Newbie having no success with canaries...advice appreciated!

[KavaDulce]

Sorry! Lot's of snow here, internet has been patchy at best.

Not much new to report, unfortunately. Diarrhea is back in both birds. But the female is still behaving well. Today is the last day of Ronex. Gonna do S76 then worm-away, next, since I have those meds on hand. Don't even know if it's worth treating for Cocci since I've read that if they have it already, there's not much you can do about it...sigh. I just don't get it. Yesterday, Fred was hunched low in a corner with tremors so bad it was vibrating the bottom of the cage. He couldn't even sit up to drink very well. Today I wake up to him perching on a low perch and singing his heart out. He literally looks like he's about to die every other day. Then the other days he's singing, singing, singing. How in the world does a bird who looks like he can't catch his breath, sing??? It's such an emotional rollercoaster for me. A) because every other day I think he might still recover and B) I worry if it's enviromental about my family's health.

wildbird Are you saying there should be a "wait-and-see" period after giving a medication? I guess I just assumed that if I didn't see improvement, it was time to try something else?

lovezebs ...sigh...you are describing my perfect scenario! It's like my grandmother's canaries. She was just sensible with their care and they lived forever! That's why I'm sooo frustrated! Every spring we get a few chicken chicks, and I've never had an issue. Never medicated, simple feed, I free-range them, and have never medicated. I've had a bunch of pets over the years, and the most I've ever bought is heartworm meds for my dog. My kids are 7, 6, 3 and 1 and have never had anything more than a cold! We're not extreme, but eat pretty sensibly, exercise, take our vitamins, and don't use chemicals to clean. My family is very healthy, though I have been fatigued lately...but I can't tell if it's unusual or not. I AM the mother of 4 kids 7 and under, ha. In our house, we don't have any meds...literally only a bottle of Tylenol, because we've never needed them. And I'll admit having a box full of bird meds bothers me. But your concerns are exactly what is keeping me up at night. I keep praying that one of the medicines will help....so I can rule out some environmental invisible monster that I don't know about...

You say you don't medicate? I keep reading articles about giving the wormers, cocci preventers, and ASM on a schedule. Do you not do that and the birds are okay?


Atbird, I do hope that at some point I'll be able to breed a few babies in order to essentially "start over" and know I have healthy birds from the start. The two birds I have now, do have a metal band. The first male, from the pet store, did not. I have often wondered if the first was an older breeder bird. Goodness, I miss the little guy.

I guess a big question is, would an environmental concern cause diarrhea in the birds?

Isn't it ironic that my husband bought me these birds as a "stress-reliever?"

[Sheather]

I don't medicate my birds at all without cause, ever. I don't supplement with anything but natural foods. They do and breed great. They live in a house. How the heck are the going to get worms? O.o I've kept a number of susceptible species and never seen airsac mites, nor have I ever treated for them.

I've only had to once - mite spray - when a few mites appeared in a nest. They disappeared. I didn't need to re-treat.

Beyond that, nothing. I don't take anything more than a very rare tylenol myself.

[MiaCarter]

Sheather has a good point concerning exposure. If they live indoors and no new birds have entered the equation, then you just need to treat once to ensure they're free of all those parasites.

I treat all new birds with wormer, S76, etc. since I don't know if they could have been exposed in their prior home.
I don't treat again unless there's been a potential exposure.
Unlike Dylan, I do treat new birds for parasites even if they don't show obvious symptoms. I think this is due to a couple bad experiences with parasites, combined with the fact that I don't always get my animals from a reliable breeder. When I'm seeking a bird, I tend to ask my avian rescue friends first, as I'd prefer to help someone in need. I generally only look to breeders if I'm seeking a bird that I'm planning to breed, like my gouldians or zebras. I did rescue myself for many years too and I saw a very high instance of parasites so i think this also skewed my perception of their prevalence. So that's why I take a proactive approach.

