to put the bird, so the room it is with all the red light glory above her!)

thanks for all the support and suggestions, I hope we caught it in time...it came on so sudden

Please check on the package and see if you can mix it up like that ,most needs to be mix at once so it dont degrade,see how long it keeps in water Donna or Liz will know?

The way I read the package, the 3 week treatment only calls for 2 consecutive days in a week, then again just for 2 days in the 2nd week, etc. Not every day. How long are you going to be away? If you can't be there for one of those 2 days, maybe you can have him mix it up?

DIRECTIONS FOR USE (off the Morning Bird Website):
Add ½ teaspoon of IVERLUX to one quart of clean drinking water for small bird flocks (finches, canaries) ... for two consecutive days. Repeat for three weeks in a row.


Sounds pretty simple. Maybe he'd be willing to do it. I'm pretty sure that the dose can be mixed and used for the 2 days, but I doubt you'd want to use the same mixture a week later. Definitely best to check with others here, or with Morning Bird.

email address is: MorningBird@MorningBirdProducts.com

I only use Scatt and nothing else - sorry I can't help with that product. Good luck though. Sounds like she is a tad better already.

oh.... keeping our fingers crossed for her. Please let us know how she does.