Sick Heck's Grassfinch

[MariusStegmann]

I had a female grassfinch that died about a week ago. Before that I noticed that her wings were hanging a bit, but I was preoccupied with the parrotfinches that I got and I forgot about it. Today I noticed another grassfinch female that was too weak to fly. I put her in a small cage with a light for heat. She looks better and ate a bit. We just had had a couple of days when it was a bit colder wth rain. Could this be eggbind? If it is eggbind would the light help?

[MariusStegmann]

It is probably not eggbind because the vent seems normal and she is still deficating.

[MiaCarter]

I'm sorry to hear about your bird.

Indeed, I believe the fact that her vent looks normal and the defecation would be contraindicative of egg binding. (Though to answer your question, the heat lamp could help some if egg binding was the problem, as warmth helps.)

Were her droppings normal? Breathing?

It's hard to know what's going on with her, but the death of the other grassfinch is concerning for certain.

In cases where it's a general unwell-ness, without abnormal breathing, droppings, etc., I usually offer heat, vitamins and probiotics. If there's no improvement, I'll go with Amoxitex, assuming it's some sort of infection.

[finchmix22]

MiaCarter gave some good suggestions. If I suspect illness, especially if another finch died and it's not eggbinding, I'd treat with a mixture of Ronex12% and Amoxitex together for five days. The reason is the finches go down hill so fast and we are not sure if the problem is bacterial or fungal or protozoa. This way, they have a chance to recover. If I just was wondering, but not sure of an illness, I'd give heat and watch the droppings, eating and re-evaluate in a day or two. For eggbinding, the hens are fluffed up and sometimes they drop their wings to the side, but usually they just look miserable and fluffed. I give a drop of Calcium Plus to the beak 3 times the first day and then once a day until the egg passes. Most of the time, the hen passes the egg after the first or second administration of Calcium Plus to the beak. Also, I put them in a small cage with a wet towel around the cage and the heat lamp over one end of the cage. Someitmes, I put the cage in the bathroom and turn on the shower on heat to get moisture, which is very helpful with eggbinding. I hope she gets better soon.

[MariusStegmann]

She is a lot better. When I was putting seed into the cage she was flying into the side of the cage. I amazes me that they can recover strength so quickly. Her droppings is definately still runny. It looks like she has gastro. I want to put her back into the aviary as soon as possible, but obviously not too soon. Today is a warm day again - about 25 Celsius I think. I don't want to make her used to the indoor temp, then I will only be able to put her into the aviary in september.