Cocci is tricky. It's akin to Mycoplasma in rats as I understand it (though Cocci is a bit less common - virtually all domestic rats have mycoplasma in the US. The few sources of confirmed Myco-free rats are pricey and they're raised for lab applications.)
Once they have Cocci, it generally stays in their system to some degree for life. A healthy animal's immune system can keep it in check. But then if the body and immune system are stressed, the Cocci gains hold in a "flare" of sorts and the animal shows symptoms.
So treating is beneficial in that it can help tamp down the Cocci, enabling the body to recover to the point where the immune system can control Cocci levels, enabling the bird to live a normal life.

[KavaDulce]

Sheather and MiaCarter oh okay, that makes sense. So medicate any new birds in quarantine, then hopefully no worries. Just reading all the recommendations for med schedules made me nervous like if I miss a course, they'd likely drop dead.....or simply live forever in a sad, sad, state, like mine seem to. Sigh....my little male has been sick for almost a month and a half. MiaCarter, maybe I can get you to rescue mine! Then I'll steal them back once you've healed them.
Good news is that he's slept on his lowest perch past couple of nights...even made it to his swing, once! But I saw him trembling again, today. My first thought is maybe he did breathe in some leftover mold spores and it's affecting his CNS, like my other male likely dying from aspergillosis. But only prob is I'd expect he'd have lost his voice by now...because I thought it affected the lungs, first? My other went raspy then lost his voice long before the paralysis started.

I've completed a course of Ronex, S76, gonna give them a wee break, then do a course of Worm-Away.

Anyways, thanks to you all for helping as much as you have. I've learned more in a few weeks than all my googling combined. Hopefully, I'll have an answer soon one way or another. Still a few more environmental things to test and sort out.

[KavaDulce]

Well, I'm back...and the news isn't good. I completed the Ronex, one course of Worm-Away, and 2 out of 3 courses of S76 and Fred just kept getting better and better! He started flying again, swinging on his swing, singing his little heart out....I just knew we were winning! He was doing so well that the kids asked me if we could put him back in the kitchen and I told him maybe next week, sometime. Give him a little more rest time. But I had ran out of poppy seed, and his diarrhea returned with a vengeance, except now the liquid part was stringy and yellowish... But I was hoping it would be okay because he was still singing and flying, and happy! Well, today, before church, I noticed he was a little puffed up, and breathing heavy, so I cranked up the heat for him. When I went to check on him a few minutes ago, I found him on the floor of his cage, dead. I still can't hardly believe it. Poor little guy. He literally sang till the end.

Thanks again for everyone's help. I guess now my focus will be to see if I can keep the little female alive. She "seems" healthy and happy, but I'll admit I feel jinxed at this point. I put her through all the meds, Fred was taking, so at least I put her through the proper quarantine procedures. If she does well, I may try another male in the fall. Gonna miss the sweet songs, in the meantime, though. I know they should be peaking right now with breeding season under way. Just gonna have to live vicariously through you all for a while!

[debbie276]

I'm so very sorry for your loss

[Atbird]

So sorry to hear

[imac]

Hello All.. quick question about my male and female canarys..they re in a outdoor large aviary..put in nest boxs for them but they wont go in them. Even at night they sleep on tree branches in aviary..will this be ok and not to cold for them..does anyone else canarys sleep outdoors in aviary on the branches and not in box..

[Lucille]

I just want to say a few things about Teflon:
A heavy exposure can cause quick death, but a lighter exposure can cause death some time later: the respiratory system is compromised but it takes the bird a while to die.
Teflon is used in more than cookware. It is found in some light bulbs, and in some self cleaning ovens.
It is found on the surface of some cookware such as muffin tins but doesn't have the characteristic Teflon appearance. If your cookware is not metal-shiny, but coated on the inside, make sure it is not Teflon.
Many irons for pressing clothes now have Teflon surfaces.

If for sure your home now has no toxins, be on the alert for nearby manufacturers or businesses which could possibly be producing toxic fumes. Chronic illness and death in your canaries may be pointing to conditions which may affect you as well.

I hope you persevere, you sound like a wonderful and caring canary Mom.