Received antibiotics and was told to buy Exact baby bird food.
Benji is almost three years old but not wanting to eat.
He doesn’t care for the Exact and fights me if I try to force on him.
The probiotic I mix in his fine chopped veggies which he eats a little of.
Today he ate a couple of mouth-fulls of seed, then went to sleep. He sleeps a lot.
I have a heater on him and food and water near in cage. Any suggestion on how to better help him please? The antibiotic is for ten days.
I do realize Scat is an insecticide. He never licked in past.
Thank you, Gloria
Dear Gloria
We are very sorry to hear about your bird’s health issues.
It sounds like you are doing all the right things and all you can do is watch and wait.
How do/did you know that your budgie has mites? Did the Vet confirm this?
Unfortunately, birds are very hard to diagnose and much of their Vet care is to offer antibiotics in case there is an infection and suggest probiotics if it is a digestion problem.
It could be something completely different, but to try and confirm it requires a blood test and or X-ray and it still is not a for sure and can become very costly.
You said the bird’s mite medicine was applied to its lower abdomen. Was Benji picking there? Did your Vet check for a testicular tumor?
Unfortunately, there is nothing that you can do other than to make your bird comfortable.
We have had as many as 12 budgies at a time and now, over time, have had a few pass and we have only 6 now.
The parakeets in the USA are usually inbred and thus their life expectancy is a lot shorter than it really should be. Some only living for 3-7 years.
I am very sorry you are going through this and Benji is not well.
Best of luck
Catherine
Addendum 093024
Hello Mitch,
I saw the letter from the person whose parakeet became ill after being treated with Scatt (Moxidectin). I have successfully used the liquid versions of ivermectin for even the smallest of finches with no ill effects for decades. The ivermectin I have used the most is intended for injection as a cattle wormer and is a 1% solution; a few years ago I found a supplier of diluted ivermectin at 0.05% which is obviously more desirable for small birds. (see Terrierman blog pages discussion of heartworm in the US for source)
Many years ago the farm vet learned that this injectable was completely effective and safe for worming sheep, chickens, turkeys, and pigeons, GIVEN ORALLY, NOT INJECTED. Ivermectin has a tremendously large safety margin.
In pigeons, I am using it for capillaria worms, which are in the soil in my area. For free ranging poultry it is good for both worms and scaly leg mites. For the mites I give a dose orally but also put it topically directly on the legs. It’s oily so it gets under the scales very well.
I have used it for air sac mites in rescued canaries and finches, and for scaly mites in canaries and a parakeet. I should mention here that sometimes I end up with other people’s birds when they feel unable to care for them because of some problem; these are not problems that I see in my own aviary and birdroom.
I have acquired a reputation as the local “bird lady”, which I am afraid may have somewhat the same negative connotations as being a “cat lady” in terms of what people think of my sanity, but it is what it is! At any rate, people have brought me everything from hawks to goldfinches to unidentified nestlings as well as domestic birds of all sorts. We are blessed in my area with a very experienced avian vet who is a source of up to date advice and medications when needed, and I have run this use and dosage of ivermectin past him as well.
I would have no qualms dosing a parakeet with liquid ivermectin. Concentrated as it is, no more is needed than to dip a toothpick in the solution and touch that to the bird’s mouth. A 1cc syringe can be used, with just enough to have a small amount of liquid bulging out of the end of the syringe. Giving a full drop unintentionally has never caused any illness in any birds here.
Pigeons routinely get 0.05 to 0.1 cc with no ill effects, and that is far more than the minimum required dose but it becomes very hard to administer smaller amounts. It can also be applied to the skin on the back of the neck, and this will be absorbed internally (there is a sheep wormer preparation that is given topically like this, so absorption through the skin is well known).
I have attached some information published in Lancet, regarding moxidectin vs. ivermectin and referencing the high safety margin of ivermectin. To the best of my knowledge, moxidectin does not have this high safety margin. The reason given for use of it instead of ivermectin was theoretically to prevent resistance from building up to ivermectin. However, from this letter you will see that it did not apparently work out as intended. Also, my avian vet has told me not to bother rotating with any other parasiticide for the poultry and pigeons because resistance has not been observed to be a problem.
I hope this may give people an alternative to the moxidectin preparations if they are causing illness in birds. Also, I question why one would be instructed to apply it to the inside of the thigh where a bird can lick or chew, instead of the back of the neck where they cannot?
The big drawback to using ivermectin for birds might be not being able to buy it in small bottles, but that source on the Terrierman website was selling 25 cc’s for $65, which is not nearly as expensive as many other things I have gotten from my avian vet. That is a large bottle for someone with only small birds, and it will keep at room temperature for years.
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