Hindsight is 20/20 - Campylobacter

atarasi · Post by **atarasi** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 2:54 am

Don't let it scare you. It happens. All you can do is be really careful where you get your societies from. A Gouldian breeder always sells a lot of his extra societies and someone like that would be a great place to start. He unfortunately lives in another state from me otherwise I would have inquired.

I picked out two societies at the store and I'm dead wrong on their sexes. One is for sure a cock, the other that I thought was the cock is I think a hen. Either way, two societies will work. The gouldian breeder friend always uses a trio. 2 cocks and a hen. The hen is good at incubating and the cocks are good at feeding. If the hen slips an egg on the Gouldian clutch, it's easy to tell.....it's smaller in size. I'm sticking with 2. Three in the nestbox always pushes the nesting material down and the eggs were rolling around and they would just sit with or without the eggs under them. 4 eggs were fertile at one point, but only 2 hatched.

Good luck. I know Campylobacter bacteria is common in societies, but it's avoidable. Since I'm not 100% sure that these new societies are free from the bacteria, I'll need to give them test eggs. I hate throwing finch eggs under the bus, but I can't really afford $200 for the test.

Post by **Sally** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:08 am

That is pretty expensive to do that testing. I had read somewhere that you should have the fosters tested, but that person may have had that done before vet prices went thru the roof. My new 9 Societies would cost over $900--no way could I afford that. I have one trio that just raised 6 of their own babies--I think I will keep these babies, as the parents have successfully fostered before. They have all been in the same bird room, but different cages, so I will have to read up to see if the disease can be transmitted thru air.

Sorry this had to happen to you, Jordan. We all read of these things, but until it happens to us, we don't really think about it.

atarasi · Post by **atarasi** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 3:25 pm

Sally, from what I read, it's transmitted from feces to mouth. I'm going to clean the cage, perches and nestbox out extremely well.

Out of all this bad news, I do have good news...
My pair of Shaft-tails are FINALLY parenting 5 chicks that hatched a few days ago. The cock is extremely lazy and the hen is doing all the work.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:18 pm

Since I now have a society in my quarantine cage and hope to add 1 or 2 more, for a total of 2 or 3 societies. Is a good cleaning with soap + hot water and maybe disinfect with either apple cider vinegar or 5% bleach enough to clean the cage and the dishes for the next time I use the Q cage? My concern are the finch fatal deseases that the society is a carrier of, campylobacter and the other one that I can't find the name of right now. Because if all works out, the next through the quarantine cage will likely be gouldians.

atarasi · Post by **atarasi** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:00 pm

Are you talking about Cochlosoma?

I would think that a thorough scouring of a bleach solution would be good even to kill any bacteria. Cage, tray, food cups, and perches. I need to do the same thing since I'm replacing the societies with a pair of Gouldians in the same cage.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:11 pm

Once the societies are thru quarantine, and set up for fostering, we still don't know if they are "clean." How is the bacteria transmitted. I mean can I have the society cage right below the finches, in stacked cages? Or do I have to have the fosters in another room?

nixity · Post by **nixity** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 9:07 am

I do not believe Cochlosoma or Campy are air-born concerns.
I think transmission is usually through contaminated water or saliva from feeding chicks.

So I would just make sure not to swap out feed/water dishes - which I would recommend not to do regardless.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:13 pm

Thanks Tiffany
I'm getting ready to build the 2nd cage this weekend.
Then go get more coroplast for cages 3 and 4.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:01 am

I picked up a pair of just weaned zebra finches from the PetSmart. They were free, the guy said that PetSmart could not sell a bird that was "hatched" in the store. I put these 2 into the quarantine cage w the societies.

If drinking out of the same water tube and eating out of the same feed dish and walking on the poop of the societies is sufficient to transfer the disease, then these could be my initial disease test. If they make it to 6 months, then the societies should be clean? Or should I go thru the egg fostering test also?

I plan to do an egg fostering anyway, to test that the societies do foster.