Deutsche Seite
Version française
Al sito italiano


Impressum
Sitemap

Bird:  Most frequent diseases.   Vet Dr. Tigre gives information and advice.

Canary pox, fowl pest, feather pulling, psittacosis, deformities       are things one may have read about in books.       Cleanliness and hygiene in the cage and while feeding help       to avoid diseases.       On the tables here below are cited the most frequently       occurring diseases of domestic birds.

Singing birds like canary, finches, beos
Disease	Causes	Symptoms	Visit veterinarian?
Shortness of breath	Infections, irritations, colds	Disorder in general state of health, visible breathing, shortness of breath	Go to see the vet
Diarrhoea	Infections, poisons, indigestible food, hepatic and kidney diseases	The droppings are not moulded and of yellowish color, disorder in general health condition	Warmth, go to see the vet
Feather loss, "Stockmauser" esp. fine specimen of finches	Deficiency symptoms, hormonal disorder, cold, stress	Feathers hardly grow back or not at all, especially on head and neck	Best possible alimentation, give additional vitamines
Affections of the proventriculus and the gizzard	Infections, grit deficiency, deficiency situations	Digestive disturbances, no defaecation	Go to see the vet
Egg bound	Too young animals, fatty degeneration, faulty nutrition and feeding system, animal not kept in ways appropriate to his species, hormonal disorder	Heavy straining, sitting in a coin of the cage floor	Go to see the vet
Fatty degeneration	Overnutrition, insufficient exercise	Sedentary animals, short respiration, possibly incapable of flying	Sufficient exercise, balanced ration
Diseases of the feet	Overloading, overweight, infections, gout	Relieving of the leg, reddened or swollen articulations, pressure ulcers	Go to see the vet
Injuries	Fights of social ranking, envy of another animal's food	Bleedings, encrusted wounds	Immediate haemostatic action, antibiotic ointments
Acariasis	Red bird-mite, nordic bird-mite	Restlessness at night or during the day, depending on the kind of mite, frequent scratching	Disinfection, go to see the vet
Poisoning	Herbicides, insecticides, drugs (in most cases overdosage)	Sudden death, central nervous disorder, slavering, shortness of breath, diarrhoea	Go to see the vet

Parrots like parakeets, grey parrots, amazons, macaws
Disease	Causes	Symptoms	Visit veterinarian?
Breathing problems	Cold, pneumonia, thyroid gland disorder, favoured by stress, deficiency diseases, weakness	Weakness, increased difficult respiration, breath sounds, shortness of breath, sticky nostrils	Warm steams, go to see the vet at once
Diarrhoea	Specific pathogens, unspecific by abrupt change in feed, stress, anxious states, poisoning	Diarrhoea, watery or pulpy, smeary plumage, feathers ruffled, weariness, increased drinking and grit eating	Warmth, clean the plumage, lukewarm camomile or bark of oak tea, possibly isolation, if no improvement after 24 hours go to see the vet
Feather pulling, feather eating	Boredom, lack of exercise, flight feather trimming, imdividual keeping, unbalanced alimentation	Goes from pulling individual feathers over pulling all feathers until complete nakedness of the skin and finally up to self-mutilation	Go to see the vet, balanced alimentation, pair-keeping or group-keeping, enclosure layed out in a varied way
Excessive claw growth	Somewhat older animals, not enough wear, specific diseases	Frequent ly getting caught on something, too long and often spiral claws	Go to see the vet, natural branches of different thickness, rough stones
Crop inflammation	Infections in the crop, old food, vitamin A deficiency, especially parakeets	Nasal catarrh, sneezing, coughing, shaking of the head, plumage sticked together	Go to see the vet
Paralysis	Vitamin A deficiency, nutrional error, injury, poisoning, neoplasia	Slight dragging one leg behind, growing movement disorder	Vitamin preparations, balanced nutrition, go to see the vet
Egg bound	Deficiency disease, adiposity, old age, hormonal disorder	Female presses heavily, lower abdomen rounded	Go to see the vet
Psittacosis, dangerous for human beings	Specific germ, stress encourages flare-up of the disease	Dullness and apathy, diarrhoea, inflammation or swelling of the eyelid	Animal must be isolated, go to see the vet
Beak mange, beak sponge of the parakeets	Mites	Spongy proliferations on the beak and the beakline, possibly also cloacal vent and tail affected, deformation of the beak	Go to see the vet
Tumours, especially frequently occurring with parakeets	Diverse causes	Depending on the kind of the affected tissue	Go to see the vet
Injuries	Injuries caused by objects, fighting against rivals	Bleeding or encrusted wounds	Cleansing with lukewarm camomile tey, for major wounds go to see the vet
Constipation	Nutritional error, poisoning, internal diseases	Bird has trouble with defaecation	Administer appropriate food, if no improvement go to see the vet

Self-Medication

In case of diarrhoea you can best help by keeping the bird in a warm place and by irradiating him with an infrared lamp. The bird, however, must have the possibility to retire in cooler cage corners, if he has the need to do so. In case of constipation one can administer some olive oil by means of a pipette. Please cut too long claws only if you exactly know how to do it. A careful cleaning of the wounds may also be done by the pet owner.

Emergency situations

As a rule, you may also allow your bird having become friendly to fly around the room which will help him to get some more movement and to strengthen his muscular system. Of course, this most welcome change from life in the cage has also its risks: Hitting a window pane, hot stove tops, cacti and the like. Before such foreseeable emergency situations arise, please check carefully where the dangers might be lurking. In order to catch the bird again in a most calm way, just place his favorite dish in the cage which normally helps that the bird returns to his dwelling all by himself. If emergency cases arise, put the bird carefully into the cage, cover him with a cloth and go to see the vet at once. Should a visit at the vet's not be possible immediately, the bird must be kept warm and under control.