Giardia

Hi all! I was just reading another thread where someone suggested that feather plucking on the leg was often associated with giardia. Does anyone have any experience with this parasite? Our GCC chews (not plucks) his legs, tummy, shoulders of wings, under the wings and his back. So far after several visits to the vet, we have not come up with a solution. Initially thought it was a hormonal issue but we have followed all the advice and it doesn't seem to be helping. The vet thinks it could also be an anxiety thing (as he chews mostly when we aren't around). The chewing comes and goes, he has bad days and good days but never seems to get 100% better. He seems pretty healthy otherwise, lots of energy, eats lots, droppings look good (although I am quite aware that birds hide their illness very well - or maybe he's not feeling too bad, just itchy). His skin looks good, no dry patches or red patches.

Does anyone have experience with giardia infection in their bird? What were the symptoms? How did you treat it? I think I will head back to the vet and see if we can test for this if we haven't already (or test again as I am reading that its difficult to detect) but it would be good to know what other people's experiences might have been so that I know what to expect.

If he tested negative for the bacteria again you should be ok. How often do you bath him? You might need to do it more often or try sprays with soothing aloe. My Scarlet also plucks around his leg area. He had the habit when I took him in. He also has good days and bad ones. Plucking and shredding are very hard habits to break. He was cleared of all posible diseases. The vet also metioned anxiety. I noticed he does it during the night so I added lots of stuff like phone books and stuffed animals. It is very sad and difficult to deal with. Try adding shreddable toys and frilly things to keep him occupied.

If the vet gives him the ok the only thing that you can do is keep him happy, well nurished, and busy.

Good luck

Thanks Mele. Charlie chews at night too (and during the day when we're gone). He has lots of chewing toys (ropes, blocks, paper, bird bagels etc) and he bathes every other day and we spray him with an aloe spray too. I agree that it is a challenge and very difficult! he seems like a happy guy otherwise, busy busy, eating lots and playing his heart out. Our vet recommended nothing in the sleep cage but a perch at night since he thought it might be a hormonal thing (and we don't want to encourage nesting behavior). He even has a night light to prevent being afraid of the dark! We love him all the same, just want to make sure we're looking into every possibility.

I tested Scarlet countless times for giardia by different vets and all test came back negative. A member of this forum recomended a site that will test for it and the test is more sensative resulting in a more acurate reading. (Avian biotech) The test kit is free but the results I think are about $25. Im at a point where I would just like to know why and that it can be managed.

I love him and if its just something that he's going to do then I'll get use to it but I need to know I tried everything.

Do you guys know how giradia is transmitted? It can cause severe diarrhea and its highly contagious. Its transmitted by contaminated water that a beaver pooped in and it gets ingested by the host and it breeds in the body. Or it can be transmitted from animal to animal by ingesting the feces.

I had to deal with it with one of my dog that we rescued. Its hard to get rid of it! A lot of vets prescribes metronidazale. But it doesn't work very well but with research I've done, panacur works 100% and I got rid of it after 2 months.

Panacur (aka fembendazole) is not recomended for routine or long term usage in avian patients and is toxic over long term (more than 2 weeks) and fatal in certain species. Metronidazole works in early Giardia, but after a bird has had the disease a while it loses it's effectiveness. The prefered treatment is Ronidazole (which use to be illegal in the states, but has recently been approved for usage in aviculture.

Giardiasis is caused by a protozoan parasite & symptoms are weight loss, excessive feather grooming, oily, greasy feathers, feather picking & screaming, diarrhoea, enlarged droppings (stool components) Death in young birds.

It can be a difficult organism to detect & is often not seen until post-mortem examination. It is possible to test the birds droppings but they must be very fresh, preferably still warm, as the organisms die when the droppings cool down.

Feather plucking doesn't mean that your bird has a health problem. There are many caused for plucking.

Have you heard of Avi-calm seems to work for birds that have anxiety. It has green tea in it so has a calming effect.

I love avicalm it works so well on certain birds....

My experience with Giardia is this....

After a fire wiped out our house, aviary, barn, and cars.... we had to move the birds to my brother in laws garage for a few months. The only water that reached the garage was a hose. I got the birds home into their new aviary after a few months and I noticed I had a lot of ill birds. I took them to our avian vet, we had birds plucking their left legs, respitory infections, poop problems, weight loss, etc... after a month of vet visits and various treatments and a little over $10,000 they were still not back to normal. I did some homework and found that the common problem that caused all the symptoms (including a lack of symptoms shown by some birds) was Giardia. I called my vet and he insisted it wasn't Giardia (he wouldn't even test for it). So I consulted all my avian vetrinary manuals and went to my equine (horse) vet and asked him to sell me Metrinadozole..... He did, and the same day I sent off the tests (36 of them) to AvianBiotech..... I started treatment before the results came back. In two days of treatment I noticed a marked improvement.... in 5 days all the symptoms were gone. I got the resuts back after I completed treatment...... 30 positive for Giardia and 6 negative. All the birds are fine now, but it was a nightmare we had to move the birds to outdoor flights and spray Nolvasan over everything in the Aviary and then continue to spray to keep them from getting reinfected.

Back in the late 1980's people always blamed plucking on Giardia..... but body plucking is rarely caused by Giardia (in my experience.)

We are lucky in OZ we don't have problems with Giardia but have read it's common in the USA.

I have also treated a Quaker parrot that was plucking & ripping his skin to pieces on the top of his legs, turns out he had these tiny little feather mites, couldn't see them with the naked eye. Once treated he was OK. Grew all his feathers back.

I forgot to mention that Featheriffic another product to help grow feathers back. Use both products together for best results.

Printer Bird does your bird get a daily shower.?

ShreddedOakAviary said:

Panacur (aka fembendazole) is not recomended for routine or long term usage in avian patients and is toxic over long term (more than 2 weeks) and fatal in certain species. Metronidazole works in early Giardia, but after a bird has had the disease a while it loses it's effectiveness. The prefered treatment is Ronidazole (which use to be illegal in the states, but has recently been approved for usage in aviculture.

Click to expand...

I said Panacur for my dog! Metronidazole did not do a thing for my dog!!!

Thanks for the interesting stories! Sounds like the birds with giardia acted really sick, Charlie is a bubbly, happy bird other than the chewing so perhaps its not giardia. Not that I'd rather he be sick!

He gets a bath every other day with an aloe spray at the end. He doesn't seem to want one everyday and I haven't found baths to make a huge difference (ie he doesn't seem to chew more on days that he doesn't have a bath). I can try spraying him daily though. He sometimes chews when we are around and has learned to say "no chew" and "no chewing" which we say as a "reminder" as he preens. He's a cutie!