UPDATE ON FINCH DEATHS

[cindy]

It is funny you said that Candace...while I had my Gray and my lovebird in the vet is busy listening to symptom but studying the bird, getting samlpes, weighing, drawing blood, doing throat cultures, examining the keel, vent, doing vent swaps...it idid a dropping over the sterile paper she swapped that and put it on a slide. Samples were sent off....fethers sent off. Ultrasound done if needed.

She was more precise than some of the vets that I used for my dogs.

[finchmix22]

Well, I am all for learning all I can so I don't have to panic and pay out the nose at the vet, only to lose my finches anyways. We had another one go downhill today, but I gave her Vitalize and she perked up some. We thought she might have been picked on by her cage mates. On her own she is better, but she was losing tail feathers fast. I still have the Spice with the blocked preening gland and she loved the warm compress. She should get better soon. The other ones are all a lot better today. Thank God! Just one we have to watch closely.

[CandoAviary]

[quote="cindy"]It is funny you said that Candace...
quote]

Not sure what was funny, but yes, a good avian vet is priceless. I had great results from avian vets with my amazons and ringnecks... but they don't seem to be able to do much for finches for the most part, which were the species of birds I was refering to. For me, every finch that has ever gone to the vet has died in their care Due to their smaller size and faster metabolizium makes them much harder to treat than the parrots, even parrots of small size like a love bird. Many times because of the short window finches provide for treatment a fecal stain is the best course of action. Rarely will a vet take a blood sample from a finch unless it is for a DNA sample. The stress of a vet doing much/handling a sick finch will usually kill it. If the vet cannot/does not do the fecals themselves and has to send them off to a lab to be preformed and read (just like we can do ) then they usually just give antibiotics (which we can also do) makes me not want to go that route... when I can do that myself. It is always best to find a veterinarian that preforms their own stains in the office for the best and quickest solutions, also to microscope you own bird's droppings is a great precautionary tool. Many times you can detect problems way before they cause the bird much distress.(and save bucks from costly vet readings or sending off to a lab...not cheap either) So many times by the time the owners see symptoms of an illness, the critical treatment time may have been well past. Time is of the essence when treating FINCHES as well as a vet knowledgable and capacle in preforming fecal cultures /stains

[cindy]

Candace the remark about "funny you said that" or as in "what a coincidence you mentioned that" was in regards to vets that do not have a clue....fortunately mine does. She has the education, equipment, test done on site and sent out. I have been very happy and she is always spot on with treatments. she is upfront about it all and gives sensible advice, she will spend time on the phone to help get you through things.

There are those that are clueless even when it comes to dogs and cats also...(trust me there are many out there that do the basics even with dogs and cats, I've had to go through 5 vets to finally get my dog diagnosed for Cushings. Other vets said it was diet, others said excerise, others said put him down.) I was not about to put a 5 yr old dog down for seizures unless i knew what was causing them.

It took one really good vet to look at the enlarged chest and abdominal area, listened to the heart...and as she drew blood she said she was certain he had cushings....blood teest came back positive, xrays confirmed the liver was 3 times it's size and the left side of the heart was enlarged....treatment and time allowed him a good 4 yrs before the meds no longer worked and he passed. Those were 4 yrs we would not have had with him if we had listened to the 4th vet who did nothing for him as he seized on their table.

And yes GOOD vets are priceless.