Can colds affect parrots?

Kinny · Sep 1, 2013

I suddenly came down with what up until now I thought was just a cold Thursday late night. In the morning woke up to a bad runny nose, Saturday started coughing and later sneezing.. even though I've been resting up etc. I think I might have nasal polyps.. I've got dull headaches. Muffled hearing mostly with my left ear, almost no sense of smell or taste, slight difficulty breathing but not concerning, my forehead hurts. Dry coughing, gagged earlier on Sunday afternoon. And this early am Monday I discovered why my left nostril had been the really stuffy one.. there's a pinkish fleshy lump there.. almost looks like my inside of the nostril is swollen. I can no longer breathe out of that nostril and can't sleep. (the hand/face washing and sanitizing sure keeps me busy...)

My question: I accidentally automatically gave my 7 week old Conures a tiny kiss each on their beaks yesterday (currently 3:40am Monday - could I have infected them...? :S

MonicaMc · Sep 1, 2013

No, birds can't catch a human cold. That said, our saliva may have more bacteria in it than norm, and that could harm them.

Kinny · Sep 1, 2013

MonicaMc said:
No, birds can't catch a human cold. That said, our saliva may have more bacteria in it than norm, and that could harm them.

Hm. Well that's good colds don't affect them, not so good about the saliva. I don't think I got any on them as I always like to give them dry, not wet kisses

Would I be a bit on the paranoid side if I took them to the Vets later today to make sure they are alright? Or would it be a pointless visit...?

Mayden · Sep 1, 2013

Mayden said:
We cannot pass along many bacteria and viruses to our birds simply because what thrives in our bodies, will not thrive in theirs.

We have a body temp of approx 37degrees C (it's 37.6 or something) whereas birds have a body temp of between 40-43 C. So basically, the virsus and bacteria that attack our bodies cannot handle the temperatures in a birds, they cannot spread and multiply, etc. So they'll die off. There are so many other factors, but INTERNAL temperature is definitely one of the biggest ones.

We recently spoke to our vet about mites, about potentially our bunnies passing them to our birds if there was a mite problem. We were reassured, again for temperature reasons, that the mites on our buns would dislike our birds overall bodies, for temp etc, and so wouldn't go for our birds. Same applies for bacteria and viruses.

So although there are some zoonotic illnesses that we can pass between birds and humans (avian flu, obviously being the most well known) there are actually not that many and so there's no need to go into panic mode. If you KNOW you have a zoonotic illness (and some that are 'zoonotic' can only be passed between say, human and pig, not bird, so you'd have to check specifics) then obviously, stay well away from your bird, potentially ask for someone else to care for them, or ensure that a vet is somewhat on standby knowing what you have and what would be needed to treat.

If you get sick, I'd just say limit your contact with you bird/bird area, if you have a partner who isn't sick, ask him/her to take over until you're better, but most importantly PRACTICE GOOD HYGIENE.

^
I wrote this regarding another member and illnesses being passed on to their birds and I think it helps explain things quite nicely.

Unless you have strep (only certain strains are zoonotic) or avian flu, then I'm pretty confident saying your baby will be just fine. If you do notice any breathing problems or anything, then feel free to whisk them off to the vets, but I wouldn't be panicking to be honest.

So it's important to just be vigilant, but if you've just got the sniffles, don't panic too much, just be aware.

Kinny · Sep 1, 2013

Mayden said:
Mayden said:

We cannot pass along many bacteria and viruses to our birds simply because what thrives in our bodies, will not thrive in theirs.

We have a body temp of approx 37degrees C (it's 37.6 or something) whereas birds have a body temp of between 40-43 C. So basically, the virsus and bacteria that attack our bodies cannot handle the temperatures in a birds, they cannot spread and multiply, etc. So they'll die off. There are so many other factors, but INTERNAL temperature is definitely one of the biggest ones.

We recently spoke to our vet about mites, about potentially our bunnies passing them to our birds if there was a mite problem. We were reassured, again for temperature reasons, that the mites on our buns would dislike our birds overall bodies, for temp etc, and so wouldn't go for our birds. Same applies for bacteria and viruses.

So although there are some zoonotic illnesses that we can pass between birds and humans (avian flu, obviously being the most well known) there are actually not that many and so there's no need to go into panic mode. If you KNOW you have a zoonotic illness (and some that are 'zoonotic' can only be passed between say, human and pig, not bird, so you'd have to check specifics) then obviously, stay well away from your bird, potentially ask for someone else to care for them, or ensure that a vet is somewhat on standby knowing what you have and what would be needed to treat.

If you get sick, I'd just say limit your contact with you bird/bird area, if you have a partner who isn't sick, ask him/her to take over until you're better, but most importantly PRACTICE GOOD HYGIENE.

Click to expand...

^
I wrote this regarding another member and illnesses being passed on to their birds and I think it helps explain things quite nicely.

Unless you have strep (only certain strains are zoonotic) or avian flu, then I'm pretty confident saying your baby will be just fine. If you do notice any breathing problems or anything, then feel free to whisk them off to the vets, but I wouldn't be panicking to be honest.

