Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 1:09 am Post subject: Did you know
I have been working with our vet again. We had a young hen that was struggling to fly from one end of the aviary to the other. She had started laying eggs and we were concerned that she may have become egg bound and so caught her up and took her to the vet.
A calcium injection was given and seemed to have immediate results. For the next 24 hours there was some improvement but the bird still wasn't right. In an effort to find the cause the vet decided to conduct additional tests. The results were a real eye opener.
This particular bird was found to have Capillaria worms. These worms are not your avarage sort of worms. They live in the small intestine area of the bird and can be very difficult to detect. The other problem is that the bird shows very little sign of whats going on inside until it is too late. The other bad news is that the worming product you are currently using DOES NOT kill capillaria worms.
Our bird has since died. She was heavily infected and with the added burden of egg laying the stress was too much. We actually bought this bird in from another breeder and so my first thought was that perhaps the bird had been infected before she came to us. BUT, it gets worse. These worms can be passed on via the droppings of rats and mice. The use of suspended aviaries greatly reduces the risk of these droppings making it into the birds living areas but it can happen. If the birds eat infected droppings they too can become infected.
The result of all this is that we have had to administer panicure to the crop of all the birds in our aviairies for 3 days straight. With just over 50 adult birds (plus babies) that is a big job to carry out before work. I had never heard of these particular worms but it is something everyone should be aware of. The worms can also be found in natural earth floors so that may help answer some of the unexplained deaths in Kakariki the members of this site have had.
In fact, Capillaria is one of the most common worms in psittacine birds. Panacur is a well known product in Belgium. Most breeders use it. I have used Avicas, a similar product. http://www.oropharma.com/en/siervogels/html/wormen.html But since I treat my birds with Ivermectin, I didn't use it anymore.
Ivermectin should be efficient against worms, but not all kind of worms. You made me aware of that. Maybe it is better to use a real Capillaria killer. Thanks!
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