Concerned about skinny Zebra

Emily's Momma · Post by **Emily's Momma** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 12:23 pm

Deana appears to have something wrong with her. I was observing her yesterday morning and she appears to be quite thin. Her abdomen seems to be a bit sunken below her breast. She also seems to not quite be acting just right, I noticed night before last that she kept half closing her eyes as if tired, but didn't think much of it since it was after 11pm, but she is still acting that way now. She seems to be eating normally, and has been observed drinking, and flitting about in her cage. She doesn't appear to be eggnant, and isn't sitting on any eggs presently. I did notice one small spot on her shoulder that appears as if it may have been plucked, but she is in with a little male and there has been no aggression or mating behaviors displayed, and the little male seems to be acting and looking absolutely normal. Emily is preparing an isolation cage for Deana so that we can better observe her and look at her droppings etc., as well as to get her away from the other finches in case of something contagious. Does anyone know what might be wrong with her, and what we can do to help her? There are absolutely no avian vets around here so we are really on our own. Please advise.

Thanks in advance.

Tracie

P.S. I just caught Deana yesterday, and put her into the isolation cage, but I noticed that both shoulders have been plucked a bit, well, I say plucked, but they both have bald spots on them.

zookeeper · Post by **zookeeper** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 5:27 pm

The first thing I would suspect is intestinal parasites. Dose her with wormer. And make sure she has some sort of supervitamin product like "Thrive".

Emily's Momma · Post by **Emily's Momma** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 9:44 pm

What kind of wormer should I get? Is it over the counter? I have been giving her, and all the other birds for that matter, Multi-Drops High Potency Vitamin Supplement on her food. Actually she seems to be acting a bit better this evening, and she really seems to resent being placed in isolation, she keeps meeping and calling to her fella

I would like to know what to use to worm her tho. Please advise.

Post by **Hilary** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 11:35 am

I use Worm Out gel (with a couple of drops of raspberry syrup to help the taste), but there are several products available via the internet. Good luck!

Hilary