New society finch, sad? *concerned*

[Dryxxa]

Okay im going to order some asap. thank you for the advice to a very new newbie lol

[Icearstorm]

Babs
I keep finding myself coming back to the same question: Why are human and non-human animal or plant care so different? People rarely take preventive medicine, except maybe Pepto Bismol in a foreign country, yet we give quite a lot to pets and routinely use pesticides on plants. There is currently a resistance epidemic for human disease and agriculture, yet there does not seem to be this problem with small-scale animal husbandry. Is this associated with the fact that most pets are relatively isolated from each other and a resistant disease will kill a small population, keeping resistance from spreading to other populations? Or is there actually a problem with medicinal overuse that has been overlooked?

[lovezebs]

Dryxxa

Calgary Avian & Exotic Pet Clinic

2308 24 St SW #1, Calgary, AB T2T 5H8
(403) 240-3577

https://g.co/kgs/Jk8JdJ

I would use SCATT if you have it.
Put her under a warm lamp, with one side of the cage covered for shade.
Offer favorite food and fresh water.

Watch your other birds very carefully.

[Dryxxa]

thank you everyone! i will give an update in a few days or if there is any improvement

[Babs _Owner]

Icearstorm

Don't get me wrong. I'm not cool with people over-medicating their finches. Most know I am against it. I HATE medicating out-of-the-gate.I get irritated when people treat a chick as a playtoy, when the chick isn't even old enough to fledge and needs WARMTH on their crops rather than "playtime" before they even form feathers under their wings. The most I have to do is give them ACV if I see signs of yeast. I'm not overly hygienic with my utensils because, quite frankly in the wild their parents dont soak their beaks in rubbing alcohol between feeding their young. That all seems ridiculous to me. A certain amount of bacteria tolerance has to be developed since I cannot mimic the parents immunity in their spit.
(thankfully most of the good handfeeders know to keep their kids in the cage, and under the warmth of a heat lamp throughout the process). Temperature means everything .

Parasites. That is a different creature, literally. And there are things in the wild that are like the tsetsi fly that literally sting lions, elk to death in a horrific way, science has created a drug to rid them on dogs/cats in a flea preventative but as of yet as far as I know not applied it in the now heavily monitored "husbandry " of global wildlife (and YES global wildlife is under a collective husbandry campaign which is nice for animals, not good for people ....and is working as intended...a sad story for humans all over).

Yes I am cautious about higher immunity to certain drugs. But we are taking these birds completely out of their element. And with that we introduce critters they aren't used to fighting off through evolution.

I keep my medication to ACV for yeast, Scatt when they walk in the door. I will only Ronex if I see a flock issue ( in 3 years I've ronexed once).

So In conclusion I share your worry of to much medication. I avoid it. But Ill dose my birds for mites the same way I dose my dogs to keep my house from from being over run with fleas. The medication is the same for me. I can't sell a bird over run with mites, anymore than sell a dog with fleas jumping off them.

Thats one last thing my new birdie parents have to worry about when they go home, and I tell them exactly what I am doing.

I Scatt upon removing the bird and handing them over to their owner. ;)

[Icearstorm]

Babs

Do you think I should treat my new Javas right now? (They are currently in quarantine.) I may not have enough Ivermectin to give the full course and theiy show no signs of scaly face mite, but I hear they sometimes get air sac mites. The Ivermectin took a week to ship in last time, so perhaps I could use the first dose now and then immediately order some more? The package says one drop per week per bird for three weeks. How long does it last before expiring?

[Babs _Owner]

Icearstorm

Im not familiar with how to use Ivermectin. I've only used Scatt. If you have used the product and feel it's gentle and effective for mites, then I would certainly make it part of your quarantine routine. Birds can show no signs of mites for several months from what I understand, so if not treated they can slip under the radar.

Congrats on the Javas btw

[Icearstorm]

Babs

Ivermectin seems safe as a preventative; I have heard birds can get completely soaked in it and still come out fine, so overdosing would be fairly difficult.

[Babs _Owner]

Icearstorm

Sounds like a plan ;)

[Ricardo Ronsini]

Icearstorm

Ivermectin is considered safe to vertebrates, but all depends on the concentration, here we have a medicine called Ivomec, with ivermectin as active principle (1%), and although very effective against mites, it is known to be very strong as well, if overdosed will easely kill a small bird.

[Stine]

Unless you have many birds, one tiny bottle of ivermectin drops (the one for small birds is 0.1%) will take you a long way. Usually I just treat my birds once, seems to do the trick for scaly face, but I've only had one case of suspected air sac mites - I think it's mainly with those several treatments are recommended because some of the mites tend to hide in the air sacs where there is very little blood flow and the ivermectin can't reach them.
I don't remember exactly how quickly it expires, but I think it's 1-2 years.

[lovezebs]

Dryxxa

How are things going???

[Dryxxa]

Turned out she was stressed in the other cage, she's doing fantastic now, no more weird noises, bathing, eating, not sleeping excessively back to her sweet self

[lovezebs]

Dryxxa

Wonderful news.
Very happy to hear the good news

[Icearstorm]

Ricardo Ronsini
I must be getting Ivermectin mixed up with one of the other parasite treatments, then.