Sored eyes canary

[fredbernie]

Hi all,

I have recently ventured myself into keeping canaries and just got a true pair of red mosaic. They are proven to be a true pair, as they sucessfully raised 2 clutches last year for the previous owner. They are just a little bit over 2 years old.

I have had them for almost a month. They used to be all healthy and active. They eat a lot and the diet is diverese: seed mix (canary seed, millet, sesame, ...), mixed bean powder, ground oat meal, fresh greens and fresh boiled eggs three time every week. The cage is clean and have plenty of space for them to fly around. They have all molted 6 months ago, and now are about to be in the breeding condition. I can tell that because the male's cloaca is now clearly extruding out and becoming larger. He sings all day long. The female belly is roudning day by day and the wing flashing is becoming very frequent.

However, just over 5 days ago, one of the male's eye suddenly closed all the time. The other eye is without any problem. The bad one seems to be fine too, as there are no swelling not bleeding or any obvious sign of problem as I can tell. The only problem is the all time close down. He is still active and eating like crazy. But, of course, due to the eye problem, the level of activity is reducing compared to the time he was normal. He now seems to be a little bit sleepy, maybe that is the side effect of the sored eye, I think.

I am clueless and very worried. I don't know what is wrong with him and how to treat it. In my town, no avian vet can be found, so I am on my own. Please help me!

[lovezebs]

fredbernie
Not sure what could be going on. If I were you, I would phone all the vet offices in your surrounding area and find out who has interest in birds or has worked with birds before. You just might get lucky . In the meanwhile, I would place your boy in a small seperate cage with some heat on one side, shade on the other side and keep an eye on him. If there is something wrong with him, you don't want to pass it on to female. Plus this way, he can rest without having to show off to his girl.

Goodluck

[Sally]

Is there any discharge from the eye? Is the eye swollen or just closed? Any crustiness over the eye? Can you post a photo? It is very difficult to diagnose without actually seeing a bird, and eye problems can be caused by a virus, or bacteria, or an injury. If you put your location in your profile, it will help members to know what might be available to you in the way of medication.

[fredbernie]

Thanks for all replies folks. I am sorry for not responding sooner, as I am pretty busy with the birds and works.

I managed to cure the eyes, not the proper way to do but still works. I used the 0.9% sodium chlorine eye washing solution and 0.4% cloraxin for the treatment of any infection, one drop of each solution for each eye twice daily for about a week. It works for all of my societies before and now proves itself once more on canaries.

However, I am now in a bigger problem, air sac mites. The male is now isolated as he shows all signs of mites, but I guess the entire flock of zebras, societies, javas, strawberries and canaries are infected. I am living in Saigon, Vietnam which means finding proper medication or at least a trained vet is too much a luxury. Anything like Scatt or S76 is out of question because no one here use them. The only thing I can do is to find some drugs with the similar chemical like Scatt (moxidectin) or S76 (ivermectin). But the products like Advocate for dogs and cats are surely too much in dose for the birds. I am confused and need help soon. Thanks!

[finchmix22]

ASM are treated with Ivermectin. You'd need a diluted solution so you don't kill them. Are you sure you can't order online to get the medication? If not, you could ask a local vet if they would tell you the dilution amount for finches. Saigon is a big city, so you should be able to find the Ivermectin at a pharmacy or vet office. If not, order online with overnight shipping.

If you can't get medication, they will not make it. However, while you wait for some meds give them heat and soft foods and lots of clean water. Keep us posted.

[finchmix22]

http://canarytales.blogspot.com/2014_05_01_archive.html
Here is a link about using Ivermectin and the dosage. I don't know it the solution is diluted already or not, but Ivermectin is fairly common today. Good Luck finding the meds.

[fredbernie]

Thanks for the quick reply. I agree that ivermectin is common these day, even for human usage. I just have no idea about the dosage or any other thing included in the available medication which maybe good for human but harmful for birds. The vet here are not specifically trained for birds, as people here are still short in the need for them. I asked for bird medication and a lot of them told me that I am virtually the only one who ever ask.

Online ordering is possible, but the messy custom clearance in Vietnam is the problem, especially for drugs. Virtually, they must be primed to allow your package passed the clearance and that is much more than the value of the package itself and it is time consuming, normally days even weeks. They usually say that it is a strange thing and must be examined by "experts" to see whether it is legal to be imported. I ran into this everytime I ordered something online, except for textbooks. But I guess at the last resort, I must do it then. By the mean time, let me see if I can get the dosage right.

[finchmix22]

Here is finch forum chat, discussing how to dilute the Ivermectin.

"I have no idea what strength your stock solution is (the sheep drench) but read the label and dilute it to 0.1% Ivermectin. Gouldians are sensitive to it so go easy with a single drop of the diluted mix to the bare skin on the nape of the neck (exposed by blowing) or place it on the unfeathered portion underneath the the wing. Reapply after 2 weeks just to be sure.
Don't use the diluted mix after about 3 months as it appears to become even more toxic either from evaporation of the carrier or perhaps a breakdown product. This rate clears up ASM and since I don't seem to be afflicted by worms I reckon it cleans them out too."

