Eating Nonstop!

[Domenic]

My male gouldian was poofed up today and acting lethargic and I immediately grabbed him and put him in the hospital cage. He has a heat lamp and isn't poofed up now, but he has been acting very strange. He's been eating nonstop today, and literally only takes breaks to sleep or drink. He sleeps on the food bowl, wakes up and begins eating again. I was watching him today also, and saw him shake his head violently and a seed flew out of his mouth. He did this again and another seed flew out. I'm more worried about the nonstop eating though. What could be causing this behavior? It is certainly not normal, and I've seen very hungry finches fill themselves in about five minutes.

[L in Ontario]

I don't want to alarm you but I really don't like the sounds of non-stop eating.

I hope it isn't this but "Going Light" is a possibility and I've lost a couple to that. Check out the Finch Info Centre and http://www.LadyGouldian.com for more details about it but that condition seems to indicate they cannot absorbed the required nutrients from their food so they keep eating and eating but loosing weight at the same time (hence Going Light). They just loose too much weight and die off. I'm glad you have him in a hospital cage with a heatlamp. How about some vitamins or NV Powder in his drinking water?

Good luck!

[cindy]

Domenic,

Here is an article about what Liz mentioned, going light:

http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com/featur ... glight.mgi

Hope you can get your gouldian feeling better soon.

I went through this with my male owl, he ate non stop, was fluffed while sleeping. He was eating seed non stop to the point he was not digesting it and was passing whole seeds. We treated with Worm Away. When that did not improve things we did a course of Ronivet 12% then a course of Medistatin and probiotics. The bird is fine, the meds did the trick and he is very active now. Prior to treatment he rarely sang and would not flit about, he is non stop activity now.

[CandoAviary]

Domenic,
Going light syndrome is a symptom of birds loosing weight even though they eat alot. It can be caused by a number of things.Some minor...some serious. I think the culprit is usually cocciciosis or a bacterial infection.
I have lost some birds to this and then I have saved birds from this. I think it depends on how soon you catch and treat it. I do put the bird under heat as soon as I notice any symptoms. If the bird is not egg bound (if hen)or does not show improvement within 24 hours I treat with either Sulfcox, from ABBA or New hampshire birds supply
sulfcox:
ORIGINALLY FORMULATED TO CONTROL AND PREVENT COCCIDIOSIS AND GOING LIGHT SYNDROME IN FINCHES AND CANARIES. SULFCOX CAN ALSO BE USED IN BUDGIES, COCKATIELS, LOVEBIRDS, DIAMOND DOVES ETC. ALSO BE USED FOR RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS.

or Trimethoprim/sulfa from http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com

Your little bird is in my prayers and hope it is something minor that the heat will pull him through

[nixity]

Domenic how old is the bird?
Usually "going light" is used to describe what may be seen with juvenile gouldians shortly after weaning and before molting. They just seem to wilt away and die for no reason.
I have never seen this happen in an adult.
What you are describing sounds to me like a yeast infection, or otherwise some sort of digestive tract failure which is causing him to continuously eat because his food is not being asorbed properly.

This could be related to Avian Gastric Yeast (aka megabacteria), protozoal infection, systemic candida, etc., but the regurgitating food and chronic eating really screams candida (aka yeast) to me.

Do you have an anti-fungal med (Medistatin/Nystatin) on hand? Can you get some? I can over night some to you if not, and in the mean time you could add organic apple cider vinegar (Bragg's is the brand I'd recommend which you can get at Vitamin Shoppe or Whole Foods) to his water at a rate of 1 drop per ounce of water and this might help stave off further infection but it will not TREAT any existing infection.

Did you notice this come on suddenly or did you see other symptoms (puffy/lethargy) before this and just discount them as maybe a bad day for him?

You can read here for further info on Yeast and AGY (Megabac) here:
http://finchfiles.com/FinchFiles/Health ... andida.htm
http://finchfiles.com/FinchFiles/Health/Notes-AGY.htm

[L in Ontario]

seen with juvenile gouldians shortly after weaning and before molting. They just seem to wilt away and die for no reason.

I always understood that in juvies it was "failure to thrive". I didn't know juvies could 'go light'.

Still learning.

