Inflammed foot problem on zebra finches - Please help!!

[Doreen]

Hi - I have 10 zebra finches (5 pairs) housed in an aviary - 3' wide x 6' long x 3.5' high. They all get along pretty well. I inherited them from a girl who worked at a pet shop and didn't want them any more.

I've had them since March 2005. Ever since the fall of 2005, 2 grey males have had the same foot problem. Their feet are swollen, cracked, and one of the bird's feet ooz this stuff that becomes crusty, falls off, then the cycle starts all over again.

I have taken them to 4 different avian vets several times each and have gotten several different answers - it's a fungus, it's a bacteria, it's mites, it's an infection. I have treated them by soaking their feet with novalsan (which worked the best out of any treatment but it never completely cleared the problem up), miconozole cream, furazone cream with antibiotics in it, oral antibiotics, hemorrhoid cream. Nothing works.

They have not lost any weight, they haven't lost any feathers. They're still quite active, sing to their mate, bath regularly, but they hold their feet up and they're obviously sore. They are also not contagious to the other birds so I leave them in the big cage because they are much happier.

I changed all their perches and their food. They receive vitamins in the water, have various sized, natural and plastic wood perches to exercise their feet. They get a mixture of seed and pellet, and millet. I change the floor in their cage daily, clean and disinfect their food and water bowls daily, and disinfect the cage once a week. I offer them fresh fruits and veggies - greens, pet grass, grapes, etc but they're most interested in the pet grass to try to make a nest with.

The vets have basically given up and said they might have an allergy - they don't know what else to do.

I hate seeing my poor little guys in discomfort! If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be very happy to try them.

Thanks very much for reading and hopefully someone can help.

-Doreen

[Crystal]

When you brought the birds to the vets, did they run any tests? Skin scrape, touch prep for cytology, blood work, taking a sample for culture and histology with special staining, etc.? If not, I would suggest further diagnostic testing to really look for the underlying cause (it’s expensive, but if you can afford it, it should be the next step). If there is a bacterial or fungal component, a culture and sensitivity is the best way to select an appropriate medication. Was it the vets who prescribed the creams and antibiotics? Which antibiotics were you using and from where did you obtain them? For how long was each treatment given and what were the doses? Have you treated for mites? If so, how?

What type of pellets do you feed? Are they the kind that come already mixed in with seed, or are they their own separate diet such as Kaytee Exact? Harrsion's? Lafeber's?

Are they in an indoor aviary or an outdoor aviary? If indoors, do they have access to natural sunlight through an open window, etc.? Do you keep their nails trimmed?

Vitamins added to the water are essentially useless because they oxidize (become "inactivated," essentially) so rapidly. They also provide a good medium for bacterial growth. In other words, it's not a good idea to use them. Also, seed is quite deficient in many vitamins and they may not be eating enough pellets to get all of the vitamins they need. You should substitute their diet with boiled egg mashed shell and all, and add some of the following foods which tend to be relatively high in vitamin A (hypovitaminosis A is a predisposing cause for bumblefoot and proliferative feet lesions): carrots, spinach, parsley, dandelion, cheese.

The thing about dermatological conditions is that they rarely resolve if ALL of the conditions (primary, perpetuating, and predisposing) are not addressed. For example, the birds could have hypovitaminosis A, a primary parasitic lesion, AND a secondary bacterial infection, and their feet will not completely heal if all of these things are not taken care of at once.

Your cage set up and hygiene practices sound good, but if you could post a picture of your aviary it would help us look for any housing/husbandry improvements that could be made (if any) to help your birds. Already I can tell you that there is still room for improvement in the diet. It is great that you provide a variety of perching options—make sure they represent a variety of textures (not too rough or too smooth) in addition to a variety of diameters. Do you use sand paper coverings on your perches (these are bad)? You might not need to disinfect everything so often--soap and water with plenty of elbow grease and lots of rinsing are the best ways to keep a cage clean. Disinfectants are really only necessary if a disease outbreak is present. If you are going to continue to use disinfectants, make sure everything is rinsed very well as caustic chemical residues can irritate the feet and legs.

When you have treated the feet, did the vets ever debride the lesions? Were the feet ever bandaged or the birds kept in a "hospital cage" without perches to allow the feet to heal?

From my interpretation of your description (swollen feet which ulcerate, lameness) the birds sound like they have a grade 5/7 pododermatitis. (If you could post a picture of the feet, it would help me to make sure I am interpreting what you are describing 'correctly'--I am assuming that the crusts and oozing you are noticing are mainly coming from the "sole" or plantar surface of the feet). It could be a higher grade, but it is rare for passerine species to progress that far. The higher the grade, the more serious the condition. A grade 7/7 means that the disease has progressed so far that there is bony involvement (the bones in the feet will become damaged/destroyed by the disease). Taking radiographs (X-rays) would help you to determine if the bones are involved, but again it would be rare for a finch to have bony involvement.

Ideally, once diagnostics are run and the causative agent(s) identified, treatment of the feet for pododermatitis would involve the following:

-Debride the wounds to remove necrotic tissues
-Topical 5% Lugol's iodine and chlorhexidine cream to clean the feet
-Bandage the feet (replacing the bandage frequently) -or- preventing perching while open wounds are present to permit healing. Always keep the perches and cage bottom clean.
-Administer systemic antibiotics (preferably chosen from culture and sensitivity)--initially injectable, then switch to an oral form. The most commonly involved organisms in foot infections are Staphylococcus spp., but other potential organisms include: Streptococcus, E. coli, Mycobacterium, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, Proteus, and Candida albicans (a yeast).
-Improve nutrition; injections of B-complex and A, D3, and E vitamins should be followed by continued use of oral supplements.
-Pad perches with materials like Mole-skin tape (Dr. Scholl's Foot Products, available in any pharmacy foot products department) to protect the bottom of the feet of affected birds.

It is possible, however, that a different condition is responsible for the feet problems your birds are experiencing. Passerines (especially if housed outdoors) are at risk for poxvirus infection. Insect bites can cause swellings. Mites can cause proliferative lesions. Aging can cause some birds to have "thicker" feet, but they should not ooze. Allergic reaction (e.g. tobacco smoke) is also possible. There may be other causes, too.

Anyway it sounds like you really care about your birds, and I commend your efforts in doing everything you can to help them. I know how frustrating it can be to go through so many treatments without seeing lasting results. I hope you are able to find the true cause of your birds’ problem, and I hope it is something which can be treated to provide them relief.

Best of luck with your birds,

-Crystal

[Crystal]

As a matter of personal interest, I have posted some pictures in the gallery showing how bad pododermatitis can become if it is not caught and addressed early (somewhat graphic photos with some blood). In this particular bird, husbandry and diet were not the issue (these are almost always complicating factors, but not so for this bird). Instead the bird probably had an underlying immune system problem, possibly due to chronic subclinical (i.e. bird does not show any signs of illness) infection, genetic defect, or both.

Tip to owners: make a habit of scrutinizing the bottoms of your birds' feet during routine nail clipping (or at least once every one-two months); this will give you a better chance at catching this problem before it becomes too serious. The bottom of the feet should not appear smooth or shiny; normal feet have a subtle cobblestone appearance.

[tammieb]

I took a look at the photos. Thanks for sharing them.

That poor bird... her little feets look very painful!

[Crystal]

Yeah she is really reluctant to put weight on the left (more affected) foot.