# Psittacosis



## AlbyPepper (Apr 3, 2010)

Well it is confirmed. My little ones have psittacosis. It started with Alby having a sore, red eye last friday. By monday it didn't look any different so i took him to the vet. The vet who saw him was absolutely fabulous. Initially she gave him some antibiotic eye drops to soothe his eye. The next day she called me and told me that she had done more research and spoke to some lab guy and she asked me to bring Alby in again so she could do some swabs. On wednesday, I took him back for swabs and on thursday she called me with the results. Unfortunately he was positive. So since all of my birds have been together, we are treating them all. Cinnamon started to snuffle a little bit, so I suspect it was starting to affect her too. Albys eye has cleared up so fast with the antibiotics. It is back to normal. I am so sad for my little birds, but thanks to a fabulous vet, who went that extra mile to help, they are getting the right treatment. There are no avian vets here, so I am very thankful that I found a great vet. When I took Alby back for his swabs on Wednesday, two other vet assistants came into the room just to meet him, since the vet had told them about "this cool little bird"


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

thats scary  i do hope they get better!


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## AlbyPepper (Apr 3, 2010)

DallyTsuka said:


> thats scary  i do hope they get better!


Definitely scary. I feel so bad for them. They are like my kids. Since they have to have medicated water, does this rule out baths? Cinnamon is a real water baby and loves her baths. She is not so keen on being misted. Would it matter if they have a bath every couple of days? My only concern being that they are going to drink the bath water. Would that little bit hurt? It is starting to heat up here and I really don't want them to be hot and uncomfortable.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

I am so sorry to hear about your darlings and i hope they get better fast
I am so glad that the vet acted very quickly and took interest as not many cant be bothered


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

im not too sure on the bathing. i dont know much about the sickness youre talking about except its highly contagous to birds and even people if your not careful


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

I am sorry, I know how you feel though, I have had 3 different Cockatiels that were tested for Psittacosis and each one came back that they have it, I had to treat all of my birds each time, too. The 2 foster Cockatiels I actually have here at the moment are going to be tested for it too, I am hoping they don't though.

It is great you had him seen right away though, because it can get really bad quickly, like Jasper one of my Cockatiels suddenly became sick one morning, he was rushed to the Avian Vets, was given antibiotics and fluids, and the next morning he had passed away. The Avian Vet said he had Psittacosis - so you have to be very cautious and any first sign of illness, they need to be seen right away to be treated earlier, rather then later. 

I would suggest scrubbing the cage(s) really well, all the toys, perches, and etc, as well as any toys outside of the cage and play-stands. It can be caught (or transferred?) via poop from contagious bird I think it was, but that is why it is best to treat all birds and not just the one. 

As for your bathing question, it is probably best to give them a separate water dish, it won't harm them, but the problem is when you put the antibiotics in the water, you don't know how much they are drinking and if they are even getting enough for the antibiotics to be effective.

Did the Vet say anything about taking the main bird (that first showed symptoms) back to be re-tested to see if he still has it or if he is all clear from it?


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## AlbyPepper (Apr 3, 2010)

Cinnamon has now started to get a 'snotty nose'. She has been making strange snuffly noise and sneezing quite a bit. Today she started to have a discharge from her nostrils. I don't think there is anything else I can do for my little ones. They are all on antibiotics. The cage gets cleaned daily (it usually does anyway). I bought an air purifier. They all seem healthy enough. But I am petrified that I am going to lose one of my little birds. Albys eye is as good as new. No other sign of illness. I took him to the vet because their health is my responsibility and priority. His eye looked so sore. If I had a sore eye I would go to the doctor, so I figure I should also take my animals to the vet to get checked out. The vet wants me to call her about halfway through their treatment to let her know how they are doing. Otherwise if I am worried for any reason, I am to take them in to see her. I am so grateful that she is such a fabulous, thorough vet. I think I might have to just mist the birds. I really don't want them to have access to any other water, apart from their medicated water. I don't want to risk them not having enough antibiotic in their systems. Sorry for raving on, I am so scared.


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

I think they would be better with meds that you put straight into the bea. I always think of in water meds as a precaution for the others that have been in contact with the ones that are showing signs of illness, although if you haven't got many to treat you may be as well to do all of them.

Can you buy Doxy-p tablets from vetafarm? They come in 15mg size tablets. Cockatiels needs approx 5mg of doxycycline tablet a day for 45 days to treat pssiticosis so you'd cut one of those pills in half, crush it with a pestal and mortar or the back of a spoon to make a fine powder (no lumps) mix tablet with a drop of water, suck it up the syringe to maximum 0.2ml which is a couple of drops. The best wate to use is distilled or water filtered through something like a brita filter water jug, tap water may contain too much calcium, you have avoid calcium as it can stop the doxycycline absorbing properly.
Your vet may have some Ronaxan 20mg tablets (they often use them for cat flu) if you want to stick with going through the vet. With those you could cut the tablet into 4.


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## Cassie (Jan 7, 2009)

Poor little guys. When I got Jackson he tested positive for psitacossis too so the three if them had to go to the vet once a week for Doxy injections. The poor things used to throw up in the car on the way there because they knew what was happening. I suspect that's how I got Jack. They knew he was sick. . I hope you're babies get well soon and well done for getting them checked out. Not enough people do that. Give them a hug from me.


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## AlbyPepper (Apr 3, 2010)

The medication I have for them is Vetafarm, Psittavet. 4mg per 400ml of water. They seem to want plain water, but unfortunately they have another 40 days or so of antibiotics.


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

The problem with pssitavet is that it's quite a bright green colour, puts some birds off.
The other sachets you can get which don't smell or have colour is Ornicure.
If you don't want to go the tablet route you might be best off getting some 1ml syringes and putting about 0.1ml in their beaks a few times a day, this would be more stressful though as with the dose of tablet doxy once a day is enough. This is a serious disease, if you don't get the doxycycline into the ones that are ill they will get sicker and you might lose them.


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

Antibiotics aren't readily available here like they are there, the laws are a lot stricter and most of the time, you need to go to the Avian Vet to get a prescription for whatever it is. 

With that said, my Avian Vet gives me antibiotics called Vibravet and it is a paste that goes in the beak.


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

Yeah I've noticed that vetafarm have a seperate site for international customers so I'm guessing vets can only prescribe things megabac-s and pssitavet? It's the same with prescription meds here, you can only get them via the vet/doctors unless you go elsewhere. They have a thing called a cascade here so if something isn't licensed for bird treatment (hardly anything is) the vet can overule that and use it if it's in the birds best interest.


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

The vibravet paste sounds like a good idea. I can remember my vet at the time (who came from New Zealand) mentioning a paste 12 years ago, we still don't have it over here!


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

I was looking at a sticky on pssitcosis in articles. While it makes some valid points it does seem to scare monger. I don't know about other countries but pssitcosis isn't a reportable disease in the UK, possbily if you keep Poultry but not pet birds. It isn't extremely contagious to people it's not as black and white as the article suggests. Also respitory symtoms aren't always present which alot of websites suggest and they don't tend to mention lamness/a limp (as if the bird has a hurt leg) as a symtom which can occur due to an enlarged liver.

Here's an artcle I found years ago simple but clear.

http://www.birdsupplynh.com/vetafarm/MythConceptions.pdf


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