Air sac mite in incubating female

[gosun]

Hi,

My gouldian female is incubating her eggs and into her 7th day of incubation. Today when she came out of her nest for break, i can hear clicking sound from her voice. very explicit clickings... I got really worried and administered "Mite & Lice Bird & Cage Ultracare Spray (8 fl. oz.)" on her. Kindly let me know the ultracare spray is safe and it wont harm the bird and the incubating eggs.
If you have previous experience using ultra care spray kindly share your experience. thx.

Sundar

[Sally]

I have not used this spray before. What are the ingredients? And where are you located--it will help others to know what might be available for you. I do know that SCATT should not be administered to birds younger than 6 months, so I would assume that is not safe to use so close to hatching. S76 is supposed to be a bit safer, but I have no experience with using it on incubating birds. Are you positive it is ASM? Some respiratory problems can cause a clicking sound.

[gosun]

I am in Chennai, India. We dont have SCATT or S76 here in India and i purchased "Mite & Lice Bird & Cage Ultracare Spray (8 fl. oz.)" from singapore during my last trip there. I am pretty sure today what i observed was ASM since the clicking was very explicit as well as the female gouldian was scratching her like anything... she also tried something like regurgitating like what human does during throat infection.... Kindly advise.

[Cath1068]

I just talked to Laraine about SCAT and she said its safe for babies 7 weeks old and older. S76 is safe for day old chicks. I wouldnt spray anything around the eggs or on mom. I had jusy emailed her about that cuz the mom of my fledges was acting off.

This is her email to me.....
Hello Cathy,

In my opinion your Gouldian chicks are still too young to use the Scatt on them. I typically would not use Scatt until the chicks are at least 7 weeks old. But the S76 is perfectly safe, even when the chicks are only 1 day old. So I would use the S76 for the next 2 days, mixed in the drinking water. Be sure to remove the water from your birds tonight. Then mix the S76 fresh tomorrow morning and give it to the birds. The S76 is only potent for 8-10 hours after it is mixed. You don't need to mix it twice tomorrow...just in the morning.

Then tomorrow night, remove the water again and mix the S76 fresh again the next morning.

If it has been more than 3 months since you last treated the parents, I would administer the S76 to all of the birds, as described above, this week and the next 2 weeks. Thereafter, you should treat all of the birds for 2 consecutive days every month.

So happy to hear that your canary is doing so much better. You go girl!

Laraine
www.ladygouldian.com

[bugaboo5]

I have not used this spray before. What are the ingredients?

Hi Sally, I'm pretty sure the OP is referring to "8 in 1 Ultra Care Mite and Lice Spray" - it's what is commonly found at Petsmart and Petco here in the States. It comes in 8 oz bottle sprays.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=2752076

Active Ingredients: Pyrethrins 0.03%, Piperonyl Butoxide, Technical* 0.30%

Inert Ingredients: 99.67% *Equivalent to 0.240% (butylcarbityl) (6-propylpiperonyl) ether and 0.06 related compounds

---------------
I'm just not sure if this spray will be effective at all for air sac mites. This is quite the issue being that Gosun is in India. I wonder if it might be easier to have some SCATT shipped in from Australia, since Australia is closer to India and SCATT is an Aussie brand? I just don't know the costs that would go into the process. I'll keep looking for possible solutions. Otherwise, there is always the holistic neem's tea option. I do know India has a surplus of neem-based products.

[kenny66]

Scatt is not available in Australia-even though it is made here

Moxidectin or Ivermectin is the product of choice in Australia- I believe Moxidectin can be used on incubating birds but general advice is not to use it whilst birds have chicks as it may inhibit the begging response. However some breeders do use it whilst chicks are in the nest, but I don't. Difficult one to call. If it were me, and I stress if it were me, under the same circumstances, I would reluctantly treat birds with Scatt/Moxidectin when chicks are at 7 days. However because I treat any case of ASM prior to breeding, I haven't had this particular problem.

[kenny66]

BTW lice spray is ineffective against ASM.

[nixity]

Let us not forget that clicking isn't an explicit indicator of ASM.
It could also be an upper respiratory infection, an aspergillosis infection, or any other potential disease of or relating to the respiratory tract.

If the nest is extremely humid and damp with droppings my first inclination would be inhaled aspergillosis spores causing a fungal respiratory infection.

[gosun]

Thanks for all your responses. I did administered a drop of ivermectin yesterday on the female as she was suffering heavily for breathing. Today morning i found that she was lying on the floor "dead"... unfortunate.
Not sure how to handle this situation as her eggs are incubated for 7 days and the male wont sit on eggs during night moving forward. In the day time he sits fully on eggs thou... I dont have any foster birds also apart from the male in the cage. What is the chance of the eggs survival??

[Sally]

So sorry you lost your hen. If the male is not incubating during the night, then chances are, if the eggs were fertile, they will be DIS (dead in shell). But I wouldn't be too quick to give up on them, I've heard of eggs still hatching even when it was thought there was no chance. If it is quite warm where the eggs are, they won't get chilled quite as much as if they were in a cold place. I'd leave the eggs in the nest, see what the male does.

[debbie276]

So Sorry your hen didn't make it, it sounds like a respiratory infection rather then ASM. How far along are your eggs? If it's close to hatch time they may be able to survive without night time incubation. Hopefully your male starts sitting tight.
Best of luck

[Cath1068]

Could you use a red bulb for heat at night on the nest ? Just curious

[debbie276]

Worth a try Just don't start a fire!

[Gemma27]

Hi,
I have used s76 for my own finches as treatment and i believe that it is also fine/safe to use with rearing mothers and there chicks from day old, it had great effect with my birds, making them better within a couple of days, with s76 twice a week for 3 weeks and continuing the treatment you add it to the birds drinking water so you can treat them all and do not need to catch them and stress them out to add it to their necks, you can get s76 within the UK at fabfinches.co.uk this i where I got mine from and they delivery quick and its free delivery to UK mainland.

[Stinch]

Would anyone recommend water soluable Moxidectin or Ivermectin or a topically applied version?