So it's important to just be vigilant, but if you've just got the sniffles, don't panic too much, just be aware.

Oh thank you! *melts into a puddle* It certainly does. ^^ I was starting to over-stress. I will definitely keep up the hygiene and no more kissies for them til I'm better. I'll definitely monitor them for any changes. My vet is actually going to refer me to a really good Avian Vet in my area within the next 2 days, so that will be handy.

Mayden · Sep 1, 2013

Kinny said:
Mayden said:

Mayden said:

We cannot pass along many bacteria and viruses to our birds simply because what thrives in our bodies, will not thrive in theirs.

We have a body temp of approx 37degrees C (it's 37.6 or something) whereas birds have a body temp of between 40-43 C. So basically, the virsus and bacteria that attack our bodies cannot handle the temperatures in a birds, they cannot spread and multiply, etc. So they'll die off. There are so many other factors, but INTERNAL temperature is definitely one of the biggest ones.

We recently spoke to our vet about mites, about potentially our bunnies passing them to our birds if there was a mite problem. We were reassured, again for temperature reasons, that the mites on our buns would dislike our birds overall bodies, for temp etc, and so wouldn't go for our birds. Same applies for bacteria and viruses.

So although there are some zoonotic illnesses that we can pass between birds and humans (avian flu, obviously being the most well known) there are actually not that many and so there's no need to go into panic mode. If you KNOW you have a zoonotic illness (and some that are 'zoonotic' can only be passed between say, human and pig, not bird, so you'd have to check specifics) then obviously, stay well away from your bird, potentially ask for someone else to care for them, or ensure that a vet is somewhat on standby knowing what you have and what would be needed to treat.

If you get sick, I'd just say limit your contact with you bird/bird area, if you have a partner who isn't sick, ask him/her to take over until you're better, but most importantly PRACTICE GOOD HYGIENE.

Click to expand...

^
I wrote this regarding another member and illnesses being passed on to their birds and I think it helps explain things quite nicely.

Unless you have strep (only certain strains are zoonotic) or avian flu, then I'm pretty confident saying your baby will be just fine. If you do notice any breathing problems or anything, then feel free to whisk them off to the vets, but I wouldn't be panicking to be honest.

So it's important to just be vigilant, but if you've just got the sniffles, don't panic too much, just be aware.

Click to expand...

Oh thank you! *melts into a puddle* It certainly does. ^^ I was starting to over-stress. I will definitely keep up the hygiene and no more kissies for them til I'm better. I'll definitely monitor them for any changes. My vet is actually going to refer me to a really good Avian Vet in my area within the next 2 days, so that will be handy.

Brilliant! Just keep an eye on them and I'm sure it will be fine.

Featheredsamurai · Sep 1, 2013

Although they are unaffected by colds they can get the bacteria in them and reinfect you. Someone posted on the forum once that they repeatedly got strep throat all throughout their childhood, it turned out their amazon was a carrier of that bacteria and kept reinfecting them. One treatment cleared out the 'zon, but they had a lot of damage from years of antibiotics.

Mayden · Sep 1, 2013

Copperarabian said:
Although they are unaffected by colds they can get the bacteria in them and reinfect you. Someone posted on the forum once that they repeatedly got strep throat all throughout their childhood, it turned out their amazon was a carrier of that bacteria and kept reinfecting them. One treatment cleared out the 'zon, but they had a lot of damage from years of antibiotics.

Some strains of strep are zoonotic. But the common cold/other types of illness, a bird will not be able to carry - and pass on to a human.

MonicaMc · Sep 1, 2013

My avian vet told me of a story of a bird who continually kept getting sick and so the owners had to continually take the bird to the vet. They simply couldn't figure out why the bird was sick! Turns out, they were kissing their bird! And neither human was sick!

Now, I don't know how they were kissing their bird, or the bird kissing them, but it proves the point that they can get sick from the bacteria in our saliva - even when you are healthy and not sick.

Sepha will probably be fine! As mentioned, just be aware and try to keep your hands/mouth clean (people often wipe their nose/mouth with their hands) when interacting with your birds.

Hope you are feeling better soon!

brianlinkles · Sep 1, 2013

First I want to say that we all are guilty of kissing our birds, however this is a VERY bad practice. We have bacteria in our mouths that can get our birds sick. My daughter had two cockatiels die from getting sick from her illness. She tested negative for strep at the time but the vet felt the birds did get sick from her and consequently died. I am sure that your birds are fine however I think we all need to refrain from kissing our birds on the beak. I was just at the vet and asked if it was dangerous that my rb2 likes to play with my dogs toys, he stated that dogs have bacteria in their mouths that is different from birds and the possibility lies that they can in fact catch something. Better safe than sorry.

Can colds affect parrots?

Kinny

New member

MonicaMc

Well-known member

Kinny

New member

Mayden

New member

Kinny

New member

Mayden

New member

Featheredsamurai

New member

Mayden

New member

MonicaMc

Well-known member

brianlinkles

New member

uhg stressful night story.

I am a rescue bird-pls.read

Most Reactions

Similar threads

Latest posts