HELP!!, with air sac mites

[crimson]

My poor little gouldian finch Pumpkin has come down with air sac mites.
She's a beautiful orange faced greenback.
She is suffering so terribly with this she can barely breath.
she's weezing, clicking, as on on the bottom of the cage.

this came out of the blue, totally. Yesterday, she was building a nest, today she can barely breath.

Early last week I started the regiment as I do at the beginning of breeding season with S76, which is a treatment I purchased, to treat air sac mites, red mites, and some types of worms. this is a precaution I practice year round.

Today I treated her with Ivermcectin, 1 drop under the arm pit,gave her another drop of S76 mixed with Pedialyte which I did early this morning. I have her in a hospital cage, with a heat lamp, and covered with a blanket.

this morning she was still eating and drinking, I can't get over how fast this has happened.

I am very diligent with my birds, check on them at least 5 times per day, make sure they look o.k., change any water that has been soiled etc..

I saw nothing out of the ordinary with her yesterday.
I know birds hide their illnesses, but to me that is shocking.

Having said that, I hate seeing her suffer so, she's gasping for air, trying anything to get air into her lungs, she keeps moving from place to place.

My daughter and I spent the entire day sanitizing and cleaning all the cages in the bird room. Her mate has also been quarantined in a separate cage.
Everything has been removed from all the cages, and replaced with scrubbed, and treated perches, fresh seed and water. All my bird dishes have been sanitized in the dishwasher.

the only 2 things that remain were the canary nests, that are full of eggs, as both my females are nesting. I sprayed the nests(not the eggs) with A.I.L.

does anyone know of any other treatment? I fear she may not make it by morning, which breaks my heart, she was my first goudian and I hate seeing her suffer.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Are you sure it isn't asper? I know that effects breathing also.

I'm so sorry this is happening to you, do you have a emergency vet you could take her too?

 

[crimson]

she died,I can't believe it.

 

[Niner10Tango]

I'm so sorry for the loss of Pumpkin Sending you a virtual hug.

 

[crimson]

thank you niner10tango.

 

[crimson]

could you explain what asper is?

I've never heard of it, but am going to google it right now
thanks copperarabian

 

[Featheredsamurai]

I'm so sorry she died *hugs*

Asper is when mold grows in the lungs. It can rapidly effect the breathing of a bird and take a long process to heal. Also, one bird can have it while another won't. Even in a clean house it can appear, mold can grow under the house, spores can be found in Timothy hay and newspaper over 2 weeks old, in sprouted seeds, or wheat grass with dirt, or during construction the spores may be kicked into the air.

I can imagine that with a very small bird it would be very hard to treat and effect them faster than a larger bird

 

[goalerjones]

It would be worth your while to get a necropsy done to know for sure what happened.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

It would be worth your while to get a necropsy done to know for sure what happened.

I agree, the knowledge will be very beneficial for your other birds.

 

[ruffledfeathers]

OH no! I am so sorry. And i agree with the others, that it would be beneficial to know what happened (especially with other finches/canaries in the home).

 

[crimson]

going this afternoon to get a necropsy done. also my other female gouldian has now come down with it.

I am beside myself!, her only baby has fledged the nest just a week ago, and I am positive the baby is now infected as well.

I am taking both in as well to get them looked at.

the interesting thing is it's only my orange head females are showing sympotms, 1 died yesterday , and now mom gouldian is not looking well.

both were in totally separate cages across from one another.
what a nightmare.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

this is like a nightmare! Thanks for keeping us updated and I hope the new birds that have it have been caught soon enough.

If it does end up being asper(or sac mites, but I don't know much about them) you may want to get everyone checked out. I know of some parrots that had it with no symptoms for months before it suddenly was very sick. Hopefully your vet will have some good advice. Good vets are pretty good about giving people a good deal when it's several birds.

 

[goalerjones]

Out of the frying pan and into the fire! Keep us up to date, will be praying...

 

[crimson]

good news and bad news:

mama gouldian and baby are fine. even though she was puffy and sleepy looking today.
she was fine at the vets, plenty of energy, no wheezing or clicking noises.
the vet says she is good and healthy, a good weight. Her baby is fine as well.
He has prescribed her a antibiotic along with an immune boosting supplement as a precaution.

Now for the bad news, I got the results from the vets about the necropsy.
she had air sac mites in her trachea, her lungs were full of fluid.
She also had very dark blood in her stomach, due to a ulcer.

more bad news: now one of my male gouldians is on the bottom of the cage, he was puffy today, and totally fine yesterday. I named him Spaz for a reason.
every time I open the cage door he just goes spaztic!...thus the name
He doesn't have any breathing problems, but seems dazed, we could pick him up without any effort on his part.
what in sam hill is going on????
he wasn't in the cage with the gouldian that died, he's the father of the baby gouldian and the mate to mama gouldian and she's fine.

I don't get any of this, at this point I don't know if the necropsy gave us any answers either, at least not the ones I'm looking for.

This seems to be only affecting my gouldians, and none of my other birds.
I'm wondering if the vet missed something today

 

[crimson]

spaz died too

totally different symptoms

 

[Sherry]

This is so terribly sad. I am so sorry for your loss's. I hope you find out what's going on as soon as possible. Is there anything you do differently with the ones who passed? Different feed, etc.

 

[crimson]

I'm just so baffled by this. I take excellent care of my birds, but something is being missed, I just don't know what that is.
I am considering taking Spaz in for an necropsy as well.

I'm almost positive these two deaths have not been caused by just air sac mites.this is too co-incidental.

Spaz was my favourite gouldian.

 

[goalerjones]

Were there any liver/kidney abnormalities? And how common is an ulcer for a bird?

 

[Sherry]

I looked up ulcers in birds and found that bacteria in water causes ulcers in chickens. Have you had your water tested? In the chickens the water had coliform bacteria. This caused ulcers and respetory problems. Just a shot in the dark, I hope you find your answers so you can save the rest of your flock.

 

[goalerjones]

Sherry, I was going to suggest poisoning. Thats why I asked about the liver and kidneys. Good catch with the ulcers.