[nixity]

seen with juvenile gouldians shortly after weaning and before molting. They just seem to wilt away and die for no reason.

I always understood that in juvies it was "failure to thrive". I didn't know juvies could 'go light'.

Still learning.

Failure to Thrive and Going Light are synonymous to me.. but that could just be me

[Domenic]

Thank you everyone for the tremendous help. His incessant eating has slowed today, though I have no idea why. He spent the entire day yesterday on the food dish. He is more active today and interested in other things again. I'm still on high alert.

I'm not sure of his age but he is definitely not a juvenile. I've had him since October and he was already all the way through his molt when I got him.

This wasn't a gradual progression. I did something stupid and I'm a bit embarrassed to say, but I don't want to leave anything out. I got a female gouldian the other day from someone I trust. I brought her home and put her right in the aviary because I didn't think I would need to quarantine a bird from the person I got her from. The second day in the aviary and she started poofing up and trying to keep herself warm. I believe stress allowed something she was carrying to take action and start attacking her. She would sleep the entire day and wake up to eat and drink. I thought it was possibly just stress, but she wasn't any better on the second day so I put her in the hospital cage. With the heat she almost immediately bounced back. The next day Judah was doing the same things the female gouldian was and I knew he caught whatever she had. I grabbed him right out of the aviary and put him in the hospital cage with the heat lamp. He stopped the poofing up, but the nonstop eating behavior started. He seems much better today, but something innocuous that I am a little worried about is that he doesn't sing or call at all. He was a very vocal bird in the aviary. I'll give him a day or two to relax before I start making MORE assumptions.

[CandoAviary]

Stress can do a lot to a bird and if they are moulting can cause a lot of fluffing. If the 2 were chasing each other then they may have not eaten much and just exhausted themselves. Like I said, hoping it is just something minor. Normally if it is a bacterial, fungus, yeast infection they don't get better with just heat.
PS you should always quarenntine new birds, i know you know but you know I had to say it anyway

[MLaRue]

Since this happened so suddenly this screams Protozoa Infection Atoxoplasmosis, Canker to me - something Ronivet would be used for...

What color are the poops? What do they look like - did they change too? Did the female have healthy poops?

[Domenic]

I just checked and their poops look normal to me, not runny at all. As I was checking the female gouldian made a fresh poo and it was white and solid.

It's been four days now since she was first poofing up, if it had been canker would she have died already? I know that it kills very quickly. She is perfectly healthy today, Judah too. I am keeping them in the hospital cage for a while though. I believe a couple of my other birds may have caught it, I might just be a little paranoid though. It doesn't help that our house has been freezing these past few days with the temperature drop outside.

[MLaRue]

If they are truly healthy birds their immune systems would put things back into check. It really sounds stress related now. But yeast is a slow killer. And, it is my opinion that other things can kill slowly too if the bird has the immune system to keep fighting the problem.

Hence the reason why some birds can become carriers.

I'm happy to hear they are looking better - how cold is the house getting? Was it a sudden drop of more than 10 degrees?

[Domenic]

I can't say for sure how cold it got, but I definitely felt the difference.

If it were stress related why would my other gouldian be symptomatic the next day too?

[Domenic]

Something I should have mentioned , The female gouldian was just finishing up a molt when I got her. There are still one or two stray white pinfeathers on her head. Today I took two more birds out and put in a hospital cage because they have been poofed up and a tad lethargic. When I got a close look I noticed small white pinfeathers on both too. Could all of this be because of stress from the molt? It just doesn't make sense that it happened all at the same time, and why did Judah the male gouldian become sickly the day after taking the female gouldian out? And why did he do that nonstop eating thing?

I'm very confused.

[MLaRue]

I can't say for sure how cold it got, but I definitely felt the difference.

If it were stress related why would my other gouldian be symptomatic the next day too?

That is why I think the stress allowed the female then to pass her problem to the other Gouldian. Think of a cold - if I have a cold and your in the same room you might get it and you might not. Stress would allow the hen to be compromised to an existing problem and then shed off her problem to your other Gouldian since he might not have an immunity to whatever was passed. Stress is a big problem for birds. Her being moved to a new environment allowed her immune system to be tested. If she pulled thru and seems fine now - my thought is that her immune system was strong enough to fight back and quickly.