Round Worms found in droppings

[OzBlue]

So we just got our Quaker (Blue) a new cage and were just about to attempt the transfer process today but my partner noticed this in one of Blues recent droppings. It's a round worm and roughly 3cm long. Looked this up and the life cycle of roundworms is roughly 6-8 weeks from egg to adult. As we've only had her for about 3 weeks, its not likely from anything we've introduced to her environment. Sure enough when i called the petshop i got her from it turned out that the other cage mate had worms too. They likely came with the worms due to their previous conditions (both from same breeder).

20200422_132838 by

Really gutted at this as I've seen vets post that depending on the severity of the worm load, it can block their little bums and the host can pass away. we've got her on a course of this stuff.
https://www.vetnpetdirect.com.au/products/vetafarm-wormout-gel-for-birds

I don't have any experience having to worm birds, Blue is not liking the color of her "water/medication" solution and seems to be refusing to drink normally from it. Do any of you have tips for helping them drink this or stuff like it? I might try and put some fruit juice in there which the label says "orange" juice might work. I'm waiting for a spot with a vet at the moment.

 

[LaManuka]

Ewww yuck that must’ve been a nasty surprise!

I’ve never been one for any kind of medication added to water, aside from it fouling the water you can never be sure if the bird has ingested enough of the medication to have the desired effect. As you’re already making arrangements to see an avian vet they can do it for you and it should *hopefully* only take one dose to fix the problem. It’s a good thing to get into the habit of having an annual wellness check anyway so just consider this as your bird’s first. My Lilly had to be wormed only just this week because we were concerned that she may have picked up a parasite from all the natural foraging materials we give her and personally I’d much rather let a professional do it, then I know it’s done right the first time.

Seeing the vet isn’t the simple thing it once was as a lot of them have had to introduce safeguards against Covid-19 but hopefully you’ll be able to make arrangements soon.

 

[OzBlue]

Yeah we went into full panic mode but we're hopeful we can sort it with what we've got and a trip to the vet when it's possible. I'm also bummed out that we'll have to grab her to get her into a carry cage as she was only just getting used to our hands and allowing head scratches. Hopefully we can rebond after the trip to the vet. Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[LaManuka]

I think you’ll be ok. I took Lilly for her first wellness check only about a week or so after we brought her home and I thought she’d hold it against me but she was fine. She hadn’t bonded with us by that stage and I thought having blood drawn for a psittacosis test etc would set our relationship back but it really didn’t. It’s that nasty evil vet she’s got that grudge against, not me, and I’m sure yours will be the same

 

[SailBoat]

- Fully agree with blame the Avian Professional!

Our Julio is a monthly visiter to our CAV (certified Avian Vet) and his visit Monday of this week was the second under the restricted measures, which really works out quite well. As all his targeted displeasure is clearly directed toward those devil people at the Clinic! And, I'm clearly seen as the person who saves him from them...

FYI: Check with the Pet Store as such is commonly covered by them. You may have to go to their Avian Care Clinic.

NOTE: It is helpful to provide a Country or general region as Avian Medical care varies greatly around the World.

So, who is the engineer or machinist in your home -- that measuring device is rarely found in the vast majority of homes.

 

[Laurasea]

Wow!
Try usei g a little bread and soak it in the medication. My GCC took her meds like that.

 

[OzBlue]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It's been a bit trying this week on top of the worming, we got her a bigger cage and as expected, she was pretty fussy over it haha. Considering we started the treatments yesterday, it was actually pretty good timing as the vet was mentioning we should be ready to give her a clean home to be in so we minimise the chances of a re-infection.

As for the calipers, Sailboat, i do a bit of 3d printing among other things and they're really handy for designing custom parts or items! Was considering making some foraging toys for Blue. Currently researching toxicity of PLA for parrots but the only danger seems to be fumes from using PLA at temps well above the actual temps of the 3d printer as PLA itself is bio

 

[OzBlue]

Just an update, adding de-wormers to water supply seems to be a really poor way to guarantee birds are getting adequate dosage for treating worms. Blue hardly had any of her water with Avitrol Plus (we also tried the flavoured Vetafarm dewormer) in it and after following the 2 week dosage schedule i did an egg count on her droppings. It's a pretty simple procedure i'll post a summary below and link to an article. Not only did i see eggs at different stages of embryonation, but also juvenile worms. I wasn't able to take photos as i had to use my phones light as the microscope light source.

Thankfully, We already had a vet appointment for her booked this week for de-worming thankfully, it's been tough to find openings at the moment with so many of us new pet owners going in for consultations! Lesson for me, when it comes to health, just see the vet.

Egg count procedure

Disclaimer, this was for personal interest, and i'm not advocating people decide not to see the vet based on their findings
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/a...IY-worm-egg-counts-livestock-incl-poultry.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/public...al_samples_The_old_methods_are_still_the_best

Add 40g of salt in 100ml of water, idea is to have excess salt in the water.

take a 5ml tube and add fresh droppings in it,

fill it halfway, put the lid on and shake or break up the droppings with a pestle.

Fill this up to brim so there is a dome of the solution sticking just over the top of the tube

Let stand at least 10 minutes (longer is better). You want to wait because the solution is so dense due to the salt addition, the eggs float to the top, this takes time. Also this time allows bubbles to escape the solution so they don't mess up your slide.

Once at least 10 minutes has passed, you'll take a microscope cover slip and sit it on the dome (some liquid might spill over the side, clean this up later) let the cover slip sit for another 10 minutes.

Carefully pick up the cover slip and put it on a normal microscope slide and view this under your microscope.

This definitely requires a microscope with at least 400x magnificaiton.

 

[Noahs_Birds]

I've done the rounds with medication in my time breeding birds and here's the trick that works well:

Take out ALL sources of water and ANY sources of moisture such as fruit and veges at around 4pm in the afternoon
Then, around 7:30am in the morning put ONLY medicated water back in with some dry foods and refresh water WITH medication within half-way through a 24hr period leaving the water in

By doing this technique, birds go straight for the water after not have water for a few hours, and drinks a good dose before realizing that it tastes bad and during the 24hrs with dry food only supplied the bird is only left with the option of drinking that water

Cheers
Noah Till

 

[OzBlue]

Thanks Noah, i'm sure ours will probably need to go on constant medication after this treatment so i'll remember that for the future treatments!