WARNING on CFL (Compact Flourescent Lights)

[ac12]

I have some gouldians in my male community cage that looked ill (oddly all the YBs) and went to swap the CFL lamp with an incandescent lamp to give them heat. When I unscrewed the CFL, I noticed a BAD SMELL.

Oh oh, and we were just discussing stuff with fragrances in another thread. If it smells bad to me, it must NOT be good for the birds. So now rather than a "bug" making them ill, I think they were being poisoned by whatever the smell is from that CFL. I hope I got rid of that CFL in time.

[cindy]

Gary, I looked up the make up of CFL...it looks like they have small circuit boards within them...wonder if one of yours malfunctioned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp

How are the birds?

[G8love4finches]

I hope your birds aren't affected...

[Chichireeo]

Hope your birds recover. You may have saved them from much worse toxic fumes when the bulb burns. And thanks for the warning Gary.

[ac12]

Cindy
Come to think about it, the smell was just like the smell when an electrical component overheats and fails/burns up. It has been many years since I burned a component.

The YBs were all looking ill. One worse than the others. I hope they all recover. Funny that the 2 GBs and the BB did not appear affected like the YBs.

I was about to treat them with 4-in-one. But now I think I will do NV-powder and vitalize.

[kathmcm]

Gary, was the base of the CFL hot to your touch? Sometimes when these lamps are failing the ballast power supply gets very hot and produces an odor or even smoke. (You may have noticed black/brown discoloration on the base of a CLF that has failed.) Odors caused by overheating plastic or other electrical components in the ballast could be noxious or even poisonous fumes to birds that are being kept nearby.

Although it is possible the CFL was not the culprit in this case, it still may be wise when using them to check them periodically to make sure the ballast is not starting to get hotter than normal, and to use them with some ventilation.

This is all hindsight of course - I never considered the potential danger before you raised the issue here. Thanks!

Kathleen

[ac12]

And of course the lamp that went bad was on the gouldian cage, where the potential loss would have been BAD.

The CFL lamps screw into a reflector housing that covers the lamps, so I don't check them unless I have to move the lamp and reflector to another location or in this case remove the bulb.

I think I will have to make it a scheduled maintenance task to check the CFLs at least once a month.

[ac12]

I lost one male gouldian.
Found him dead on the cage floor this morning
He was the oldest, so probably more vulnerable to the vapors.
He was also of a different bloodline, and my favorite color combo RH-WB-YB, so I had been trying to breed him.

[cindy]

So sorry Gary. I had the same type of bulbs in the over head fixture in the room I moved all my birds into. When you posted this I went in and quickly switched them out for standard bulbs. My daughter had the room before the birds have claimed it and she used the bulbs in there all the time.

Word of warning also about fluorescent bulbs...if the crack wthey contain a gas also so be very careful in handling them and do not place them exposed where water can splash on them...if the tube is hot and cold water hits it....it could break/crack/pop.

[ac12]

Lost a 2nd one today

I'm puzzled by the YB, the feathers on their back is puffed up, even when their side and breast feathers are flat.

[debbie276]

Have they been sick all this time? I would have thought if it was from the vapors that it would have been pretty immediate, hasn't it been 10 days? Are you sure it's not something else?

[ac12]

The last one that died had been a bit fluffed up since I discovered the smelly lamp. So I am associated its death w the lamp.

The others, their back feathers were fluffed up since before I discovered the smelly lamp. That was one reason I went to swap out the lamp and discovered that it SMELLED. I thought after removing the smelly lamp and giving them some time their feathers would flatten out, but it hasn't. Yes it could it be something else, but I don't know what.

[debbie276]

Wow, I'm so sorry. Hope you can figure it out soon. How many birds were affected?

[ac12]

So far 2 dead, 3 with fluffed up back feathers, 1 sometimes puffed up.

[kathmcm]

maybe the fumes from a hot/failing CFL could have irritated and inflamed the birds' respiratory tracts, making them susceptible to infection or other illness? was there any sign of respiratory distress?