Bird Keeper's Lung?

[loverbirds23]

Hi! I have a general question. Has anyone had experience with bird keeper's lung / hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) due to pet birds? Especially if you are older and have had birds for a majority of your life? Did you develop anything later on or is it due to your allergies? I am asking since we also have kids and concerned about air quality and any of us developing this. We have HEPA air filters throughout the house. Birds in living room, smaller living room but we make due.



My family knows of 2 incidents:
1) Family friend had birds for many years over her life: parakeets, lovebirds, cockatiels. After age 50-ish she had trouble breathing and they thought it was allergies. Turns out she has bird keepers lung and had to re-home all of her birds. She thinks it was the cockatiel (since they produce a lot of dander) that caused her issue, but still had to re-home her other bird at the time. She kept her birds and home extremely clean so it wasn't a cleanliness issue. She is doing just fine.



2) Friend of a friend (older 60s): Had a bird in their office space of home for over three decades. Again, not an issue of cleanliness. Friend described it as small percent of population allergic to bird dust and it slowly builds up in your lungs and causes the to scar and shut down. So you won't notice a change. This person is now unfortunately moving from ICU to hospice since they can't take in oxygen.



Thank you for your insights! Not ready to find them a new home yet but concerned enough that we're considering it.

 

[ChristaNL]

The guy who sold me his Pack-o-bird had to give up his (rescue) african grey -> he was only 25 at the time!
The bird was not to blame, he was a baker and birdkeeperslung and bakerslung are the same problem...

So he had to sanitize everything just to survive.
(and got a lot of grief about it from the parrotcomunity because they did not believe him / "allergies" being the most used excuse to dump a bird because you are bored with it.)


It is not about age - it is about a combination of being exposed (a lot) and a certain predesposition for it.
But like any allergic reaction- it can 'come out of the blue'.


=


Most cases ot birdkeeperslung are those famous old men that have an attic full of (breeding) birds (canaries or pigeons) and spend the majority of their time there (or the gardenshed, same diff.).
So most of the time it is about the huge amount of birds, far from optimal hygiene and long, long time exposure.


I think that with normal hygiene and your hepa-filters as a bonus (if they are sufficient for the rooms they are in) you should be just fine.
You only have 2 small, small birds that are not really dusty.

Life has no guarantees, you can only do your best

 

[loverbirds23]

Thank you! I'm just getting some concern from my parents since this is the second person they know who has had this allergy issues. You're right, looking into it more it is a type of hypersensitivity pneumonitis (bakers lung, farmers lung, etc). Turns out this person was younger than I thought by about 10 years but I imagine that the exposure is higher.



Very true! I think I'll continue to keep clean and make sure we are running the filters (I'll double check the type, my husband is pretty on top of it and it should be big enough for the rooms...we have 3 filters for the house and various rooms).

 

[EllenD]

I agree, "Bird-Keeper's Lung" isn't typically what the actual problem or proper diagnosis is, but it's used as a blanket-term or diagnosis for what is usually either an individual allergy to bird dander, or more often the "dust" from Cockatiels, Cockatoos, and African Grays (and Doves/Pigeons)...Or just a reaction to their dust...But not actually "Bird Keeper's Lung", as it is usually caused by either someone who has a ton of birds and doesn't vacuum/dust/clean often or at all, or it's people who breed a lot of baby birds and have multiple nest-boxes full of dried droppings/feathers and this creates an enormous amount of dust...

While you can't predict who may have an actual allergy to bird dander or dust, as long as you vacuum/dust/clean regularly, your kids/people in your house shouldn't have any issues at all.

 

[riddick07]

I found a humidifier that uses a filter helps reduce the amount of dust too. When I use both the air filter and the humidifier with a filter the amount of dust in the air is a lot less.

 

[buurd]

Can other animals get birblung? I have a dog. Just curious. I have two Bourke's, and they are tiny and I dont think they produce dust. Im not sure what bird dust looks like.

 

[ChristaNL]

Any animal (with lungs) can get irritated and inflamed ones when kept in a very dusty environment-- so all this is way more about lots of smallish particles in the air than parrots.

My greys will deposit a very fine whitish powder in/ on everything in my house, even in the rooms they do not get into -> aircurrents will do it for them.

So... hygiene is the keyword to prevent this.
Bathe the birds regularly of course, but do not forget the rest of the house! (and the inside of your computer/ other electronics)

(the very dusty/ powdery birds have been known to cause irritation in their fellow birdie-companions who are not dusty themselves, and of course no animal should be living in its own filth)

 

[noodles123]

You should see my furnace filter....OMG.....And that is with a 24-hour hepa filter running nearby, plus a humidifier and daily vacuuming. Talk to me in 20 years and I'll let you know lol. I have an Umbrella Cockatoo, but the dust is very real.