So, if you can get some from a vet or pharmacy or farmer, you can try to treat by diluting the medication. Otherwise, they will die for sure. I hope you find something that works, so keep us posted.

[finchmix22]

fredbernie
See post above. I forgot to tag you so you'd know there was another response!

[fredbernie]

Finally, I managed to find some ivermectin from a chicken farm in another province. They did not give it for free, but sold the least amount that can be offered, 1 big bottle of 1 litre. I was a little skeptical, though it was pretty expensive, but I am not sure if anyone can get that much in ivermectin so easily. I suspect it is from China, which generally should be stayed away. I even have no idea about the expiry date of the drug if there is any.

Anyway, I gave it a try and the third treatment is due next week. I put the entire flock under medication for sure. The canary maybe a little bit better now. I can hear him singing sometimes, though only two or three times from the first treatment and the song is very short compare to the lengthy as he used to perform. But he still looks tired, he is alert but not very active. He eats a lot, does not sleep during the day but remains immobile except for hoping around a little bit and for eating. I usually take him indoor for flying. He is not a good flyer right from the time I brought him home, but he definitely still can fly around a little bit. I don't know if he is recovering from whatever illness or there are some other things going on.

Apart from this, I also ran into something terrible this week. Two weeks ago, my uncle, who introduced me to canary keeping and makes his living from canary breeding for more than 10 years, gave me a pair of red agate canary. He insisted on giving and did not want to receive any payment for that, so I took the birds very carefully. They are a male-female pair about 6 months old and have almost finished the molt. The male is practicing his song daily as I can hear it loud and clear. The female is 90% sure to be female based on its dull color, its flat cloaca and it never sings. Of course, my uncle was so sure of the bird sexes. He kept them in the same cage with another female red agate since their separation from parents. They were from different parents, but stayed together since young.

When I took them home, I also placed them in the same cage as suggested by my uncle. I give them canary, millet, sesame, wheat, paddy rice seed mix, 1 boil egg 4-5 days per week, fresh green almost everyday, cuttle bone, oat meal and their favourite roasted bean powder mixture (black bean, red mung bean, green mung bean, soya and white bean). They always have plenty of food to enjoy and the cage is big enough for larger pairs. I placed the cage on top of the zebra breeding cages and seal the door with a strand of metal, so no animal can open it. The place where I keep all birds is hardly accessible by cats or rats either.

Little to none conflict between the two could be observed for two weeks and I was so sure that they would be a fine pair. However, when I got home yesterday, I found the female dead on the cage floor with a bloody head, 1 swollen leg and missing eyes (don't know if this was because of the ants). The cage is littered with spots of blood, so I thought there must be a hard struggle. I caught the male and inspected him thoroughly. No injury can be found even a broken feather, everything on him is intact. No feather can be found on the cage floor, which does not look like a bird fight to me.

I am so confused. I asked my uncle and he was stunned if there were any sorts of fighting. Why did she suffer such a horrible death? Did I do something wrong? Now, I am left with a single male and planning to get a new female red agate around the same age. Should I do it right now or wait a little bit longer? What should I do now?

[finchmix22]

Oh, how sad! I'm sorry you lost her. I am not sure what happened, but make sure the male did not attack her. In a new environment, they can feel stressed and other behaviors may surface. Also, if the cage outdoors? Could there be a predator that got to her? Again, sorry you lost her.

[fredbernie]

Yes the cage is outdoor and I am not sure if any predator can be around the area. But I have been keeping birds at the same place for over a year and nothing happened so far. I have lost 2 zebras before but with clear reason. Was there any fighting between the two, I cannot tell. I am not 24/7 at home, as I have to go for work. But I do spend a large amount of time taking care of the birds at weekends and every morning before leaving, nothing seemed to be wrong with them. They have plenty of food, so fighting for them is out of question. The gap beween cage bars is so small, I cannot even put my little finger in, so cat or dog is unlikely have any chance to catch the birds. About the rats, I don't know, but anything that can enter the cage must be smaller than my little finger. At that size, they can hardly harm a bird the size of a big canary, please correct me if I am wrong.

The red mosaic male with ASM, he is still scratching his head against any object that he can find. Is there any hint why he does so?

[finchmix22]

Snakes, snakes, snakes. Sorry, but mice and snakes can get between mesh that small and other rodents can kill finches or canaries if they are perched next to the mesh. There are many ways for predators to get at birds in aviaries.

[fredbernie]

Snakes are out of question for sure. In Vietnam a snake will make a good soup for dinner. If a snake surfaces around my neighbourhood, it will be stripped to bones in no time. Of course, I stay out of these things, cannot tolerate the idea of eating snakes. Anyway, I leave in the center of Saigon not the rural area, so snakea can be found at nowhere. But I'll investigate on the rodents and rats, maybe setting atrap tonight.

[fredbernie]

Btw, is there any good source to learn about canary genetics? I am now left with 1 red agate male, 1 red mosaic female and 1 not very healthy red mosaic male. The breeding season starts in about three months, so I may have to try the red agate male x red mosaic female combination, but I have no idea what to expect from the chicks.